SPEECH BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED REPUBLIC OF , HIS EXCELLENCY BENJAMIN WILLIAM MKAPA, AT THE CELEBRATIONS MARKING THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE INDEPENDENCE OF , NATIONAL STADIUM, DAR ES SALAAM, 9 DECEMBER 2001

Your Excellency Daniel Toroitich arap Moi,

President of the Republic of Kenya;

Your Excellency Yoweri Kaguta Museveni,

President of the Republic of Uganda;

Honourable Dr. ,

Vice-President of the United Republic of Tanzania;

Honourable Amani ,

President of the Revolutionary Government of ;

Honourable Frederick T. Sumaye, MP,

Prime Minister;

Honourable Justice Barnabas Samatta,

Chief Justice of Tanzania;

Honourable ,

Chief Minister of the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar;

Honourable Mama Maria Nyerere;

Honourable Mama Fatma Karume;

Honourable Chairmen, Vice-Chairmen and Leaders of Political Parties;

Honourable Pandu Ameir Kificho, Speaker of the Zanzibar House of Representatives;

Honourable Hamid Mahmoud,

Chief Justice of Zanzibar;

Honourable Retired Prime Ministers;

Honourable Ministers and Members of Parliament;

Excellencies High Commissioners and Ambassadors;

Honourable Elders from the Independence Struggle;

Distinguished Guests;

Ladies and Gentlemen.

My Fellow Citizens,

We are today marking 40 years of our independence, the independence of Tanzania Mainland, then known as Tanganyika. We have just seen some of the Tanzanians who were born at the time of our independence. They are adults now. But they have no first hand experience of what it was like to live under colonialism. They only read about it, or are informed by those who lived through that experience. On a day like this, therefore, we need to remind ourselves of what our independence really means.

A few days before we became independent, the Founding Father of our Nation, Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere, wrote an article in the East Africa and Rhodesia, a Journal that used to be published in London during those days. Mwalimu wrote as follows:

Our whole existence has been controlled by people with an alien attitude to life, people with different customs and beliefs. They have determined the forms of government, the type of economic activity–if any–and the schooling which our children have had. They have shaped the present generation of Tanganyikans, more than any other influence. Even if they have always done their best to do what they believed to be good for us…, it would be no less wrong. A man who tries to control the life of another does not destroy the other any the less because he does it, as he thinks, for the other’s benefits. It is the principle which is wrong, the principle of one man governing another without his consent…

On 9th December 1961, in this very National Stadium, before a huge and ecstatic crowd of the citizens of the newly independent nation, Mwalimu Nyerere received the Instruments of Independence. He then said:

I have received these Instruments which are the embodiment of my country’s freedom with the deepest emotion. This is the day which we have looked forward to for so long, the day when every Tanganyikan can say, ‘I am a citizen of a sovereign independent state’.

My Fellow Citizens,

Colonialism embodies the indignity of being governed without your consent; consent that could only be expressed through democratic means. But to be colonised is more than being subjected to an unjust system of government; it is also an ugly infringement on all aspects of human life; it is an arrogant denial of the colonised person’s physical and mental freedom; it is an affront to a person’s dignity and humanity; a brazen disrespect for his customs and his way of life; and a callous disregard of his development needs.

From the beginning Africans refused to be colonised. And today we remember, with much gratitude, our earliest freedom fighters: the likes of Abushiri and Bwana Heri of Uzigua; Hamisi Bin Kombo of Mtwapa in today’s Kenya; Kabarega of Bunyoro in Uganda who fought for 5 years; Chief Mkwawa who fought for 8 years, and the heroes of the Maji Maji Rising, 1905-1907.

It is not possible for me to mention all African heroes who sacrificed so much in a militant effort to keep colonialism out of East Africa over 100 years ago. We remember them, and we shall always remain most grateful to them all.

What they fought and even died for, namely freedom and independence, has finally become the norm in our today’s lives. We have enjoyed self-rule for 40 years now, we are respected, and we exercise our right to self-determination. We also realise that the responsibility for our development and the destiny of our nation lies in our own hands. That in itself is sufficient reason for us to be so happy and to celebrate today.

But that is not all. We have united two countries, Tanganyika and Zanzibar, and created Tanzania; an entirely new Nation that is our own creation, unlike the ones left by the departing colonial masters. We have built ourselves the foundations of a free nation; a nation characterised by unity, respect and solidarity; a nation in which there is no discrimination on the basis of colour, race, gender, tribe, religion, or place of origin; a nation in which we all affirm one human equality and deserve equal respect; a nation in which citizens are not classified as either masters or servants; a nation in which land and other natural resources are a common and shared heritage of all of us, not the exclusive property of a few clever ones; a nation that promulgates equal opportunities for self-development for everyone.

We have tried to improve those opportunities for self-development and we shall continue to do so in various ways. For, as Mwalimu said in 1971, when we were marking 10 years of our independence:

And in December 1961, Tanganyika did not attain economic power–and certainly not economic independence. We gained the political power to decide what to do; we lacked the economic and administrative power which would have given us freedom in those decisions. For it is no use deciding to import more goods than you have foreign currency to pay for, or deciding to provide free books for all children if you have neither the teachers, the buildings nor the money to make a reality of that decision. A nation’s real freedom depends on its capacity to do things, not on the legal rights conferred by its internationally recognised sovereignty.

My Fellow Citizens,

In these 40 years of independence, we have done a lot to build the economic and administrative capacity to implement the development decisions we rightly make as a free nation, and as a free people.

We have addressed the bodily needs, and built the intellectual capacity of our people, in terms of health and education delivery. We inherited a discriminatory system of education and health. There were schools for Europeans, schools for Asians, and schools for Africans; those for Africans used mainly to train clerks and messengers, not leaders. Likewise, there was similar discrimination in hospitals. We immediately eradicated all such forms of discrimination, which Tanzanians under 40 years have fortunately never experienced.

Education

We then invested a lot in educating our people, using new and refocused curricula. It is true we still have problems in this area, but we have also made impressive gains. I will mention only a few:

 We have increased the number of primary schools four-fold, from only 3,100 schools to 11,650; and the number of students has increased nine times, from 486,000 to 4,537,608.

 We have increased the number of secondary schools almost 46 times, from under 20 to 918; and the number of the secondary school students 30 times, from 11,832 to 347,958.

 In 1961, we established a Constituent College of the University of East Africa, beginning with a Law Faculty. We began with only 14 students. Today we have 5 fully-fledged public universities and colleges, and 12 other public institutions of higher learning. There are also 10 private universities or constituent colleges thereof, and more are in the pipeline. The number of students in public universities has increased more than 1,000 times, from 14 to 14,895 (2000/2001). There are also 1,360 students in private universities, 3,537 in other public institutions of higher learning, and 2,178 in three public technical colleges.

 In 1961, only 15 per cent of adults were literate. Today, almost 80 per cent of them are literate.

Health

We have also made significant strides in the health sector. I will give a few examples.

 The total number of hospitals has increased from 119 to 224; and the number of hospital beds from 15,753 to 25,834.

 Rural Health Centres have increased 16 times, from 22 to 344.

 Dispensaries have increased 6 times, from 715 to 4,376.

 The number of African doctors has increased a hundred times, from 12 only to 1,190, of whom 291 are specialists, compared to the situation at independence when we did not have even a single African medical consultant.

 In 1961, there was an average of one African doctor for every 833,000 people; today we have one such doctor for every 26,000 people.

 Average life expectancy at birth increased from 38 to 52, before HIV/AIDS pushed it back to an estimated 48 years.

 Infant mortality has fallen from 235 per 1,000 live births to 90.

 In 1961, we had only 201 water wells; today there are 5,951 wells.

 In 1961, only 11 per cent of our people, mostly in urban areas, and even then largely in areas where Europeans and Asians lived, had access to safe water. Today, about 50 per cent of our people in rural areas, and 70 per cent in urban areas, have access to safe water.

Economic Infrastructure

My Fellow Citizens,

We need more than education and health to develop our people and our nation. An efficient economic infrastructure is also necessary for that. We have done much in this area.

 The number of telephone lines has increased 22 times, from 11,300 to 253,000; and they are planned to reach 800,000 in the next few years.

 Public telephone booths have increased 10 times, from 93 to 995.  The number of main Post Offices has increased three-fold, from 88 to 233; and minor Post Offices from 96 to 198.

 In 1961, we had only one international airport; there are now three of them (including Zanzibar), and better ones at that.

 The capacity of the Dar es Salaam Port has increased four times, from 851,000 tons to 3,480,162; not mentioning the Ports of Tanga and Mtwara.

 The total length of the national railway line network has increased from km. 2,655 to km. 2,721. In addition to the new Manyoni-Singida railway line. We built the km. 1,860 Uhuru Railway Line, TAZARA, in partnership with the People’s Republic of China and Zambia.

 The Tanzania Railway Corporation has increased its haulage capacity from 880,000 to 1,300,000 tons.

 In 1961, the entire national road network was only 30,800; of which km. 1,300 were tarmac roads, km. 1,000 gravel roads, and 13,500 earth roads. Today the road network is km. 81,970; of which km. 4,177 are tarmac roads, km. 6,233 are gravel roads and 18,200 are earth roads.

 In 1961, there were only 2,224 bridges, most of them small ones. Today we have 4,000 bridges both large and small.

 In 1961, African workers in this sector were only technicians. Today all our roads and bridges are being maintained by 306 Tanzanian graduate engineers.

 We have increased electric power generation capacity 15 times from Kwh 166.7 only (1960-62) to Kwh 2,412.2.

 At independence only 14 towns had electricity, and there was not even a national electricity grid. Today all regional headquarters and most district headquarters have electricity, and we are now focusing on rural electrification. Last financial year, for instance, 189 villages were connected to the power grid, and this financial year power will be connected to another 351 villages, and the work goes on. And our own engineers, trained after independence, do most of this work.

My Fellow Citizens,

The sun is hot, and time has passed. I cannot list all our successes, in all sectors. Most of them are obvious. Who doesn’t know that at independence we had no industries to speak of, besides cigarettes, beer, grain milling and plastic shoes? Who doesn’t know of the strides that we have made in building a national capacity for agricultural and livestock research, with widely respected research institutions and personnel? Who doesn’t know of our successes in mining and tourism? Who doesn’t know that Tanzanians, trained after independence, do most of the work in these and other sectors?

In foreign policy we have always been guided by what Mwalimu Nyerere said before independence that, “…we, the people of Tanganyika, would like to light a candle and put it on top of Mount Kilimanjaro which would shine beyond our boarders giving hope where there was despair, love where there was hate and dignity where before there was only humiliation.”

Mwalimu also joined the late Kwame Nkrumah in stating that the independence of one African country was meaningless if other Africans remained under colonialism, and were being humiliated. Today, the world recognises the immense contribution made by Tanzania in that regard, not only in attaining its own independence, but also in the liberation of Africa. We took part in the liberation struggle in Southern Africa in every way we could, with great success. Dar es Salaam, and Tanzania as a whole, became the home of many freedom fighters and defenders of justice and equality. Today, the whole of Africa is free.

The Tanzania People’s Defence Forces made an important contribution in that liberation struggle, and in enhancing and securing the respect, dignity, peace and stability of our country. At independence, we inherited a small army of about 2,000 men, commanded by British Officers, armed with weapons from the First World War. After the brief mutiny of 1964, Mwalimu Nyerere created a new army, an army for a free Tanzania, the modern People’s Defence Forces.

Tanzanians have always been proud of their Defence Forces, staffed by officers and men and women, who have distinguished themselves for their patriotism, loyalty, discipline, integrity and competence; in the army, in the air force, and in the navy. When Iddi Amin invaded our country in 1978, our armed forces, in cooperation with our people, not only successfully kicked his army out of our country, but also in cooperation with the citizens of Uganda who were fed up with Iddi Amin, kicked him out of Uganda as well. Today we have very good relations of friendship and brotherhood with the people of Uganda.

Our armed forces also have always done an outstanding job during national disasters, such as the sinking of M.V. Bukoba in 1986, the El Niño floods of 1998, and when marauding Somali criminals entered Arusha region last year. In addition, whenever our commanders, officers and men took part in United Nation’s Peacekeeping Operations, or in joint military exercises with other armed forces, they have always distinguished themselves and been commended for their professional competence and a very high level of discipline. You have all witnessed the quality of today’s parade. We are proud of them and we are thankful to them. They are a true manifestation of our freedom.

My Fellow Citizens,

We have been free for 40 years, but our independence is being constrained by poverty. Today the greatest enemy of our independence is poverty. The debt relief we have recently received, and the correct social and macro-economic policies we are pursuing, together with our peace, stability, solidarity and natural resources, constitute a firm basis upon which to accelerate our war on poverty. It was through our unity, our stability, our determination, our discipline and the spirit of self-development that we won our independence. It is these same attributes that will enable us to win the war against poverty, and hence strengthen our independence.

 Let us work harder, whether we are employed or are self-employed.

 Let us make sustainable economic growth our priority.

 Let us mobilise the spirit of community in dealing with our problems and overcoming obstacles to development.

 Let us be more innovative and daring in addressing all those problems that are within our powers, without waiting for the government or our development partners.  Let us strengthen our positive attributes of peace, stability, tolerance, solidarity, unity and development for the benefit of everyone.

 Lastly, let us remember that all our successes will be meaningless if we perish from HIV/AIDS. Let us make sure that those who are not yet infected remain HIV- negative, and those that are infected continue to be loved, respected and taken care of to the best of our abilities.

We all have some responsibility for all these things, and for the war against poverty.

When Mwalimu Nyerere became Prime Minister on 1st May 1961 he addressed the people with words whose correctness and importance have not changed in the last 40 years. I should like to end my speech today by quoting from that speech. He said:

I have talked to you before about poverty, ignorance, and disease. But in fact, if we defeat poverty, we shall have achieved the means by which we can defeat ignorance and disease. Yet poverty, is something that really only you can fight. If you have cotton unpicked on your shamba, if you have cultivated half an acre less then you could cultivate, if you are letting the soil run needlessly off your land, or if your shamba is full of weeds, if you deliberately ignore the advice given to you by the agricultural experts, then you are a traitor in the war. You are failing all of us Tanganyikans, because you are not fighting to the limit against the common enemy of poverty.

My Fellow Citizens,

I have nothing to add to this exhortation, except to say that we have been independent for 40 years; it should not take us another 40 years to complete our independence by winning the war against poverty. With determination, initiative and cooperation we shall succeed. And let us never forget: Uhuru ni Kazi!! (Freedom is Work).

God Bless Africa.

God Bless East Africa.

God Bless Tanzania.