Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) – Tanzanians celebrated, on Saturday, the Golden Jubilee of the union which, 50 years ago, gave the East African nation a new name following the merger of mainland Tanganyika and the offshore Zanzibar Islands, as a monumental feat that has eluded many countries around the world.
“The union between the two countries was not spontaneous. It has been built on years of working together and the mutual desire to unite towards prosperity,” President Jakaya Kikwete told his compatriots in a nationwide address.
Except for a few opponents, the president said that the majority of Tanzanians were in support of the union.
Turning to Zanzibar President Ali Mohamed Shein, Kikwete said: “As leaders of the union, we shall be committing a sin if we allow this union to weaken or be broken because ordinary citizens will suffer the most.”
According to the president, Tanzania, as a united republic had made great strides in social and economic fields, with per capita income rising from $35 between 1960 and 1970 to $647 at present.
“Our target is to attain a per capita income of $3,000 by 2025 as we aim to become a middle-income economy by then,” he said.
The Golden Jubilee was marked at the packed National Stadium in Dar es Salaam and witnessed by heads of state and government from at least eight African countries.
The state guests included King Mswati III of Swaziland, King Letsie III of Lesotho, Presidents Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi and Joyce Banda of Malawi and Nigeria’s Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo.
Besides ceremonial parades by Tanzania’s armed forces, the Tanzania People’s Defence Force demonstrated various equipment and modern arms.
Similar celebrations took place at regional capitals across the country as the people nostalgically remembered the founders of the United Republic of Tanzania – Julius Kambarage Nyerere and Abeid Amani Karume – for their visionary decision to unite the two countries in 1964.
