“The only president made by the United Nations” was the eventual personal slogan of a slightly built pro-Chinese Communist African politician who took over the government of Tanganyika in East Africa in the early 1960s.

I first met Julius Nyerere when he was a Scottish Mission Society teacher on the staff of a Catholic Church school in the hills of Morrogorro, outside Tanganyika’s former German East African capital of Dar es Salaam.

During one of my many visits to this city, he came to my hotel and pronounced himself as the future ruler of Tanganyika. He asked me, as a foreign media representative, to interview him on his “watered down Communist” political aspirations as he wanted to tell the world his big news, being at the time the only Western educated African in his country.

In those days, Tanganyika was governed by the British Colonial Government on behalf of the U.N. which held the territory in trust following the previous defeat of Germany in the days of the First World War. There was also at that stage little likelihood of this East African colonial territory being awarded self-rule by the British Government or anyone else.

My hotel visitor, on the other hand, was so sure of himself and his political aspirations that he had bought a gold-topped black ebony cane and a suit resembling the uniform worn by the former Chinese Communist leader, Chairman Mao.

I duly sent Nyerere’s message out to the world in a small news flash, quite convinced that he was having himself on and that I should take what he said with a proverbial pinch of salt.

On the face of things as they were then, serious African politics throughout the continent was centred around less than a handfull of educated people with little real inclination towards the policies of Communist China and the Soviet Union — or so I foolishly thought.

Julius Nyerere and I became friends to a point as I was particularly struck by his personal determination, his innate belief in his own abilities against tremendous odds, and his interest in world events.

After devoting only a couple of paragraphs to him in my initial news flash, I included more of his presidential aspirations in a localised article, also published by the reasonably influential  English language Tanganyika Standard newspaper.

I cannot now remember the exact sequence of rapid-fire events which exploded all over Tanganyika and Africa after this. But the upshot of it all was that Julius secretly formed the Tanganyika African National Union, the country’s first real political party, in the face of ultra-strong British Government opposition.

Most colonial government officers working in Dar es Salaam at the time will no doubt still have visions of Nyerere strutting around the city in his Mao-style suit with his gold knobbed and black ebony cane as if he already owned the place, always allowing himself to talk with anyone irrespective of creed, colour or political faith — and basically snubbing his nose at authority.

As a result of this and his determined claims to take over the reigns of power in his motherland, Julius was instantly dismissed from his teaching position as the Catholic priests in charge of his school did not want his political claims  and ideals to rub off on the shoulders and minds of their young Black students.

The then Governor of Tanganyika, Sir Edward Twining, considered banning T.A.N.U. outright as the formation of African political parties was officially viewed as the catalyst for an eventual insurrection against British trusteeship rule.

Meanwhile, a stoic and determined Julius Nyerere continued it to be known that he was the “guaranteed future and first leader of an independent Tanganyika.” No one, including myself, could believe his claims and, instead of having Julius charged for blatantly breaking the law, Sir Edward decided to invite him into the government’s legislative ‘tent’ by ‘buying’ his political loyalties and nominating him for a seat in the Tanganyika Legislative Council on an understanding that future independence would not be sought with the support of the African masses or Communist ideologies.

Sir Edward, however, was no match for the small, cocky now sacked teacher who continually reminded all and sundry that he was simply Tanganyika’s president-in-waiting. Nyerere openly accepted Sir Edward’s offer but, unknown to all observers and his fellow Legislative Council colleagues, he started working underground to enlist a strong core and army of supporters and operatives for final independence via a form of “watered down Communism.”

While all this was unfolding, the United Nations remained strangely silent in the face of one of its trust territories being threatened with future drastic political change during a period when even the words ‘state independence’ were literally forbidden to be spoken in the U.N. let alone in the rest of the colonial world. But , unknown to everyone concerned, some clandestine activities were already in train…