- Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Leadership School in Tanzania was built and funded to the tune of US$40 million by the Chinese Communist Party
- African party officials have been learning from Chinese counterparts for decades, but the school could advance Beijing’s ‘party-to-party diplomacy’
China’s former leader Mao Zedong supported some African parties with ideological and military training during their liberation struggles. Photo: Getty Images
A leadership school funded and built by the Chinese Communist Party to train political party officials in southern Africa has opened in Tanzania, as part of Beijing’s efforts to export its model of governance.
The Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Leadership School, for which China’s ruling party provided US$40 million in funding, was opened on Wednesday by Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan and several neighbouring countries’ leaders.
Located in Kibaha, near the port city of Dar es Salaam, it will serve political parties in the region and be a platform for China to enhance exchanges with them as a form of “party-to-party diplomacy”.
Initially, it will train leaders from pro-independence parties in South Africa, Mozambique, Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe, as well as Tanzania.
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Some of those, such as the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) and the Zimbabwe African National Union, received support from China’s former leader Mao Zedong during their liberation struggle. China provided ideological and military training, and supported their guerilla warfare against colonial minority regimes.
Some of the parties’ military officials at that time were even trained in China, including Emmerson Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe’s current president, who attended a military academy in Nanjing in the 1960s.
President Hassan, chairwoman of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi, said the school would also train young people to be patriotic, evaluate the progress made in the six countries since they won independence, and plan future growth.