Nyerere, Julius K. (1973) “Relevance and Dar es Salaam University” in Freedom and Development: A Selection of writings and speeches, 1968-1973 Oxford: Oxford University Press.
The speech at the Inauguration of UDASA as an independent national university, no longer formally a part of any university of East Africa.
p. 192: “. . . we should be clear in our own minds about the function of a university in the modern world, and about the particular tasks of the first University in Tanzania. Only when we have done this can we avoid the twin dangers, on the one hand, of considering our University in the light of some mythical ‘international standard’, or, on the other hand of forcing our University to look inwards and isolate itself from the world in which we live.”
Three functions of a University:
(1) transmits advanced knowledge from generation to generation, to serve as a basis of action or springboard to further research and investigation;
(2) provides a center for the advancement of frontiers of knowledge, by concentrating in one place, best intellects and abilities without begin preoccupied with day-to-day administrative/bureaucratic minutiae.
(3) Provides, through its teaching, for high-level manpower skills development.
p. 195: “The peasants and workers of a nation feed, clothe, and house both the students and the teachers; they also provide all the educational facilities used – the books, test-tubes, machines, and so on. The community provides these things because it expects to benefit – it is making an investment in people. It believes that after their educational opportunity the students will be able to make a much greater contribution to the society; they will be able to help in the implementation of the plans and policies of the people.”
p. 195: “Knowledge which remains isolated from the people, or which is used by a few to exploit others, is therefore a betrayal. It is a particularly vicious kind of theft by false pretences.”
p. 198: “The truth is that it is Tanzanian society, and African society, which this University must understand. It is Tanzania, and the Tanzanian people, who must be able to comprehend this University. Only when these facts are firmly grasped will the University of Dar es Salaam be able to give full and proper service to this society. The University of Dar es Salaam has not been founded to turn out intellectual apes whether of the Right [USA, Britain, as mentioned in previous sentences] or of the Left [Russia, Eastern Europe, China as mentioned in previous sentences]. We are training for a socialist, self-respecting and self-reliant Tanzania.”
p. 199: “Knowledge is international and inter-related. We need to know and understand as much as we possibly can; we need to learn from the past and present of all parts of the globe. All knowledge is relevant to us, even if we consider ourselves only as Tanzania citizens and ignore our existence as human beings.”
