Post-Colonial Realism: Tanganyika’s Foreign Policy Under Nyerere, 1960-1963

This article analyzes the foreign policy of Tanganyika, before its union with Zanzibar that created the new nation of Tanzania. Under the leadership of Julius Nyerere, Tanganyika’s primary foreign policy goals were the liberation of Southern Africa from white minority rule and the federation of East Africa. A secondary concern was the cultivation of foreign donors while maintaining a policy of non-alignment. By successfully defining and implementing an effective foreign policy, despite its relative weakness, Tanganyika enhanced its sovereign status in the international system setting the stage for the outsized influence it would continue have in subsequent years.