Jeremiah Kasambala was one of the first ministers in the cabinet of Julius Nyerere after Tanganyika won independence from Britain on 9 December 1961. He rose to prominence when he was the head of the Rungwe African Cooperative Union in Rungwe District in the Southern Highlands Province.1 TANU was the largest political party in the country. It was formed in Dar es Salaam, the colonial capital of Tanganyika, on 7 July 1954. Nyerere was elected president of TANU.