Justinian F. Rweyemamu (28 September 1942 – 30 March 1982) was
Tanzania
Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...
’s first major economics scholar. Considered by many as the outstanding representative of the post-independence African scholars, he was also a pan-Africanist, political strategist, and international civil servant.
The first Tanzanian to get PhD in
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
.
Early life and education
Rweyemamu was born on 28 September 1942 in Katoma, a small village in the outskirts of
Bukoba
Bukoba is a city with a population of 128,796 (2012 census), situated in the north west of Tanzania on the south western shores of Lake Victoria. It is the capital of the Kagera region, and the administrative seat for Bukoba Urban District.
T ...
town located in
Kagera Region
Kagera Region (''Mkoa wa Kagera'' in Swahili) is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions. The region covers an area of . The region is comparable in size to the combined land area of the nation state of Netherlands. Kagera Region is bordere ...
,
Tanzania
Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...
. In 1958 he joined St. Thomas More College Ihungo, a Catholic secondary school in
Bukoba
Bukoba is a city with a population of 128,796 (2012 census), situated in the north west of Tanzania on the south western shores of Lake Victoria. It is the capital of the Kagera region, and the administrative seat for Bukoba Urban District.
T ...
, and in 1961 graduated top of his class. He then went to the USA on a scholarship to pursue undergraduate education on the eve of his country’s independence from the British. He enrolled at
Fordham University
Fordham University () is a Private university, private Jesuit universities, Jesuit research university in New York City. Established in 1841 and named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the The Bronx, Bronx in which its origina ...
, where he majored and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics, Applied Mathematics and Philosophy (1965). At Fordham he was an active member of the university's Economics club and the Philosophy club.
He went on to
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
for his graduate and doctoral studies in Economics (Ph.D 1971) under a fellowship from the
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Ca ...
, studying under economists
Albert Hirschman
Albert may refer to:
Companies
* Albert (supermarket), a supermarket chain in the Czech Republic
* Albert Heijn, a supermarket chain in the Netherlands
* Albert Market, a street market in The Gambia
* Albert Productions, a record label
* Albe ...
and
Thomas Weisskopf. While at Harvard, he was a contemporary of the political scientist
Mahmood Mamdani
Mahmood Mamdani, FBA (born 23 April 1946) is an Indian-born Ugandan academic, author, and political commentator. He currently serves as the Chancellor of Kampala International University, Uganda. He was the director of the Makerere Institute ...
and documentary film-maker
James Ault, with whom they formed the informal Harvard “Africa Group”. His Ph.D thesis, entitled “An Industrial Strategy for Tanzania”, was a seminal work in the development economics scene, and its revised version was later published by Oxford University Press as ''Underdevelopment and Industrialization in Tanzania; a study of perverse capitalist industrial development'' (1973).
Career
On completion of graduate studies, he returned to his native land and took up a faculty position at the Department of Economics of the
University of Dar es Salaam
The University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) is a public university in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. It was established in 1961 as an affiliate college of the University of London. The university became an affiliate of the University of East Africa (UEA) in 1 ...
, and was later the Dean of its Faculty of Social Sciences. He then took up position in the Government to become more of an actor, than a privileged spectator in academia. In the government he was appointed (1975) Permanent Secretary of the Planning Ministry and subsequently Personal Assistant (Economic affairs) to the then President of the Republic
Julius Nyerere
Julius Kambarage Nyerere (; 13 April 1922 – 14 October 1999) was a Tanzanian anti-colonial activist, politician, and political theorist. He governed Tanganyika as prime minister from 1961 to 1962 and then as president from 1962 to 1964, a ...
. In a span of just a few years he became internationally recognized, due to his thought provoking economic analysis and recommendations of the economic plight of the poor nations. He was thus appointed Chairman of the
(CODESRIA), member of the Committee of the
Third World Forum and a founding member of
The International Foundation for Development Alternatives (IFDA).
In 1977 he left the country for a high-profile appointment in the
UN, first in Switzerland and then later New York, USA. During his time in the
UN he was a member of the
UN Committee for Development Planning, worked for the
Brandt Commission
The Brandt Report is the report written by the Independent Commission, first chaired by Willy Brandt in 1980. The Independent Commission for International Developmental Issues was established in 1977 with the aim to review international development ...
and worked for the
till his untimely death caused by
cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal bl ...
on 30 March 1982.
Rweyemamu is remembered as the father of Tanzanian economics and made his greatest impact through the remarkable concentration of his students in top echelons of government and academia. These include:
Jakaya Kikwete
Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete (born 7 October 1950) is a Tanzanian politician who was the fourth president of Tanzania, in office from 2005 to 2015. Prior to his election as president, he was the Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1995 to 2005 under hi ...
, the fourth President of the United Republic of Tanzania;
Benno Ndulu
Benno Ndulu (23 January 1950 – 22 February 2021) was a Tanzanian Professor and the governor of the Bank of Tanzania, the country's central bank, from 2008 to 2018. He died on 22 February 2021 from COVID-19.
Career
As a professor at the Univers ...
, the Governor of the Bank of Tanzania.
Ibrahim Lipumba, Tanzania’s academician and politician;
Delphin Rwegasira
''Delphin'' (dolphin) was a midget submarine created during World War II. Designed in 1944, only three prototypes were created by Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine by the end of the war, all of which were destroyed. The ''Delphin'' was built for under ...
, Tanzanian economist.
In 1982, his friends and colleagues established the Justinian F. Rweyemamu Prize in order to perpetuate the academic spirit of J F Rweyemamu and to stimulate young Africans to follow his example in placing their talent at the service of their people. It was established by four of the institutions with which Justinian Rweyemamu was affiliated: CODESRIA, the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, IFDS, and the Third World Forum. Among the recipients of this prize is Calestous Juma, a prominent Kenyan scientist based at Harvard University.
Selected writings
* ''Underdevelopment and Industrialization in Tanzania: A Study of Perverse Capitalist Development'' (Nairobi: Oxford University Press, 1973)
* ''Towards Socialist Planning''
* ''The Teaching of Economics in Africa''
* ''Industrialization and Income Distribution in Africa''
* ''Pugwash on Self-reliance''
* ''North-South: A Programme for Survival (The Brandt report)''
* ''Dialogue for a New Order''
* ''Third World Options: Power, security and hope for another development'' (Tanzania Publishing House, 1992).
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rweyemamu, Justinian
1942 births
1982 deaths
Tanzanian economists
Fordham University alumni
Harvard University alumni
Tanzanian mathematicians
Academic staff of the University of Dar es Salaam
20th-century economists