This chapter looks first at Kambarage Nyerere’s earliest years in the village. It identifies his age-mates, among them John Nyambeho who recalls the circumcision right that he undertook with Kambarage, and their years herding livestock. It considers the influences of Nyerere’s early home life in an apparently egalitarian society, and discusses how the chief ’s son later dealt with accusations of elitism and privilege. This is then related to Nyerere’s first exposure to formal education and to a new religion. His performance and reputation at Mwisenge Native Administration School is discussed, along with the influence of teachers and local missionaries. An account is then given of Nyerere’s new religious instruction and his transition from traditional beliefs to Catholicism. The chapter charts his progression to Tabora Boys, and compares the elite institution with other secondary schools in East Africa. It looks at Kambarage’s social life alongside the other pupils, the death of his father, and his close relationship with his brother. Sources include Nyerere’s correspondence with Shepperson in which they discussed this period, interviews with Butiama residents who knew Nyerere at this time, and the recollections of some individuals who were well-placed to provide accounts of his early instruction.

Mugendi

Kambarage Nyerere, as Julius Nyerere was called before he was baptised into the Catholic Church, was born in Mwitongo, Butiama on 13 April 1922. For decades Nyerere did not know his actual date of birth, and he used February 1921 for at least the first twenty-five years of his life. He indicated this date in his 1948 application to the Colonial Scholarship Scheme for funds to study in the United Kingdom.2 Nyerere was still not sure of the real date of birth in 1960.3 The matter was finally put to rest in the late 1960s when, on a rest visit to Butiama, some elders visited the President with an exercise book belonging to an old man called Mtokambali Bukiri.4 Mtokambali was born in Mtuzu sometime before the First World War and practised as an omugabhu in and around Butiama.