Late Tanzania’s third president Benjamin Mkapa worked his way to the highest office in the land starting as just a junior public administrator.
We take a look at the life history of iconic Tanzania.
Mkapa was born on November 12, 1938, in Mtwara, the southern part of Tanzania then a Germany colony that was called Tanganyika.
In 1956 Mkapa received the equivalence of a high school diploma from St. Francis College in the United States. A year later the former president enrolled at Makerere University College, Kampala, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English in 1959.
Three years after graduating from Makerere University President Mkapa was appointed as the administrative officer in Dodoma in an independent Tanzania and was thereafter promoted to Foreign Service officer.
In 1963 the Columbia University awarded him a master’s degree in international affairs and then he switched his careers to journalism. As a journalist, he managed various newspapers in the country. He became a managing editor of The Nationalist and Uhuru newspaper.
It was the same year, 1966 he was appointed the editor of The Nationalist and Uhuru newspaper that he married his Anna Joesph Maro.
In 1974 Mpaka was given a state job by the late President Julius Nyerere. He was appointed as the President’s press secretary. He later became the founding director of Shihata (Shirika la Habari Tanzania).
The following are some of the government posts that he serves in various years
- 1976; High Commissioner to Nigeria and Minister for Foreign Affairs
- 1977-9: Minister for Information and Culture
- 1980-83: High Commissioner to Canada
- 1982-83: Ambassador to the United States
- 1983-84: Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Mkapa went into Tanzania’s parliament for the first time in 1992 when he was nominated as Member of Parliament and served in the capacity for one term.
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In the 1987 general elections, MP was elected to the National Assembly for the Nanyumbu Constituency. Three years down the line as a first time MP, President Mkapa was elected as the Chama Cha Mapinduzi National Conference as the party’s presidential candidate.
In 1995 he won the Presidential elections and served his country for two terms until 2005
