Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
UJAMAA - TANZANIA'S GRAND EXPERIMENT
The events of the first few years following independence - the lack of assistance from
abroad, rumblings of civil strife at home and the nascent development of a privileged class
amid continuing mass poverty - led Nyerere to re-evaluate the course his government had
charted for the nation.
Since his student days, Nyerere had pondered the meaning of democracy for Africa. In
1962, he published an essay entitled
Ujamaa [familyhood]: The Basis of African Socialism
.
In it he set out his belief that the personal accumulation of wealth in the face of widespread
poverty was anti-social. Africa should strive to create a society based on mutual assistance
and economic as well as political equality, such as he claimed had existed for centuries be-
fore European colonisation.
The Arusha Declaration
In 1967, the TANU leadership met in the northern town of Arusha, where they approved
a radical new plan for Tanzania, drafted by Nyerere. What became known as the
Arusha
Declaration
outlined the Tanzanian government's commitment to a socialist approach to
development, further articulated in a series of subsequent policy papers. The government
vowed to reduce its dependence on foreign aid and instead foster an ethos of self-reliance in
Tanzanian society. To prevent government becoming a trough where bureaucrats and party
members could amass personal wealth, Nyerere passed a Leadership Code. Among other
things, it prohibited government officials from holding shares in a private company, employ-
ing domestic staff or buying real estate to rent out for profit.
The
Arusha Declaration
also announced the government takeover of industry and bank-
ing. It curtailed foreign direct investment and stated that the government would itself invest
in manufacturing enterprises that could produce substitutes for imported goods. All land was
henceforth to be common property, managed by the state. The government strove to provide
free education for every child. School children were taught to identify themselves as proud
Tanzanians with a shared language - Swahili - rather than just members of one of over 100
ethnic groups residing within the country's borders.
Socialist Leanings?
Throughout the country, in the wake of the Arusha Declaration, people
turned out to help their neighbours build new schools, repair roads and
plant and harvest food to sell for medical supplies. Nyerere and his minis-
ters made a regular practice of grabbing a shovel and pitching in.
Nyerere himself was fascinated by Chinese economic development strategies, but dismissed
Western fears that Tanzania was toying with doctrinaire Marxism, either Chinese- or Soviet-
