{UAH} EDITORIAL: Honouring Mwalimu must go beyond Ubuntu award - Opinion/Editorial - thecitizen.co.tz
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EDITORIAL: Honouring Mwalimu must go beyond Ubuntu award - Opinion/Editorial
Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation Executive Director Joseph Butiku (centre) and University of Dar es Salaam Vice Chancellor Rwekaza Mukandala receive the Ubuntu Award on behalf of the family of the Father of the Nation, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, from South African Arts and Culture deputy minister Rejoice Mabudafhasi in Dar es Salaam yesterday. The posthumous award was in recognition of Mwalimu's selfless consideration for humanity. PHOTO | SAID KHAMIS
South Africans have bestowed the Ubuntu Honour upon Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, Tanzania's Father of the Nation and southern Africa's liberation struggle icon. South Africa, through its National Heritage Council, presented the posthumous accolade on Monday at a ceremony held at the University of Dar es Salaam.
Ubuntu, we are told, is a Bantu word translatable to "human kindness." Like we haveutu in Kiswahili.
We hasten to applaud it as a good decision, albeit a belated one, considering the role Mwalimu played in South Africa anti-apartheid struggle. We understand that it is difficult to honour everyone who played a part in this regard.
But, what disappoints us is the way Mwalimu Nyerere's legacy is sidelined in post-apartheid South Africa. Those who have chanced to live in South Africa will have noticed that there is very little on display that conveys the message that this unique son of Africa played a most significant role in that country's liberation war.
In the minds of ordinary young South Africans, Mwalimu could as well be a person who never existed! Why, there is little, if any discussion on Mwalimu amongst the nationalists who once upon a time, lived in, say, Dar es Salaam, Morogoro or Mbeya.
We aver that our South African brothers and sisters cannot do anything that can be described as "too much" for the man who gave them land in Mazimbu in Morogoro Region, to enable them to live and scheme the ouster of apartheid.
Yes, the man who was ready to make powerful enemies by issuing Tanzanian passports to liberation fighters like Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki so they could travel and agitate for their people's freedom!
In December last year during the burial of the first South African President, Mzee Nelson Mandela, at Qunu, President Jakaya Kikwete took trouble to take mourners down memory lane of the Continent's liberation struggle.
Mr Kikwete reminded his audience of what tied together Tanzania and South Africa's nationalist parties, that is Tanu (which has since linked up with Afro Shiraz Party and metamorphosed into CCM) and ANC, respectively.
He narrated how Mandela used Tanzania to set up training camps for ANC's Umkotho we Sizwe, the party's military wing, as far back as 1962. We would like to remind our brothers and sisters in South Africa that bestowing honour to Mwalimu should go beyond Ubuntu Prize; it should also entail telling and retelling the Tanzanian statesman's story with passion to the current generation and others that will follow.
Mwalimu's story should be narrated such that it cements the historical ties that bind Tanzania and South Africa, bringing the two countries and their people closer together.
Short of that, how will South Africa's post-apartheid know the truth about the struggle, if their leaders who were there when it was happening, shy away from being open about it?
South Africa, being the continent's strongest economy – at present, at least – have a historical and moral duty, today and in future, to give a hand to those in need.
Africa's super power can only fulfil that duty if its people remember, and be open, with regard to those who stood for them in their hour of great need – like Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere.
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