hotuba zake zibakie kwenye historia tu.
Inaonekana hujui maana ya historia. Kwa taarifa yako historia inahusu yaliyopita, yaliyopo na yajayo. History is the study of past, present and the future - this is form 1 definition of history, go and check your notes.
Reading history backwards with Mwalimu
Looking back on the events of the 1960s in the early 1970s, Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere at some point said in an interview that he usually looked back on earlier events in the light of what he had learned recently: If there is something I dont understand, he told the interviewer, I begin to read history backwards.(Smith 1973: 191) Mwalimu Nyerere understood that history can tell us something about the present; that people learn from the past.
Mwalimu Nyerere was a teacher of biology and history at St Marys College in Tabora after completing his studies at Makerere in 1945, with a diploma in education. By this time, he had already acquainted himself with some philosophical works that sharpened ideas and thinking in general. He had already read even the essays of the British economist-philosopher, John Stuart Mill, on representative government and on the subjugation of women which had a great influence on him (ibid 47).[1] At Edinburgh University where he graduated in 1952, Mwalimu Nyerere had studied history, economics and philosophy.
Therefore, Mwalimu Nyerere understood very well that although the past does not change the present does; each generation asks questions of the past, and finds new areas of sympathy as it relives different aspects of the past" (Hill 1978: 15). It was within the spirit which was succinctly summarized by Michael Banton (1977: 3):
people interpret their own time in the light of their beliefs about the past, and if they misunderstand the past they cannot properly understand the present. In human affairs there is a continuous interrelation between the present and the past
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ON THE NECESSITY OF HISTORY
If history is important, the basic questions that befuddles one when examining the present are: How do we stand in regard to the past? What are the relations between the past, present and future? What have we actually learnt from the past experience of attempts to build a free and egalitarian society, which is self-reliant? Does the past still stand as a model for the present and the future?
Is there anything like wisdom that was represented by Mwalimu Nyerere, which can be considered to be part of a collective memory of how things were and should be done and therefore ought to be done? In sum what have we learnt from the past in the course of adopting the neo-liberal policies since late 1980s apart from feeling proud or celebrating some arbitrary choice of landmarks such as unity and togetherness or what we consider to be the good heritage left by the Father of the Nation?
Obviously, although the present is an offshoot of the past, it stands quite far apart from it. It was the problems of development and equity that preoccupied Nyerere throughout his life. The recognition that the countrys majority were rural dwellers made him concentrate on rural development a term almost unheard of in contemporary political and economic discourse. As a leader, he had respect for Spartan living that took frugality seriously and consciously because he stood for the defence of the poor and the marginalized.
Source: http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/59502
