Island of Peace

Dar es Salaam, which means "haven of peace" in Arabic, was a haven of tumultuous confusion last week during celebrations marking uhuru (freedom). A British-administered United Nations trusteeship for 15 years, Tanganyika became an independent nation.

Hundreds of thousands of colored light bulbs were strung all over the capital, and the streets were illuminated by graceful arches in the shape of giraffes, Tanganyika's national symbol. At the uhuru ceremonies in the National Stadium, massed bands serenaded Prime Minister Julius Nyerere, Great Britain's Prince Philip, and dignitaries from 65 nations.

One minute before midnight, the stadium was plunged into darkness, the Union Jack was lowered, and up the flagpole was hoisted Tanganyika's new flag--green for the land, black for the people, and gold for its mineral wealth. At the stroke of midnight, the lights went on, and over the loudspeaker came the strains of the new national anthem, Mungu Ibariki [God Bless] Tanganyika.

Planting the Colors. All over the jubilant country, fireworks displays lit the skies. In the snows at the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest (19,340 ft.) peak, a lieutenant of the new Tanganyikan Rifles planted the colors of the new nation and lit a symbolic torch of unity, fulfilling a longtime wish of Julius Nyerere. "We would like to light a candle and put it on top of Mount Kilimanjaro," he once said. "It would shine beyond our borders, giving hope where there was despair, love where there was hate, and dignity where before there was only humiliation."

Unlike other African nationalists, Julius Nyerere, 38, educated at Edinburgh University, is a moderate who has kept Tanganyika an island of peace surrounded on all sides by strife and violence, notably the war in the neighboring Congo (see map, p. 21). Firmly in control of the Tanganyika African National Union, which holds 70 of the 71 seats in the new National Assembly, Nyerere believes that multiracialism is a sound policy for the emerging African states, has kept as his closest advisers former Governor Sir Richard Turnbull, who is now Governor General, and Finance Minister Sir Ernest Vasey. "Both the color of a man's skin and his country of origin," says Nyerere, "are irrelevant to his rights and duties as a citizen."

Making Haste Slowly. Biggest immediate problem facing Nyerere is Tanganyika's economic malnutrition. Average per capita income for the country's 9,240,000 people (all but 139,600 of whom are black) is only $55 a year. Periodic famine is a fact of life; only one-third of the country is arable. Industrial development is difficult because the huge deposits of iron ore, coal and columbite in southwest Tanganyika are far from transport. Encouraged by Nyerere's moderation and his strongly pro-Western attitude, the Western nations have enthusiastically agreed to finance a $67 million development program drawn up by Finance Minister Vasey. Nyerere has said that he will seek British Commonwealth membership. But extremists think that Nyerere is progressing too slowly, and independence leaves a large gap in the civil service brought about by the quitting of British civil servants. Dissident labor unions feel that uhuru should bring fat across-the-board wage boosts. Realistically appraising the future, Nyerere says: "Our policy is to make haste slowly, but it may be hard to sell this to the people. Freedom to many means immediate betterment, as if by magic. We are not magicians. But unless I can meet at least some of these aspirations, my support will wane and my head will roll just as surely as the tickbird follows the rhino."

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