At a Korea University conference in Seoul a few months ago, I was placed next to Julius Nyerere of Tanzania at dinner. For those of us who covered Africa more than a quarter of a century ago, Nyerere was like a saint. Incorruptible, frank, good-humored, intellectual, he could charm the most suspicious and doubtful questioners into following the flow of his logic as he expounded the need in Africa for socialism, one-party democracy, self-reliance, non-alignment. He always made sense, at least in theory, and, since we knew he did not line his pockets with gold or pander to tribalism and racism, we always wished him and his poor country well. I turned to him at the Seoul dinner and said, "Mr. Nyerere, when I was a young correspondent, and you were a young president, I interviewed you." "Well," he replied with a laugh, "I got out of my business. I hope you got out of yours." In fact, the 74-year-old Nyerere is one of the few African leaders to get out of the business peacefully and voluntarily...

Tanzania's Guide For Africa - African leaders often fancy exalted titles, like "The Conquering Lion of Judah" or "Osegeyfo, the Redeemer," but Julius Nyerere, the president of Tanzania, allows his followers to call him only "Mwalimu," a simple Swahili word that means teacher. In a way, this illustrates Nyerere's penchant - perhaps his affectation - for simplicity, but it also reveals a good deal about his image of himself as leader. Nyerere sees himself as the teacher guiding, encouraging, gently pushing his impoverished, unskilled, hesitant people to a better life. The success of Tanzania depends at the moment on how well Nyerere does as a teacher, for he is in a sense his country's greatest resource. His brilliant reason and firm but gentle leadership put him several levels above his well-meaning though inexperienced and sometimes bumbling associates and lieutenants. He stands out clean and sharp and bright, like a Bix Beiderbecke solo on an old, routine record. The direction and mood of Tanzania these days is the direction and mood of Nyerere...

Officials Deny That Nation's New Reform Programs Are Fashioned After Peking's - When President Julius Nyerere nationalized the banks of Tanzania in February, the meaning of it all became quite clear to one European banker in neighboring Kenya, "Oh, my God," he said, "the Chinese have gotten to Julius." That exclamation, uttered in one form or another, has been the slogan of all those who see the roots of the new Tanzanian socialist program in a simplistic way - the sinister influence of Mao Tse-tung and his agents on innocent Nyerere. This notion is usually peddled by people outside Tanzania who have heard vaguely that there are some Chinese around. A visit to Tanzania and a round of talks with diplomats and Tanzanian officials drive home how ridiculous the notion is. The new Tanzanian socialist program belongs to Nyerere, not Mao. Of course, various people and events have influenced Nyerere in his thinking, and the Chinese are among them...

Nationalization of the banks, President Julius Nyerere's first dramatic move toward socialism, has hurt the economy of Tanzania in the last three months but not by very much. There are dangers to the economy in Nyerere's socialism but they lie in more subtle and less dramatic areas than in the economics of banking. In the long run, for example, the program may waste scarce managerial skills and may sap initiative. Nyerere insists that his nationalization policies are less important than his other new policies - his pleas for Tanzanians to work hard and be self-reliant, his attack on elitism, his plans for rural development, and his restructuring of the educational system. He says one reason for nationalization was to get his people in the mood for the rest of his plans. But the seizure of the banks and several other firms in early February was so sudden that it has attracted more attention. Since nationalization, foreign firms and individuals have stopped or decreased investing in Tanzania...

Reforms Aimed at Halting Production of Elite Graduates Who Ignore Masses - President Julius Nyerere, a former teacher, is trying to revolutionize education in Tanzania so that it stops producing an elite graduate who turns his nose up at peasants, dreams of a big Mercedes, specializes in Tudor history and refuses to work with his hands. These graduates, the usual product of African educational systems, cripple African development because they fill important jobs in the government and then neglect the masses in the countryside and their economic problems. Nyerere, in trying to change Tanzanian education, faces a formidable job. The officials in the Ministry of Education, who are assigned the task of implementing Nyerere's ideas, are all members of the elite who are proud of their education and who fail to understand what Nyerere is talking about. Failure to carry out his ideas on education could undermine Nyerere's whole new program of Tanzanian socialism. Nyerere wants his people to develop the country through hard work in agriculture. And he wants the results to benefit all of Tanzania, not just a privileged elite group in Dar es Salaam. To do this, the education system must infuse students with new attitudes about work and development...

Julius Nyerere's Drive for Economic Growth Is Exciting, but Will It Work? African governments, admiring the presidential palaces and flashy hotels in their capitals, usually blind themselves to the searing realities of their woeful economic development. But not Tanzania. Tanzania has embarked on a program that faces squarely the forces that suck vitality from African development - elitism, corruption, dependence, laziness, neglect of agriculture, and foolish schooling. Since African governments can not blind themselves forever, the Tanzanian experiment is exciting and significant. Other countries will some day have to take on the problems that Tanzania is taking on now. But the experiment has severe problems of its own. It is largely the work of one man - President Julius Nyerere - who can analyze the trouble of his country with coldness and incisiveness. His lieutenants lack that gift...

Bank Nationalization Political Rather Than Economic Measure, Nyerere Admits - President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania said he believes the U.S. government understands Tanzania's new march toward socialism - even though it includes nationalization of the banks. In an interview with The Times Friday, he said: "I don't know about the American people. But I know the U.S. government understands what is going on here. And all I ask from the big powers is understanding. Whatever else they give me is surplus." Asked why it matters that the United States understand him, Nyerere laughed and replied: "It matters because we are a little country and the United States is a powerful country. If the United States decided we were going over to the Chinese Communists, it could put a stop to what we are doing here. I know that." Nyerere revealed that he is receiving more than understanding from the United States...

But Outsiders Give Three-Man Panel of Presidents Little Chance to Succeed - Three African presidents will try this week to salvage the East African Common Market, once a proud symbol of African unity, now a harsh case study of the pitfalls and problems of economic union. Although official statements have brimmed with optimism lately, most outsiders here believe the presidents of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda have only a slight chance to succeed. At the most, the presidents are expected to sign a treaty cooperation that will proclaim continuation of the market while loading on enough restrictions to make it unwieldy or even unworkable. However, the presidents are expected to continue the East African Common Services Organization. Under this organization, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda share railways, postal services, an airline, research institutions, harbor management and other services...

President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania is trying to have his economic cake and eat it, too. He ended a week-long nationalization takeover Monday with an appeal for more private investment. His appeal appeared in a special article for the East African Standard, the English language daily read by most Western businessmen in Nairobi. Nyerere maintained that his nationalization of banks and other businesses in the last week had cleared the air. Investors now knew they could invest in everything else with confidence, he wrote. Nyerere also said that his country now had nothing to fear from private investment because the important things had been nationalized. "The key positions of the economy have been secured for the nation in the same way, as during a war, an army occupies the sites which dominate the countryside," Nyerere said. "We can now welcome the enterprise of private investors without reservations, because we no longer have any cause to fear the effect of their activities on our social purpose." Nyerere's appeal is likely to fall on deaf ears...

President Julius Nyerere ordered his government to take over all banks in Tanzania Monday, proving again that he's one African leader who follows up his flowery words with deeds no matter what the cost. The cost this time will be difficult to measure. But the action demonstrates that Nyerere meant exactly what he said Sunday when he announced Tanzania's new march toward socialism. According to Nyerere, Tanzania will follow its nationalization of banks by taking over all land, forests, mines, water property, oil refineries, electric power plants, communications, transport, insurance firms and other big industries in the country. Nyerere said he had nationalized the banks first because "money was more important than other things.' He announced no timetable for taking over the rest...