H.E. Ali Hassan Mwinyi
King Faisal Prize in Service to Islam 2022 Laureate
History has shown us that leadership manifests itself in many forms; from the great orator who can move a crowd to the community worker who works quietly and steadily to ease the suffering of those around them
Ali Mwinyi received his primary education in the western Zanzibar region, and then joined the Maikendani School, west of Zanzibar, to complete his secondary education. Then, he joined the Institute of Education at the University of Durham in the United Kingdom, where he obtained a teaching diploma, worked as a teacher and then as a director of a number of schools, as a director of the Zanzibar College for Teaching Training in the western region of Zanzibar; he received a doctorate in arts from the Open University of Tanzania, and obtained a doctorate in Philosophy of Business Administration from East African University in Kenya before deciding to enter politics.
He held several government positions, as a Minister of Interior, then as a Vice President of the former Tanzanian Julius Nyerere, and then as a President of the Republic from 1985 to 1995, and during his rule, Tanzania took the first steps to liberate itself from socialism.
During his second term, he introduced a multi-party system, which had many positive aspects to life in Tanzania, both politically and socially. He was able to turn his country into a free country, and that individual freedom was one of the important beliefs. President Mwinyi is still an active personality and a participant in many Islamic and national activities. He was awarded the Master Julius Nyerere Kambaraj Medal (Tanzania), and received an honorary doctorate from the International University of Africa – Sudan in 2015.
This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.
- H.E. Ali Hassan Mwinyi passed away on 29 February 2024.