This chapter opens with Nyerere’s baptism in the Catholic church, his adoption of the name ‘Julius’, and his entry to Makerere College in Uganda. It considers Makerere’s academic environment, Nyerere’s exposure to a wider student body from Eastern and Southern Africa, and his enthusiasm for debating. An analysis is then given of Nyerere’s first known published work of a political nature. The chapter considers his activities as a Catholic in Uganda, as well as his early interaction with a number of Tanganyikans with whom he maintained political ties. It closes with an analysis of Nyerere’s activities in a Makerere-based student organisation concerned with the socio-political interests of Tanganyikans. The evidence is drawn from contemporary sources, including a document on African socialism, authored by Nyerere, that has hitherto not been examined in any detail.

Back to Nyegina

Sometime shortly after his return home to Butiama, Kambarage travelled to Nyegina Mission, eight miles from Musoma. Founded by the White Fathers who established themselves on Ukerewe Island in Lake Victoria in 1893, Nyegina Mission was built in 1911 after the missionaries made journeys to maintain contact with those converts who had returned to their inland homes as the great Hunger of the Feet famine of 1894 abated.2 The further purpose of the Nyegina venture was to reach Christians in Ikizu, Ngoreme, Zanaki, Majita and Ruri.3 By 1936, the (French) White Fathers Roman Catholic Mission had a nine-acre plot with a brick church, a boys’ school and medical centre.4 Kambarage spoke with the Missionaries of Africa pastor Father Matthias Könen, and asked him for baptism.5 Father Könen refused, explaining to his visitor that baptism was sacred and required special preparation in order to receive it. Despite Kambarage’s reply that he had already been a catechumen for ten years and knew it well, Father Könen insisted that he be prepared for baptism by a catechist.6 It is feasible that Könen was wary of the stranger, a chief ’s son and his father’s possible successor, at a time when it was a common assumption that chiefs were all polygamous and could therefore not be Christian.