Research Guide of Haile Selassie, Julius Nyerere and Thomas Sankara: Home

Rastafari emerged in the 1930s in Jamaica. A central belief is that the Ethiopian King, Haile Selassie I (1892-1975), is the living God. Tafari Makonen was the birth name of Haile Selassie I, which was changed upon his coronation on 2 November 1930, and ‘Ras’ was his title before coronation, meaning ‘duke’ or ‘prince’. The name ‘Haile Selassie’ means ‘power of the Trinity’. The movement took his original first name and title as its own. Haile Selassie I identified himself as the 225th King of biblical Ethiopia. However, it is unclear whether he ever supported the Rastafari belief that he was also divine. For Rastas, Haile Selassie I is the black messiah, who redeems black people who have been exiled from Africa through slavery. Rastafari beliefs reject the subordinate status of black people under colonialism. It was a radical reformulation of Jamaican social conditions in the early 20th century. These conditions were still structured according to the colonial order where white, European people held higher status, while black, African-descended people were enslaved. In 1807 the slave trade was abolished throughout the British Empire, and then in 1833 slavery as an institution was abolished, due in part to a revolt by slaves in Jamaica. Jamaica had a history of resistance to slavery, including the Maroons and revolts which often took a religious form. In the early 20th century Jamaica and the rest of the British Empire was still a two-tier society. The claim that God was black, and that Jesus was also black, is an inversion of the racial order supported by Protestantism, which was the dominant form of Christianity associated with the Empire. Rastafari was just one of a number of ‘revival’ religions inspired by African religious traditions, mixed with elements of Christianity and Caribbean innovations. These new religions appealed to black people directly, providing hope and pride in their status as African-descended Caribbeans, rather than offering salvation through assimilation to white, European Christianity.

The official site of Julius Nyerere where his birth journey, political journey, achievements, presidential race and death was recorded. Julius Kambarage Nyerere (April 13, 1922 - October 14, 1999) was President of Tanzania (previously Tanganyika), from the country's founding in 1964, until his retirement in 1985. Born in Tanganyika to a local Zanaki chief called Nyerere Burito, Julius Nyerere was known by the Swahili name Mwalimu, or "teacher," because of his profession before becoming active in politics. Nyerere was the first African head of state to retire voluntarily. He stepped down because he realized that his socialist policies of communal ownership of farms and state ownership of services were not working. His oratory skills and integrity helped Nyerere achieve TANU's goal for an independent country without war or bloodshed. The cooperative British governor Sir Richard Turnbull was also a factor in the struggle for independence. Nyerere entered the Colonial Legislative council in 1958, and was elected chief minister in 1960. In 1961, Tanganyika was granted self-governance and Nyerere became its first Prime Minister on December 9, 1961. A year later, Nyerere was elected President of Tanganyika when it became a Republic. Nyerere was instrumental in the union between the islands of Zanzibar and the mainland Tanganyika to form Tanzania, after a 1964 coup in Zanzibar toppled Jamshid bin Abdullah, who was the Sultan of Zanzibar. After the Presidency, Nyerere remained the Chairman of CCM until 1990, when Ali Hassan Mwinyi took over. Nyerere remained vocal about the extent of corruption and corrupt officials during the Ali Hassan Mwinyi administration. He also blocked Jakaya Kikwete's nomination for the presidency, citing that he was too young to run a country. Nyerere was instrumental in getting Benjamin Mkapa elected (Mkapa had been Minister of Foreign Affairs for a time during Nyerere's administration). In one of his famous speeches during the CCM general assembly, Nyerere said in Swahili "Ninang'atuka," meaning that he was pulling out of politics for good. He moved back to his childhood home village of Butiama in western Tanzania. During his retirement, he continued to travel the world, meeting various heads of government as an advocate for poor countries and especially the South Center institution. Nyerere traveled more widely after retiring than he did when he was president of Tanzania. One of his last high-profile actions was as the chief mediator in the Burundi conflict in 1996. He died in a London hospital of leukemia on October 14, 1999.

Ex- president of Burkina Faso, was born Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara on 21 December 1949 in Yako, in the northwest of the French colony Upper Volta. He was the third of ten children of Joseph Sankara and Marguerite, née Kinda. Whereas his mother was Mossi, the largest ethnic group, his father was of the mixed Mossi-Peul heritage known as Silmi-Mossi. During his early years, Thomas, like his father, bore the Mossi surname Ouédraogo, but both later reverted to Sankara. Thomas spent his childhood in Gaoua in the southwest and excelled in his secular and Catholic schooling. At the age of sixteen, contrary to his father’s wishes, Sankara chose to pursue his secondary education not at a seminary but a public lycée in Bobo-Dioulasso. Upon completing his first secondary schooling, he was selected for a new national military academy established in Ouagadougou, the capital, by General Sangoulé Lamizana, who came to power on 3 January 1966 amid popular demonstrations against President Maurice Yaméogo (who had governed Upper Volta since its independence on 5 August 1960). Like other peers, Sankara saw the military not only as a route for professional advancement, but also as one of the few institutions with the capacity to stimulate national development and overcome what they regarded as the archaic features of a largely rural and traditional society. During his three years at the academy, Sankara began reading political literature and held impassioned discussions with fellow cadets and civilians strongly influenced by anticolonial, socialist, and Marxist ideas. He continued such exchanges during subsequent periods of training abroad (in Madagascar, Morocco, and France) and at his various military postings at home. He rose steadily in rank, saw combat in Upper Volta’s brief border war with Mali in December 1974, and was assigned in 1976 to command a new elite paratroop training center in Pô. In 1979, while the center’s commander, he married Mariam Serme, who had been raised Muslim but converted to Catholicism after their marriage.