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submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by thelastaxolotl@hexbear.net to c/chapotraphouse@hexbear.net

Julius Nyerere, born on this day in 1922, was a socialist and anti-colonial Tanzanian politician who promoted a Pan-Africanist ideology known as Ujamaa, which means "extended family" or "brotherhood" in Swahili.

Julius Kambarage Nyerere was born on April 13, 1922 in Butiama, on the eastern shore of lake Victoria in north west Tanganyika. His father was the chief of the small Zanaki tribe. He was 12 before he started school (he had to walk 26 miles to Musoma to do so). Later, he transferred for his secondary education to the Tabora Government Secondary School. His intelligence was quickly recognized by the Roman Catholic fathers who taught him. He went on, with their help, to train as a teacher at Makerere University in Kampala (Uganda). On gaining his Certificate, he taught for three years and then went on a government scholarship to study history and political economy for his Master of Arts at the University of Edinburgh (he was the first Tanzanian to study at a British university and only the second to gain a university degree outside Africa. In Edinburgh, partly through his encounter with Fabian thinking, Nyerere began to develop his particular vision of connecting socialism with African communal living.

On his return to Tanganyika, Nyerere was forced by the colonial authorities to make a choice between his political activities and his teaching. He was reported as saying that he was a schoolmaster by choice and a politician by accident. Working to bring a number of different nationalist factions into one grouping he achieved this in 1954 with the formation of TANU (the Tanganyika African National Union). He became President of the Union (a post he held until 1977), entered the Legislative Council in 1958 and became chief minister in 1960. A year later Tanganyika was granted internal self-government and Nyerere became premier. Full independence came in December 1961.

In 1962, Nyerere was elected the first president of Tanganyika, a predecessor to modern Tanzania and a newly independent republic. His administration emphasized decolonizing society and the state, also unsuccessfully pursuing a Pan-Africanist East African Federation with Uganda and Kenya.

In 1967, Nyerere issued the "Arusha Declaration", forbidding government leaders from owning shares or holding directorates in private companies, receiving more than one salary, or owning any houses that they rented to others. In compliance with this declaration, Nyerere sold his second home and his wife donated her poultry farm to a local co-operative.

Nyerere’s integrity, ability as a political orator and organizer, and readiness to work with different groupings was a significant factor in independence being achieved without bloodshed. In this he was helped by the co-operative attitude of the last British governor β€” Sir Richard Turnbull. In 1964, following a coup in Zanzibar (and an attempted coup in Tanganyika itself) Nyerere negotiated with the new leaders in Zanzibar and agreed to absorb them into the union government. The result was the creation of the Republic of Tanzania.

Nyerere's government also aided in liberation struggles elsewhere in Africa, training and aiding anti-apartheid South African groups and helping to depose Ugandan ruler Idi Amin. In 1985, Nyerere stepped down as President and was succeeded by Ali Hassan Mwinyi in a notably peaceful and stable transition of power.

"Unity will not make us rich, but it can make it difficult for Africa and the African peoples to be disregarded and humiliated."

Julius Nyerere

  • Biography : Julius Kambarage Nyerere

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[-] segfault11@hexbear.net 10 points 1 month ago

this is why serious programmers don't use python :^)

[-] hexaflexagonbear@hexbear.net 8 points 1 month ago

I always find it funny when python and R get used in serious computational and engineering projects, and you hear the defence of β€œwell data structure X and algorithm Y are written in efficient C++”. Yeah but why would you write it in a language that makes your program impractical the second you make a loop or a recursive call?

[-] 1Malayali@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 month ago

Maybe it is easier and thus got popular like that.

I am not programmer nor do I know much Python nor have I used it for serious computational projects, but Python felt a bit more easy and recommended for beginners when I tried to look into learning programming languages.

Which languages would you various usecases? Or any progression that is good for beginners?

[-] someone@hexbear.net 7 points 1 month ago

Learning Python is fine, if Python is all one ever plans to learn. It's a good language that's practical for solving a lot of real world problems. But one problem is that the structure of Python is utterly unlike anything else commonly used. Learning various other common languages is usually pretty easy as they're often very much like C in their structure. Learn one and you can usually easily learn another. But going from knowing only Python to another common language means un-learning a lot of habits and basically starting from scratch.

[-] 1Malayali@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago

Thank you.

Which language would you recommend for beginners? I know that it may not be good to ask that without mentioning the scope. But what would be good for a casual person who just wants to learn a bit of programming, just incase if it ever becomes useful to do some random stuff?

[-] segfault11@hexbear.net 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)
[-] someone@hexbear.net 3 points 1 month ago

I'd second this. It's one of my favourite languages. Easy to learn, useful for a lot of purposes, very similar to other languages to make learning them easier down the road if one wants.

[-] 1Malayali@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago
[-] ProletarianDictator@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago

Yeah but why would you write it in a language that makes your program impractical the second you make a loop or a recursive call?

Memory safety, GUI libraries, libs like pandas, tensorflow, keras.

Interpreted languages do have some advantages.

this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2026
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