Few will disagree that one of Mwalimu Nyerere’s lasting legacies was his unwavering support for Africa’s liberation struggle against colonialism and white minority rule in Southern Africa. Angola, which emerged from that struggle with independence in 1975, recently honoured his legacy by naming its newest health facility the President Julius Kambarage Nyerere Burns Hospital. The gesture is striking, not least because it highlights how differently Nyerere’s name can be perceived abroad and at home.
“Nyerere” has been so thoroughly incorporated into Tanzania’s physical and institutional landscape through the naming of schools, institutions, buildings, roads and even an airport that the name has almost become invisible through familiarity. We encounter it so routinely that we rarely pause to consider the history and ideals it represents. A road sign bearing his name attracts little attention; neither does an institution, school or public building carrying it. The point is not that Tanzanians do not respect Mwalimu, but that familiarity has diminished the name’s capacity to command attention, provoke reflection or remind us of the extraordinary historical role it represents.
I was recently reminded that Serengeti pioneered the naming of health facilities after Mwalimu with its Nyerere Designated District Hospital (Nyerere DDH), even before the more recent Mwalimu Nyerere Memorial Regional Referral Hospital in Musoma. The embarrassing reality is that I did not deserve a reminder, because I agreed to help raise funds to expand Nyerere DDH.
Serengeti did what Angola has done recently, naming its hospital to acknowledge President Nyerere’s pivotal role in persuading the Mennonite Church of Tanzania, which established and owns the hospital, to relocate it from Bunda District to Serengeti. He said: “Bunda already has a hospital, Serengeti doesn’t. Serengeti has people too.” Today, it is quite possible that more Tanzanians know about the hospital in Angola than Nyerere DDH.
Angola’s naming is not merely a tribute to an African statesman; it recalls Tanzania’s concrete contribution to Southern Africa’s liberation struggles. Tanzania provided political, diplomatic and material support to liberation movements, including those fighting Portuguese colonialism and white minority rule. The hospital therefore connects contemporary Angola with a shared history in which Tanzania and Nyerere played an important role.
Tanzanians have perhaps become so accustomed to Mwalimu’s name that we sometimes fail to notice what it represents. Angola has taken us back into the past, holding up a mirror that reminds us that what may seem ordinary to us can remain extraordinary to others because it carries profound historical significance.
The lesson should not be a call to name more things after Mwalimu, but to understand and preserve the history – ours and that shared with other countries such as Angola – that is represented by the names we already have.
