Tanzania ambassador to present Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere commemorative lecture

Tanzania’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Augustine P. Mahiga, will present a commemorative lecture on the life and times of the late Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere, founding president of the United Republic of Tanzania, Wednesday, Oct. 14, at 5 p.m. in Room 304A of the Hildegarde and J. Myer Schine Student Center. The event is free and open to the public. A reception will follow. Paid parking is available at the Booth Garage and the University Avenue Garage.

The lecture is presented by SU’s Africa Initiative, a program of the Department of African American Studies in The College of Arts and Sciences, in recognition of Nyerere’s role in building Tanzanian nationhood along the tenets of African socialism; his unsung contributions to the liberation struggle in post-independence Africa, especially against apartheid in Southern Africa; and his firm belief in leadership as service and sacrifice. Nyerere served as president of Tanzania from its founding as a republic in 1964 until he retired in 1985. He died Oct. 14, 1999, of leukemia.

Mahiga has almost 30 years of experience in international diplomacy. He was appointed ambassador extraordinary and permanent representative of the United Republic of Tanzania to the United Nations in 2003 and was appointed ambassador and head of the Tanzania delegation to the United Nations Security Council in 2005. Prior to 2003, Mahiga represented the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Italy, the Republic of Malta, the Republic of San Marino and New Delhi, India, among others. He holds a Ph.D. in international relations from the University of Toronto and is the author of a number of publications on the international response to refugee resettlement and security.

Further information about the lecture can be obtained by calling 315-443-3984.