In assessing the 2, you ought to look at the environments they operated in

Mandela in the post cold war democracy era and Mwalimu in the cold war era when you could be an autocrat and be protected by your East/West powers you bowed down to

Nyerere's neighbours were land grabber Kenyatta and infamous dictator Amin

Both were good, well-intentioned men. Not devoid of serious mistakes though.

- Nyerere failed on the economic front. And about the claims of Tanzania being a stable society due to ujamaa, I disagree. Its been a one party country for the last 50+ years. Tanzania's unity is untested just like Kenya was before the beginning of Kanu's collapse. The day the country will overcome socio-econ-political disagreements that threaten to split the country almost in half is the day I'll be convinced. Tanzania is just like Rwanda - a procrastinated problem. Members of opposition are routinely beaten and detained. Its not as rosy as many think and could explode in future as CCM's clout reduces.

- Mandela failed to address the enormous land dispossession of his people. To this day, 70% of South African land is still in the hands of White South Africans despite Whites comprising less than 10% of the population. And this is not likely to be corrected anytime soon. To make matters worse, 90% of key companies are white-owned. And South Africa being a relatively mature market means there is little opportunity for small black-owned companies to compete. BEE wont do much. That's why I predict a major socio-politial implosion in the not too distant future. And Mandela will have to shoulder a huge part of the responsibility for that. In fact, 30 years from now, Zimbabwe will be by far the more stable country. And I wouldn't take the Nobel Prize too seriously as a barometer of achievement especially outside the sciences. The peace prize is a joke most of the time.

herdsboy, Mandela was at the helm for 5yrs only. Was his govt opening brothels or giving thugs guns? Doesn't sound fair to blame him for HIV rates

The question was about the better between the 2(comparative) not the best in Africa(superlative).

The best in Africa should be Sankara. The west would rather we forget him

Good points!!

Dear Wazuans,

Thank you very much for your comments. I have learned a lot from this. I especially want to comment on @Lolest's take that sometimes people are a beneficiary/victim of the environment that surrounds them. Thus Nyerere could not do but shine when his neighbors were dictator Amin and autocrat old Jomo. I had not thought about this. But this still misses something, I think. See next post for my final spin on this.

As for those who insist that Sankara was a greater man than either Julias or Nelson, I disagree. Sankara, like Lumumba, and Jesus before them, was a beneficiary of conflated time. Simply, he did not live long enough to make the mistakes that would have revealed him as human.

Sankara also fell in the typification of the romantic revolutionary/hero worship, largely driven by women and impressionable young men, a la Che Guevara, Hugo Chavez et al.