Background
Mwinyi, Ali Hassan was born on May 8, 1925 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Son of Hassan and Asha Sheikh Mwinyi.
Mwinyi, Ali Hassan was born on May 8, 1925 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Son of Hassan and Asha Sheikh Mwinyi.
He went to primary school at Mangapwani in Zanzibar from 1933 to 1936 and Dole Secondary School. Then in 1942 he did a two-year teacher training course at the Zanzibar Teacher Training College, going on to the Institute of Education at the University of Durham for further professional training.
During Mwinyi's terms Tanzania took the first steps to reverse the socialist policies of Julius Nyerere. He relaxed import restrictions and encouraged private enterprise. It was during his second term that multi-party politics were introduced under pressure from foreign donors. Often referred to as Mzee Rukhsa ("Everything goes"), he pushed for liberalization of morals, beliefs, values (without breaking the law) and the economy. He put these beliefs into practice by opposing religious fundamentalists who burned down pork butcheries; these were fanatics who claimed that eating pork contradicted their beliefs.
He insisted that Tanzania was a free country and that individual freedom of beliefs was important. Many argue that during Mwinyi's tenure the country was in transition from the failed socialist orientation of Julius Nyerere that brought its economy to its knees. It was during Mwinyi's administration that Tanzania made some of the crucial decisions towards the liberalization of its economy that paved the way for short-term economic growth.
A quiet, retiring schoolteacher and civil servant who has made himself an indispensable committee man and chairman of a wide variety of official boards. Though a Zanzibari he has been more prominent in mainland government in recent years. He was promoted from Minister of State in the cabinet reshuffle of 1972, when President Nyerere dispatched many of his best ministers to the provinces, as part of the new drive for decentralisation.
Married Mtumwa Yusuf, March 14, 1947 (divorced August 1958). 1 child, Asha; married Siti Abdala, September 29, 1960. 1 child, Fatma.