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Writer's pictureObi Elinami

My Life, My Purpose: A Tanzanian President Remembers by Benjamin Mkapa

This memoir portrays Benjamin's life from his childhood at Lupaso Village in Masasi where he lived with his family under a thatched roof. His father was working with missionaries and that made the family seem like an African well-off family. At that time, there were only missionary schools and non-indigenous schools. Benjamin had to walk on foot for 60km to school back and forth. The journey was taking them (pupils) two days to reach either destination.


Benjamin went to Pugu Secondary School (formerly known as St. Francis) located near Dar es Salaam. He was one of the brightest students which made him secure a chance to study at Makerere University, Uganda. At that time, there were few Tanganyikans who could be able to secure such a rare chance. When in Kampala, Benjamin was into academic groups as well as political groups. He once was a leader of TANU branch in Makerere. Upon returning home, he became a civil servant. His first job was as a desk officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He then was appointed to be a Chief Editor of the Nationalist which later on was merged by the Standard and became Daily News (The Government newspaper).


He then was appointed by Nyerere (The first President of Tanganyika and Tanzania) to become a commissioner representing Tanzania in different countries such as Nigeria, Canada and USA. Before advancing his political career as the President, he then was appointed as the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Before the general elections of 1995, Benjamin sought a go-ahead from Nyerere, he was determined to change the economy which was deteriorating, promote self-reliance for development, reviving the cooperatives e.t.c

Benjamin became the President of Tanzania in 1995. One of the remarkable achievements of Benjamin is reform. He reformed the economy to resemble a more inclusive yet capitalist one. He espoused so many government institutions such as Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB), Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF), National Microfinance Bank (NMB) from National Bank of Commerce (NBC), Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority (EWURA), Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) e.t.c


Benjamin believed in self-reliance for self-development. He was against depending on donors for development however that was not so easy to materialize. During his constitutional tenure, he depended on foreign support for development.





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