DAR ES SALAAM, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) — The government of Tanzania on Thursday launched a program dedicated to mark 100 years of the east African nation’s founding President Julius Nyerere.
The program called “Mwalimu Nyerere@100” will be coordinated by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism and will climax on April 13 in Nyerere’s native village of Butiama in Mara region.
“The program is aimed at identifying new strategies to commemorate the work, life and philosophies of Julius Nyerere in the next ten years,” said Damas Ndumbaro, the Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism.
Ndumbaro told a news conference in the capital Dodoma that the new program entails showcasing of many things like houses that Nyerere lived in different parts of the country, his speeches and people he worked with at different levels.
He said that there are some people outside the country who argue that Tanzania has not done enough in celebrating the life of Nyerere, also known as the father of the nation.
“This has resulted in the need to document and showcase in details all activities related to Nyerere,” said Ndumbaro.
According to Ndumbaro, Nyerere’s newly launched program will help boost tourism because some of the tourists researched on the lives of prominent people by visiting where they lived, worked or carried out their activities.
Nyerere, who ruled Tanzania from 1964 to 1985, was one of Africa’s leading independence heroes.
He was born on April 13, 1922, in Butiama on the eastern shores of lake Victoria in north west Tanzania.
