Books about and by Mwalimu Nyerere

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South Africa and the commonwealth
(Government Printer, 1971) Nyerere, Julius Kambarage
At a press conference in the United States in December,1970,and as reported by the B.B.C.,Prime Minister Health said: "The Commonwealth has always existed and worked on the basis that members respect each other's interests". Tanzania certainly has no quarrel with that description of one aspect of the Commonwealth. It implies a mutual responsibility between Commonwealth members,as well as the complete national sovereignty of every individual member to purse his own country's interests . In other words,it is a recognition that, while every Commonwealth member has complete freedom to make its own decisions, each nation has also,by its membership ,accepted an obligation to try to the best of its ability to pursue its own interests and needs in such a manner that its actions will not adversely affect the basic interests of other members. This combination of complete freedom and inter-responsibility is an important and fundamental part of Commonwealth membership. There is one other. By the composition of the Commonwealth,one basic principle is implicitly accepted by every member. If we are not opposed to racialism,we have no business sitting down together in an association which consists of representatives of all the racial groups in the world.