Dear Nyerere, they are disrespecting us

When was the last time you sat down and wrote that old fashioned letter to a friend? The one that characteristically begins with Dear Allan...? I really enjoyed writing a few letters before email became the new way of doing things. I often wrote to my mother hoping to convince her to visit me at school or send me some more money. Of course I also wrote quite artistically to a few females hoping to push acquaintances to the next level. These ones I wrote as if my life depended on them, taking so much care as to which paper to write on and which kind of pen to use. Then later in life I penned some few to big people hoping they would fall for my lines and offer me a job. I do miss those days when a lot of emotion was poured and then carried on a piece of paper. Many of us kept the letters we received as though they were land titles. Today all one gets is a very short text message or endless chatting on the various new social media platforms. The greeting Dear Andrew or Dear Sandra is almost extinct, only seen in school when children are being taught how to write formal letters. This nostalgia got me following something I could barely understand. It turns out, October 14, is actually Julius Nyerere Day in Tanzania and Tanzanians all around the world were remembering the only man to whom the title Baaba wa taifa rightly belongs. Mwalimu, as he was fondly referred to by many, passed away on October 14, 1999, in a London hospital. Every year, Tanzanians remember the man who literally gave the country a sense of unity.On Twitter, a hash tag (#DearNyerere) was created and used by people to tweet the things they would have said to him if they had a chance. The old Dear Nyerere greeting captured the old style for a man whose good days are a thing of the past. Tanzania has changed a lot since he stepped down as president.My only problem is that my thin understanding of Swahili meant that I could barely understand what most of the tweets were about since they were mainly from Tanzanians and so Swahili sanifu it was. I thought of what Nyerere gave to Tanzania and Africa in general and wondered whether we shall ever achieve the dreams of unity that people like him had for us. Nyerere was up there in that league of Nkrumah, Lumumba, Sankara and later on Mandela. He inspired many and gave Tanzania a degree of dignity that they cherish to this day. He was also one of the pillars of the original East African Community and it is fair to say that the region benefited from him a lot. Countries like Uganda may remember his help when it came to kicking out Idi Amin Dada. I think if Nyerere was alive today, we would point out to him that even after 50 years of independence, the same people who once colonised us are still telling us what to do and to a certain extent respecting us. Why, for example, should Rwanda and Uganda have to listen to continuous accusations about the chaos in the Democratic Republic of Congo yet there is a UN force deployed in the same country? Dear Nyerere, they are accusing us of supporting a rebel group while they openly talk about helping Syrian rebels. Dear Nyerere, every time we mention Uganda they bring up the issue of gay rights almost making you think that being gay leads to more deaths than Malaria. We wonder why they are obsessed with a Bill that was presented by a Member of Parliament and probably won’t ever be passed. Nyerere must have smiled when Uganda’s Speaker of Parliament, Hon. Rebecca Kadaga, put the Canadian foreign minister in his place over the gay rights issue. What she did is something that Pres. Paul Kagame does all the time, telling off those who are obsessed with arrogantly defining and talking down on Africans from their plush offices in the West. Nyerere would also be happy that in Rwanda, the Nyerere Day was actually celebrated by the Tanzanian community here. Seeing that Nyerere may achieve sainthood, I wish he can pray for Kenyans to have a peaceful election this time. Post-election violence as we saw in 2007 tends to make life difficult for many in the EAC region. Blog: www.ssenyonga.wordpress.comTwitter: @ssojo81