Aristotle saw politics as a noble profession reserved for the people who practise a virtuous and ethical life. This is to say that very few people could merit and qualify for such a task because not many people are virtuous. However, today, politics is not seen in that way. In fact, it is now common to hear people saying that ‘politics is a dirty game’. Politicians are considered as cheaters, dishonest, corrupt and unjust. Indeed, most of them are mistrusted. It is thus unthinkable that a politician can be an honest and incorruptible person. Moreover, very few people think that it is possible for politicians to be authentically influenced and guided by the Word of God and by religious values in their career. This paper would like to show that there are exceptions. Honest politicians can be guided by the scriptures and Christian ethics in their commitment to political life even today. The first President of the United Republic of Tanzania is taken here as an example to illustrate how he integrated the scriptures and Christian ethics in life and politics. Therefore, I will share with you only a small part of my research on this aspect leaving the larger part of the research for publication in the near future.
Mwalimu[1] Julius Kambarage Nyerere was the first President of Tanzania. He was born on April 13, 1922 and died on October 14, 1999. He dedicated his life to liberate and empower those who were poor and oppressed as he tried to eradicate poverty, illiteracy, disease, corruption and injustices. He insisted on people-centred development. Nyerere was also a devout Christian who daily participated in the Eucharistic celebration. In 2005, he was declared as a Servant of God by the Catholic Church, thus opening the door for his beatification. This is why his Christian faith and ethics also influenced his political life, and there is no wonder that he used the scriptures in his politics, in his fight for justice and in his fundamental option for poor people.
Nyerere had a close relation to the Bible because his life was intimately linked with the Holy Scriptures, and one may say that he was a friend of the Bible. He had genuine personal faith and he was an evangelical Christian (meaning that his Christian faith and life were based on the Gospel values and Sacraments) who integrated the Gospel principles in his personal life. His faith and the Gospel values were part and parcel of his personality[2]. From his early life, he had reflected hard on the liberating message of gospel poverty. Nyerere did not only have various collections of different versions of the Bible as seen in his home library but he had a personal Bible with which he travelled wherever he went. It is no wonder that in 1995, he affirmed that wherever he went, he carried two books: the Bible and the Arusha Declaration.[3]
Nyerere regularly read the scriptures and was exposed to the Word of God and the Sacraments when worshipping at church, usually every day. In his speeches, he frequently quoted passages from the Bible as early as his article about “African Socialism” of 1943 and his essay about Women’s Freedom of 1944 which he wrote as a student at Makerere College.[4] To show his deep link and knowledge of the scriptures, in 1955, Nyerere translated some religious manuals which the missionaries were using in evangelising the local people such as the two catechisms, two large explanations of the catechisms, several prayers and a hymn book from the Kikwaya language into Zanaki. He also translated Sunday Epistles and Gospels. In the last years of his life, Nyerere translated in poetic form and published in 1996 the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) and the Acts of the Apostles into Swahili. Due to this, his friends nicknamed him as an “African Evangelist”.[5] His desire to know and learn more about the scriptures was present throughout his life. Two years before his death, on March 1, 1997, J. Brady Anderson, (ambassador of the USA) sent Nyerere two volumes of Raymond E. Brown’s books, The Death of the Messiah from Gethsemane to the Grave: A Commentary on the Passion Narratives in the Four Gospels. He sent these books to Nyerere with an accompanying handwritten note saying: “To Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, a fellow student of the Bible”.[6] This note raises some questions, such as: did Anderson study the Bible with Nyerere? Were they corresponding with each other concerning the scriptures? Then, the fact that Anderson sent Nyerere two volumes of the biblical commentary of one of the great scholars like Raymond E. Brown, shows that Nyerere not only knew something about the Bible but also was interested in it. Moreover, this shows that he continued studying the scriptures almost up to the end of his life since these volumes were sent to him in 1997 two years before his death in 1999.
Nyerere studied the scriptures not only to nourish his faith and political life but also to defend poor and vulnerable people in promoting human equality, dignity, justice and people-centred development. In his essay Women’s Freedom written first in Swahili (Uhuru wa Wanawake) in 1944, Nyerere used Genesis 1:26-27 to argue that human beings are created in the image of God. He emphasised that women are also creatures of God with body and soul; they are not slaves but companions to men. He pleaded with every person to fight against women’s discrimination so that they can obtain their freedom and justice. Nyerere also argued that some Europeans (during the slave trade and colonialism) did not regard Africans as human beings like themselves. It was a laughable matter to consider Africans as God’s creatures with body and soul equal to any human being in the world; thus they should not be enslaved and colonised.[7]
In 1981, Nyerere used Mark 16:15 and Matthew 28:19 to challenge Christians to commit themselves to social justice and development. He said: “The Christian faith was brought to Africa in response to the words of Jesus – ‘Go ye into the world and preach the Gospel to every creature’. The continuing responsibility of the Church to contribute to the development of Africa arises out of that same mission. For the message of Jesus is one of Service – service to God through service of humanity”.[8] In 1967, Nyerere sent an Easter card with the words of the Acts of the Apostles 4:32-35, (saying that the disciples of Jesus shared everything in common) to the bishops, the diplomats and the members of the State to persuade them to stop selfishness by trying to live and work together as brothers and sisters and to share their wealth so that nobody died of hunger. In showing his modest role in promoting authentic development, Nyerere identified himself with John the Baptist as he paraphrased John 1:23: “I am not an expert on anything: certainly not on development. I am only a crier in the wilderness that development is about people: they are the purpose, the creators and beneficiaries of anything deserving the name development”.[9]
The presence of biblical texts in Nyerere’s speeches and writings suggests that he was well versed in the scriptures and it is unthinkable that such usage was merely a rhetorical tool. However, I do not claim that sometimes he never used the scriptures for political ends.
All in all, this short reflection shows how Mwalimu Nyerere, a politician and Christian thinker, walked in the footsteps of the scriptures not only for his personal and political nourishment but also for his fundamental option for poor people. He becomes the model for today’s politicians, Christians and even the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, to make sure that the Holy Scriptures become the lamp unto their feet and light unto their paths (Psalm 119:105). Indeed, this small reflection invites biblical scholars to pay more attention to how a biblical vision can guide concrete political thought and action. This can help to rediscover and retrieve a true image of politics and politicians.
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[1] The Swahili term Mwalimu means teacher for this was Nyerere’s first career. He was a teacher by profession.
[2] Bernard Joinet, Le soleil de Dieu en Tanzanie (Paris: Les éditions de Cerf, 1977), p. 60.
[3] Nikolai Kosukhin, “Julius Nyerere: Statesman, Thinker, Humanist,” in Julius Nyerere: Statesman, Thinker, Humanist, ed. Y.N. Vinokurov, S.M. Shlyonskaya, and Y.V. Dyachkova (Dar-es-Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota Publishers, 2005), p. 8.
[4] Thomas Molony, Nyerere: The Early Years (Suffolk: James Currey, 2014), p. 149.
[5] Vladimir Ovchinnikov, “Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere (1922-1999): Teacher, Political, Poet,” in Julius Nyerere: Humanist, Politician, Thinker, ed. S.M. Shlyonskaya and Y.V. Dyachkova Y.N. Vinokurov (Dar-es-Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota Publishers, 2005), p. 56.
[6] Raymond E. Brown, The Death of the Messiah from Gethsemane to the Grave: A Commentary on the Passion Narratives in the Four Gospels. Vol. One. (New York, London: Doubleday, 1994) and Raymond E. Brown, The Death of the Messiah from Gethsemane to the Grave: A Commentary on the Passion Narratives in the Four Gospels. Vol. Two. New York, London: Doubleday, 1994. (One can find these books in Nyerere’s Home Library in Butiama/Mara religion).
[7] Julius Kambarage Nyerere, Women’s Freedom: Women are Eagles, not Chickens (Kampala: Makerere University Female Scholarship Foundation in Partnership with Fountain Publishers Limited, 2013), pp. 27 & 56-57.
[8] Julius Kambarage Nyerere, “The Church and Socio-economic Development in Context of African Socialism,” African Ecclesial Review (AFER) 23, no. 4 (August 1981), p. 221.
[9] Julius Kambarage Nyerere, Freedom and a New World Economic Order: A Selection from Speeches 1974-1999 (Dar-es-Salaam: Oxford University Press (T), 2011), p. 298.