The Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) was the leading nationalist political party in the East African state of Tanganyika. It was founded in 1954 by Julius Nyerere as the ‘Tanganyika African Association’. In 1977, the party merged with the Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP) to form Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), a centre-left party which continues to dominate politics in an independent Tanzania.