Some Tanzanians have expressed concern online that a new statue honouring the country’s founding president, Julius Nyerere, does not resemble him.
The statue was unveiled on Sunday in front of the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.
“I know the gesture is most important, but the face of this statue (young or old) bears little to no resemblance to Mwalimu Nyerere,” wrote Maria Sarungi on X (formerly Twitter ).”That’s not our Nyerere,” says another.
Nyerere was the current leader of Tanzania from independence in 1961 until 1985.
He was a staunch Pan-Africanist and protected independence fighters against white minority rule in southern Africa.
Last year, a statue honouring Zambia’s first president, Kenneth Kaunda, had to be removed after weeks of ridicule and some people said it didn’t look like it.