ABSTRACT
This chapter examines traditional education in mainland Tanzania and the interaction between it and Western education in order to see what indigenous educational models Nyerere and his party were referring to in their search for national identity. Nyerere’s justification for his policy of education for self-reliance is therefore a twofold one of socialism for the future coupled with a return to the values of a traditional society (again his own brand of it) in the past. Education as a missionary weapon of Christian proselytiza-tion and as a producer of subordinates for government and commercial service was undoubtedly effective but it was on African terms. Education guaranteed the helping hand from a well-paid kinsman in a government or commercial office. The adaptation of education to local society and to local needs was in their view uncalled for. It was also suspect because it was construed as the watering down for African consumption of the mixture which gave the Europeans their superiority.
