Feeling Mwalimu Nyerere intellectual festival

The festival begins for us at the airport named after him; Julius Nyerere International Airport, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. His memory is a presence in this country. He crushes his name and observes in the shadow. My friend Gacheke and I arrive with his greatness.

We are received at the airport by a companion in a good mood. His smile spreads across his face and infects me to return a smile the same way. This is a bad attempt. I feel that mine has been trapped in the corners of my mouth.

"I am Tumbu of JULAWATA!" he tells us. JULAWATA is the abbreviation of Jukwaa la Wajamaa Tanzania, Tanzanian Socialist Forum. I get his name easily. He is close to the tumbo, the belly, the company always, to make us and remake us.

We agree with Tumbu to await the arrival of two other guests. It disappears in the crowd of the airport. We mark the time on the seats. The space around is populated by people of all kinds, of different nationalities. People reduced to a common status by the diktats of space.

Tumbu is coming back soon. He is accompanied by two companions from South Africa. One is tall, fair-skinned, medium-sized. His smile is a smile. My smile feels comfortable in his. We embrace with Kamanzi as we have known each other for ages. His companion is Rakei, younger, a little skinned, thin as his age. His hair is a kind of rasta; not the Bob Marley Rasta roots. The thick mass of her black hair grows up like Mau Mau spikes. Rakei's smile rivals that of Tumbu, only a little wider, bigger and more diverse than his so-called rainbow nation. I feel younger and thinner in their presence.

Tumbu hands us his cell phone. Professor Penina Mlama is on the line. She is the president of the Intellectual Festival Mwalimu Nyerere. She officially welcomes us to Tanzania and to the festival.

There is a particular calm in Dar es Salaam. Calm hugged heavily in the moist air. He is reserved on the faces of people in the streets. This is reflected on the buildings. The character of the city is calm. This calm is only betrayed by chaotic traffic jams in the streets, lawless and ruthless, with humanity organizing their confusion.

Our driver escapes traffic jams by sliding across other downtown roads. We arrive in a shorter time than we could have at the University of Dar es Salaam – the host and the venue of the festival. The university is a huge estate, a small town actually, unlike other urban universities I know who are in a hurry in post-war spaces.

The festival begins with a procession from the Council Chambers to the Nkrumah Hall. The memory and heritage of Nkrumah, similar to Nyerere's bestial dinosaur as on this continent, unprecedented, irreplaceable, questioning our existence and the meaning of our struggles.

The festival opens with the national anthem of the Republic of Tanzania, same song as South Africa. Nkosi sikelel & # 39; iafrika. I sing in my heart the Kenyan version of the song, wimbo wa mapambano, wrestling song, even air.

Kupigwa na kupokonywa maisha. Hakutatuzuia sisi wanainchi.Kunyakuwa uhuru wetu. Na haki ya jasho letu … Professor Mlama is an effaced gift. His costume is as ordinary as his behavior. She has an aura of simplicity and humility that carries her and unhindered way out of her big smile, half laughing. She welcomed us all when we arrived at the university. Now she welcomes everyone at the 10th Mwalimu Nyerere Intellectual Festival

The installation of Distinguished Speaker Mwalimu Nyerere is a ceremony. It begins with song and dance by artists from the College of Art and Design Bagamoyo. Their rhythms and sounds throw the audience at their feet. Ululations somewhere, whistles and cajoles everywhere. The ushers of the festival guide the distinguished speaker on the stage. He comes from South Africa. He is unpretentious. His smile animates the scene. The postcolonial smiles twisted our mouths. Smiles lost in sneers and suspicions. Smiles to survive the betrayals and anxieties of the time. His smile is shared by many of us. He is Professor William Gumede, School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.

The president of the festival and the vice-chancellor of the University of Dar place on his shoulders the symbolic garment. Now, he is formally the distinguished speaker of this festival. This part of the ceremony is over. He goes to the podium. I'm waiting for him to shoot straight arrows of knowledge. The title of his lecture is interesting: "Rethinking African decolonization". He throws a lot of knowledge arrows. I manage to intercept a few, roughly. "Africa's dependence on foreign aid and its support for its survival is a shame". I feel it. "Restoring the dignity of this continent is the imperative of each and every one of us." Applause

But wait, how, when? "We must focus on human capital in Africa as power, ideological rigidity must end, we must follow a hybrid model" I wanted to ask, I did not do it: if Africa takes a little of where, what would this continent be? A bastard of ideologies. A continent with a mutilated identity. When you have nothing, you lose everything else. "Seventy percent of the members of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party are engineers, trade and industry take over." Africa should not be on this sauce train. We are alone. We must do something. That's an understatement. It is reformulated in my mind by another scholar. Ali Mazrui in one of his films, Africa: A Triple Heritage. We must produce what we consume and consume what we produce.

His arrows of knowledge are over for me. His lecture is over. He is waiting for reactions. Someone from the memorial academy Mwalimu Nyerere quotes Winston Churchill: "Since wars begin in the minds of men, they must end up in the minds of men. And rephrases: "Since colonialism begins in the minds of the colonizers, decolonization must begin with the minds of the colonized."

I sit on my seat. The conference with myself has also ended. Decolonize our minds. This is a right fire arrow to complete the conference. We go out for a short break

Taking refreshments during the break is a class struggle. The privileged ones have them inside the Chambers of the Council. The rest is waiting long lines behind Nkrumah Hall. Nyerere looks desperately at his image on the wall. It's out of his character. His memory haunts.

Shortly afterwards, we are exhorted to return to the hall where the so-called grassroots voices meet. Presenters talk here about the effects of commercial mining and agriculture in various rural communities in Tanzania. Their story is very similar to that of another continent. Natural resources that should be free for everyone are owned, traded and exploited for private purposes. People are eliminated from their natural heritage. They have become stakes in the lottery of casino savings. This country should be different. Mwalimu Nyerere has brandished the big whip against the exploitation of Africa's natural resources for private capital. He raged against the exploitation of the people, the owners of the land. That's why we are assembled here on his behalf.

Is everything lost? Is there any hope for Africa?

Young people in their session say that they are well placed to protect Africa's natural resources. The education and language session is about education for the liberation of spirits. The colonial languages ​​were imperial agents in the rush and exploitation of Africa. Colonial languages ​​continue to divide and rule on this continent. Kiswahili is an African language for the recovery and possession of the heritage and dignity of Africa in ourselves. Name, liberate and unite Africa with our languages. The language is the first and the last colony.

But even Kiswahili has a long way to go. Even this festival is largely in English. I write this in English. Only Tanzanians at this festival have the confidence to speak Kiswahili fluently. The members of JULAWATA are the best. They dissect and distill global politics and ideologies in Kiswahili in the context of local realities like children's play. My Kiswahili feels suicidal

Kamanzi, the companion from South Africa that we met at the airport is on the education forum. He talks about the 1967 Arusha Declaration in Tanzania and the movement of self-reliance. They were inspired by Nyerere Ujamaa's model of education for autonomy in their struggles for alternative forms of education in his country. He says the fees have to drop movement in South Africa. The transfer of some of the ideals of the movement in Pathways for Free Education, their collective struggle for free education for all. Free education for all as a weapon of struggle for freedoms and equity. Education for liberation, not for the market. Paulo Freire makes his choice. Education to read and name the word and the world. Education is political. This is never neutral. For whom and why do I educate and against whom I educate. Which side are we on? Freire asks. Education is either in favor of domination or emancipation.

Education can not exist regardless of the circumstances of society. Education engages critically or through the culture of silence. It's a political choice. "Washing your hands in the face of oppression, is strengthening the power of the oppressor and supporting him!" Freire states. Their arguments are home and dry

Rakei, the other companion of South Africa, goes on stage on the last day of the festival. He presents about international finance capital: The role of the colonial economy in shaping Africa's underdevelopment. He shares the stage with Professor Peter Lawrence presenting Corporate Power and the State and its relationship with Africa's natural resource rush. They defy capitalism, a system in which a handful of rich and advanced countries strangle financially and oppress a large majority of the world's population. Mwalimu Nyerere simply understood capitalism: "Capitalism means that the masses will work, and a few people – who may not work at all – will benefit from this work! The few will sit at a banquet, and the masses will eat what's left "

The world's richest, one percent of humanity today owns half of the world's wealth.The rich become philanthropists after having blossomed on the sweat and blood of workers who fail to make ends meet.It is obscene that a brand celebrity earns millions of a shoe factory that the worker, the repairer shoes and dependents will never do in his life.

Capitalism fits well with imperialism, the global system dictated by the powerful economic terms to the weaker countries and exploit them by different means. International financial capital is the tendency of capitalism to conquer the international character and the masquerade as the global economy. Imperialism is the empire of capitalism.

Nasoro Kitunda of JULAWATA says it academically: it is the hegemony of capitalism. His ideology is imperialism, his theory is neoliberalism and his policy is commercialization, privatization, economic dislocation and dispossession, dollarization of the economy, militarization, entrepreneurship and d & rsquo; Other excrescences of capitalism.

They echo Lenin: Imperialism is the supreme stage of capitalism. The function of international finance capital in generating profits from imperialist colonialism as the last stage of capitalist development to secure greater profits. Kwame Nkrumah clarifies the context: neo-colonialism is the last stage of imperialism. Neo-colonialism represents imperialism in its final and most dangerous stage. The nature of neo-colonialism is that the state that is subject to it is, in theory, independent and has all the external attributes of international sovereignty. But in reality, its economic system and political policy are directed from the outside.

The presenters recall that the expansion of imperialism has not been changed by the national liberation struggles that have resulted in the national independence of the former colonial countries. International financial capital still demands that what is crucial for developing countries be the race for capitalist economic hegemony over the waves of imperialism. The waves of imperialism have closed on us, organized, while the forces of progressive Panafricanism are still agonizing on the shores.

The session I am attending is the second day of the festival. I am on the panel with the tireless companions of JULAWATA. We are on my right. The heavy locks of his rasta hair, thick as the roots of a baobab tree, come out of his Rasta cap, obviously in a struggle to free himself from the captivity of the cap. He calls himself Muhemsi. To my left is Ntile, the moderator of the panel, the always smiling companion, humble at fault. The humility without apprehension that I fear, too careful to hurt in any way whatsoever. On the left of the moderator is another companion whose name is various extractions from your Highness. His name is Bweye. The scene is ready

The moderator introduces us and the subject of our presentations: "Africa's quest for cultural identity, self-determination and socio-economic liberation of the poor – lessons of Mwalimu Nyerere ". I am the first presenter of this session. I try to do it in Kiswahili, to translate the thoughts of Nyerere, Cabral, Fanon, among other Pan-Africanists on the centrality of culture in the liberation of the people. I'm trying to limply lay Kiswahili as Mwalimu Nyerere was the epitome of the African quest for cultural identity, self-determination and the socio-economic liberation of the poor. In his simple and modest life, his practices, his speeches and his writings as President of Tanzania and Worldly State Man, he sets out the vision and path rooted in the philosophy and practices of the United States. Ujamaa and the self-sufficiency of his country and other southern countries.

I speak of the quest for cultural identity, self-determination and the socio-economic liberation of the poor in Africa, as evidenced by Mwalimu's life, practices, discourses, and writings. Nyerere. But my Kiswahili does not even seem to convince me. I have the impression of having scattered my thoughts everywhere without any idea of ​​anchor. Memusi, my fellow presenter saves my guilt. He offers his presentation organized in Kiswahili without fault. The public continually applauds every drop of his words. I am his audience too. At one point in his presentation, my mind abandons my body and joins the audience in the front row to look him straight in the eye. He twirls words in his low voice, spitting venom at capitalism and imperialism that is slaughtering popular culture and decimating the identity, pride and unity of this country and the world. ;Africa. This man can talk to eternity. His audience is exhausted by his thoughts and eloquence. We urge it. The moderator is not blocked. He shows him that his time is up and passes the floor to Your Highness.

Your Highness Bweye is a small, slender, cheerful, medium-sized lady, modest like many other JULAWATA companions, the ideological descendants of Mwalimu Nyerere. We met her when we arrived in the company of comrades. She kissed everyone widely and warmly. This kind of hug that is an art: organized, sincere and haunting. The fraternal embrace that she now radiates in mind to an excited audience as she talks about the imperial colonizing cultures that destroyed self-identity, self-determination and the socio-economic fabric of Africa and its people. His Kiswahili is impeccable, really beautiful, interjected by playful words and bits of joy carrying his fascinated audience.

The JULAWATA comrades organized their presentations. They have written them consistently over long trials. They summarized the theory and practices on socialism in the local and continental context in a simple and floating Kiswahili that the audience shows to feel and accept in its applause and gestures of approval. They meet every Saturday afternoon for ideological classes. Memusi is the coordinator of their ideological classes. They usually meet at the premises of an adult education school in the city. We pay them a solidarity visit one Saturday after the end of the festival. About 30 members gathered. Tumbu, the unpretentious companion who greeted us at the airport is also a singer, dancer, mobilizer and leader of African liberation causes.

Tumbu conducts songs of struggle and liberation around the world. Many songs come from South Africa where stories and songs of resistance seem profound, enduring and dramatic.

"From Cape Town to Cairo, from Morocco to Madagascar …" The pan-African song floats. I often hear it sung by activists from the Southern Economic Freedom Fighters.

"My father was a garden boy, my mother was a cooking girl, and that's why I'm a socialist!" This is sung with the trepidation of guerrilla warriors ready for anything. I see in my mind Matlawe, a companion associated with the Cape Town Housing Assembly, trampling this song wherever he can in comrades gatherings. His body moves with the rhythms while his voice hangs with his possessive minds. We sing about Solomon Mahlangu, the young South African from Umkhonto we Sizwe hanged in 1979. Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba come back here singing the sinister Vuyisile Mini song translated by Seeware the Verwoerd, a cry of rally for many liberation struggles. in South Africa and in other colonial states.

Only a few of us manage to match the energy and enthusiasm of Tumbu. I'm trying, but I'm more than a third eye of unlimited energies in this gathering. I see Karimi Nduthu singing these songs before he was assassinated in 1996 by the secret agents of the dictatorship in Kenya. I sing in my heart one of the songs that he loved

"Nataka roho yangu Iende kulinda ardhi yetu Uhuru uangaze Kenya Tulenge lengo the Ukombozi …"

But the songs and dances must to be suspended. The spirits of the songs floated in the air like protective ancestors. We sit in a circular manner as a common meeting of elders. Monica, a resplendent companion in an African outfit, moderates the discussions. She is a member of JULAWATA and speaks Kiswahili so easily to the chagrin of most of us Africans. She unfolds words in Kiswahili, moderates easily in a language that she has embraced and continues to learn during her interactions with ordinary people and her classmates.

We share the experiences of struggles in South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, elsewhere in the world. Africa and the world by companions of the Ujamaa Collective, the Pan-African Network. JULAWATA is a member of the Ujamaa collective. Like the Azimio Movement and the Mathare Social Justice Center in Kenya, Pathways to Free Education and Housing Assembly in South Africa, Left Roots in the United States, among other movements, collectives, groups, spaces and similar struggles for an order just social. 19659002] We present books to JULAWATA from the Ukombozi Library in Nairobi. Ukombozi means liberation in Kiswahili. The library has an extensive collection of books and publications that have inspired the leaders of liberation movements in Kenya and many other parts of the world. The exploits of Mau Mau, the Kenya People's Union, the December Twelve Movement, Mwakenya, UWAKE, Sahraoui, Palestine, among other past and contemporary struggles unfold freely on many pages right here. It's a reservoir of knowledge and inspiration for the revolution.

The library is housed in an old building in front of the main campus of the University of Nairobi. It is on the left after passing University Way, the first small door on the left to Nairobi Safari Club. The staircase leading to the library is narrow and squeaky. Take care not to fall. Walk up to the second floor. Kimani Waweru will be there. He is the coordinator of the library. When Kimani smiles, the other smiles turn pale in unsentimentless smiles. His is scientific. He goes out in a measured laugh. Smiles and laughter discern antagonistic and non-antagonistic contradictions in our struggles.

Kimani talks about scientific socialism as easily as reciting a verse. Thousands of books and publications are present here, engaged in all kinds of love. The choice is spoiled.

"Choose any book you like." Kimani urges. There are 1000 Kenyan shillings, about 10 US dollars to register as a member of the library. "Rush here as the offer lasts." He warns

Kigoda's friends, as the intellectual festival Mwalimu Nyerere is popularly known locally are recognized on the morning of Day Two of the festival. Many are recognized, including Professor Issa Shivji, the founding president of the festival. He is currently the Director of the Nyerere Resource Center. "Shivji is a veteran of the unapologetic leftist intelligentsia to whom the honor is due." The late Dr. Tajudeen Abdul – Raheem wrote of him on the occasion of his retirement from the University of Dar es Salaam. "He may be retired, but he's certainly not tired," says Tajudeen

. Professor Mlama gives Shivji a donation of Kigoda's publications and another sealed gift. Gacheke and I are also recognized. I can identify the publications. I am curious to know what the sealed gift could be. My fingers are itching to open here and now. No, an inner voice warns. Do not open this gift in the presence of its donors. That will kill his excitement. I can not wait to unpack it. Gacheke is a regular at the festival. He and Mulialia, another Kenyan companion, had traveled by bus to the very first festival, having struggled to raise the price of the bus. They lived in a modest environment near the place where they went to the festival every day. Festival participants at Shivji's instigation contributed their ticket back to Nairobi.

Now Gacheke and I have been put by festival organizers in an upscale hotel. Gacheke calls it a bourgeois hotel. I often hear that the kind of bed in this room is known as King Size. That when you sleep on such a bed, you are supposed to feel like a king, dream like a king and behave like a king. The bed is so huge. He invites solitude. I lay the gifts on the bed to atone for his demons of loneliness. The wrapped gift is a beautiful cup produced to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the festival. It is inscribed on one side with the image of Nyerere surrounded by the name of the festival in Kiswahili, Kigoda Cha Taaluma Cha Mwalimu Nyerere.

10th Anniversary is engraved under the emblem of the holiday. On the other side of the cup is the emblem of the University of Dar es Salaam. The motto of the university in Kiswahili is captivating, Hekima nor Uhuru, Wisdom is Freedom, very similar to Nyerere

*

JULAWATA resumes the stage on the third day of the festival, just before the closing ceremony. They present on democracy in Africa and empowerment for control of Africa's natural resources. They have a fiery woman on the stage who is portrayed as coming from the base unlike other presenters who are university students.

"Democracy for me does not concern the big and complicated words being said in this forum." She says. "These are the right to food, the right to decent housing, the right to health, the right to breathe, basic rights, school fees for my children, widespread unemployment, so low wages, why is there corruption, it's about our basic survival … "She continues over and over again. Kido, the moderator of the session encourages him. Time is running out for the closing ceremony. The session emcee whispers to Kido to end the session. Kido declines. He says that teachers and so-called grown-ups have had plenty of time to talk in various sessions of the festival.

"Now that a basic woman who does not speak in your language, big words and terminologies go to the forum you want her to stop, she will not, c & rsquo; It is our turn to speak, continue! He urges him to continue.

He is loudly applauded by sections of the public, especially students, who rebel against authority. is said in a subtle way by the master of ceremonies when Kido finally hands him the stage.

"It is so that the dictatorship installs, what you did will be copied by a another and another, finally, there will be no order. "She says.

*

The closing ceremony of the festival is short and is chaired by the president of the festival and Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Dar es Salaam

We linger after the closing ceremony to exchange the finer points of the festival and for s photo opportunity Vitali Maembe is around. Maembe is a veteran musician from Tanzania. He lightened the discussion sessions at different times of the festival. He is a regular in many fronts of events and liberation struggles in Africa. His songs of protest and liberation are his weapons in the struggle. It irritates oppression and dictatorship everywhere, especially the governments of his country. He is loved by the public. Most of us jumped off our seats and danced on the rhythms and sounds of his music many times during the festival. The sequel is the series of photo shoots and selfies with him that continue after the closing ceremony.

Book sellers outside the festival venue also close. We had brought a quantity of books from the Ukombozi Library, some for sale, others to donate to the JULAWATA library, but mostly to sell

First day, no copies sold.

Second

We reduce the price of books

Still no copy sold.

One can not reduce

It is as if they were given free of charge

Third day, last day, all the books are exhausted.

We placed the books on the long table in the tent of the festival organizers next to their publications.

La dame qui a aidé à vendre les livres sourit largement: [19659002] "Je perdais espoir." Dit-elle. "Regardez, maintenant ils sont tous partis."

"Ahsante sana!" C'est tout ce que je pouvais dire, à court de mots.

Les lecteurs regardent les livres le premier jour comme s'ils n'étaient qu'un tas de connaissances sans vie. Le deuxième jour, la pile de connaissances gagne la vie. Les livres invitent la navigation et l'échantillonnage au hasard. Le troisième jour, dernier jour, les lecteurs et les livres sont amoureux. Les amoureux ne veulent pas se quitter. Ils portent ceux qui sont prêts et désireux d'un amour durable. Tous les amoureux sont maintenant partis. L'argent vendu ne semble pas être un sacrifice digne des amoureux. Mais il aidera à produire et à rassembler plus d'amants à la Bibliothèque Ukombozi et à d'autres endroits, d'autres fois.

Africa Dinner night est le dernier rideau du festival. Il se tient à la maison n ° 1, University Road. Nous marchons là, le long des rues de l'université et des routes. Cette université est une petite ville occupée. Dala Dalas, les véhicules de service public parcourent les rues de l'université dans leur chaos et leur désordre habituels. Les motifs du lieu de dîner sont ornés dans des tentes colorées. Les chaises ressemblent à des personnes assises vêtues de blanc. La musique DJ est en plein essor grâce aux grands haut-parleurs. Maembe emballe sa guitare. Il part pour la maison. Je m'attendais à ce qu'il fasse honneur au dîner avec sa musique. Il ne voudra pas. Le DJ régit les ondes ce soir.

Il y a tellement de viande ici et d'autres aliments; sodas, eau, jus, bières. Les bières s'épuisent rapidement. Il y a de la danse à l'avant. L'université danse avec ses étudiants. Le sol est ouvert. Tout le monde danse! L'atmosphère est fascinante. Tout le monde part à son propre plaisir. Jusqu'à l'année prochaine

* Njuki Githethwa est coordinateur au Kenya Community Media Network