Thursday, October 14, 1999 Published at 09:08 GMT 10:08 UK
Julius Nyerere: The conscience of Africa
Julius Nyerere: A vision of self-reliance for Africa
His country was withdrawn from British rule without violence and with comparatively little racial bitterness. Dr Nyerere acquired in the process the reputation of being a moderate, an idea that was encouraged by his personal modesty and his preference for Western values.
Later, as President of Tanzania, formed by the joining of Tanganyika and Zanzibar, Nyerere instituted a one-party system, together with other forms of government that smacked of a police state.
Yet he always defended his position declaring that Tanzanians had far more freedom under his rule than they had ever had under the British, and that the one-party system was vital for stability.
President Nyerere was outspoken in his criticism of British Prime Minister Harold Wilson's government for not taking military action against the Ian Smith regime in Rhodesia when it issued its unilateral declaration of independence in 1965.
He was then the longest serving head of a Commonwealth African state, and the UK government regarded him as a major stabilising force in an increasingly turbulent region.
As the crisis over Rhodesia worsened in the late 1970s, President Nyerere played a campaigning role in moves by the so-called frontline states - Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana, Mozambique and Angola - to hasten majority rule.
It was in that year that Tanzanian forces invaded Uganda forcing an end to the murderous regime of Idi Amin.
In Tanzania itself, President Nyerere attempted to achieve his goal of a socialist and self-supporting state. In 1967 this policy of self-reliance had been enshrined in the Arusha Declaration (named after the northern Tanzanian town where it was announced). It came to be regarded as one of the most important political documents to have emerged in the developing world.
Ten years later, taking stock, President Nyerere issued a remarkably honest booklet which gave as much prominence to the failures as well as the successes.
"There is a time for planting and a time for harvesting", he wrote.
"For us it is still a time for planting".
It was his abject failure at home that will blight the reputation of a man who had gained respect as one of the few African leaders of his time who stood for idealism and principle.