With free and fair polls, we need not fear chaos erupting

In an essay titled “Stability and Change in Africa,” Mwalimu Julius Nyerere of Tanzania reflected on the disturbing issue of violent change. In the 1974 paper, Mwalimu was disturbed that violence should ever be part of the equation. He wrote, “Some people appear to believe that there is virtue in violence . . . that only if a freedom struggle is conducted by war and bloodshed can it lead to real liberation. I am not one of these people.”

Mwalimu argued that if the door of freedom and justice was shut, attempts should be made to tease it to open. “It should be pushed until it is wide open.” Yet, Mwalimu went on to say that sometimes this desire remains in the domain of wishful thinking. It is this, he said, which forces violence upon society.