Julius Nyerere

(1922 - 1999)

The son of a Zanaki chief, Julius Nyerere was elected the first president of Tanzania in 1962. The soft-spoken, unassuming leader—he could be seen driving himself around Dar es Salaam in an old car—soon instituted one-party rule and a socialist economic program he called ujamaa (familyhood). Under his administration, life expectancy and literacy rates rose while the nation’s economy and food production dwindled. After stepping down in 1985—the third modern African leader to do so voluntarily—he retired to his farm in Butiama, his home village.