United Republic of Tanzania President Jakaya Kikwete ( left) is greeted by his Zanzibar counterpart, Dr Ali Mohamed Shein, at Amani Stadium in Zanzibar during 2013 Mapinduzi celebrations.
FORMER presidents of Tanzania and Ghana, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere and Kwame Nkrumah respectively, had a dream of uniting all countries in Africa to form a single state.
The dream however, never came true. The idea for the United States of Africa was derived from a poem written in 1924 by Jamaican Pan Africanist Marcus Garvey; Hail, United States of Africa, in which he proposed that all African countries should unite to form a federation.
As Tanzania celebrates 51 years of the Union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar formed in 1964, African countries have a lesson to learn from this unification, one of its kind on the whole continent.
The African statesmen were of the view that Africans should live together in brotherhood and do away with artificial borders that were created by former colonial masters who partitioned the continent for their interests.
Nyerere was in favour of gradual unification while Nkurumah wanted to ‘fast track’ the process. Decades after African countries gained self-rule however, it seems neither ‘gradual’ nor ‘fast-track’ mode is closer to Africa’s unification
. Mwalimu Nyerere is on record for stating that he was ready to have the independence of the then Tanganyika delayed to wait for her neighbours Uganda and Kenya.
The aim was to attain independence at once and form the East African Community. After Tanganyika gained her independence on December 9, 1961, and following the Zanzibar Revolution of January 12, 1964, Nyerere engaged the Late Sheikh Abeid Karume to form a union.
And indeed, on April 26, 1964, the then Tanganyika united with Zanzibar to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is a unification that has faced the tests of time to date.
Some countries in Africa had tried to unite but never succeeded. In a speech prior to the 50th Anniversary of the union last year, President Jakaya Kikwete, cited commitment of the founding fathers, shared background and close working relations, as among factors that helped strengthen the Union during the past 50 years.
“Before and after independence, political leaders of the then Tanganyika and Zanzibar worked closely in Pan African movements, native associations and eventually political parties, formed to liberate Africans from maltreatment by colonial masters. “Mwalimu Julius Nyerere and Sheikh Abeid Karume decided that it was crucial to put the interests of their people ahead of personal interests.
They were self-giving leaders whose immense contribution was exemplary,” Mr Kikwete said then. The merger of political parties which played a crucial role in the independence of Tanganyika and Zanzibar namely Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) and Afro-Shiraz Party (ASP), respectively, in 1977 was also vital in cementing the union.
On the economic front, the Union has seen positive improvements registering an increase in per capita income from just US $35 dollars during the 1960’s to US $647 dollars as of last year.
The target is to make it to US $3,000 dollars by 2025 as the country seeks to become middle-income economy. By uniting Tanganyika and Zanzibar, Mwalimu Nyerere was walking his talk on gradual unification of the continent. It should be noted that Uganda and Kenya gained their independence in 1963 and 1962, respectively.
Three years after the union between Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar, Nyerere managed to engage once again the Late Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya and Milton Obote of Uganda to form the East African Community in 1967.
In Nyerere’s inspiration, before the whole of Africa could be united there was a need for countries to form regional integration which would be easy to join forces to form a single union for all African countries. Unfortunately, the then East African Community lasted for only ten years between 1967 and 1977.
It collapsed in 1977 due to a number of factors. The people of Africa may be united but some of their leaders do not feel the same way. Among causes for the collapse of the then EAC in 1977 were demands by Kenya for more seats than Uganda and Tanzania in decision-making organs as well as disagreements with Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.
The then Ugandan President Amin was irked that a fellow member state in the EAC, Tanzania, was harbouring freedom fighters who were fighting to topple dictatorship in his country. On top of it, the disparate economic systems of socialism in Tanzania and capitalism in Kenya seemed to be the final straw that broke the camel’s back.
After 10 years of unity, the three countries which share a lot in common parted ways. It was not until the year 2000 that leaders in the region decided to revive the regional integration, realising that working together was beneficial to the people of the region rather than working single-handedly. Fifteen years down the lane, the EAC is now doing better.
Senegal and Zambia had formed a union of sort dubbed Senegambia Federation in February 1982 but it only lasted for few years before it collapsed in September, 1989. Between 1958 and 1963, Ghana, Guinea and Mali formed what was then known as the Union of African States, originally linking the West African nations of Ghana and Guinea (under the name Union of Independent African States) and then adding Mali in 1960.
The union planned to develop a common currency and unified foreign policy amongst members; however, none of these proposals were implemented by the countries.
The union was the first organisation in Africa to bring together former colonies of the British and the French. Although the union was open to all independent states in Africa, no states joined.
At 51 years, the United Republic of Tanzania remains an excellent example of unification in Africa. Only if other countries in the continent could emulate; the late Nyerere, Nkrumah and Garvey’s dream of United States of Africa would become a reality.
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