The word ‘seemingly’ means “in a way that appears to be true, but may in fact not be” And that is the sense in which it is used in the context of this presentation. We do not hear much about Ujamaa these days; has Ujamaa withered away? In this presentation, we will argue that what appears to be true (that Ujamaa has withered away), is in fact not entirely true! As that famous guru of English literature, William Shakespeare said in Macbeth: – “Appearances can be deceptive”.The “Ujamaa” concept, or philosophy, was introduced as Tanzania’s official social and economic development policy by the “Arusha Declaration on Socialism and Self-Reliance”, which was promulgated on 5th February, 1967. It was the brainchild of Tanzania’s founder President, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere; who was first elected President of Tanganyika under the Tanganyika Republican Constitution of 1962, and took office on 9th December, 1962. This social and economic development strategy was announced by President Julius Nyerere in his inaugural ‘Address to Parliament’ on 10th December. 1962; wherein he outlined the priorities in his agenda for the country’s development, and in which he placed the greatest emphasis on rural development, through the creation of properly organized village settlements.
He referred to the disadvantages resulting from the then scattered homesteads of the people living in the rural areas, and made the point that this was a serious hindrance to the provision of modern development infrastructure; and in particular, the construction of electricity lines, and the laying of water pipes, because of the long distances which would have to be covered in order to reach each of these scattered homesteads; and further that it would similarly be difficult for the children to reach their Village school, wherever it might be built.
He therefore announced the government’s intention to create properly organized “village settlements”, in which people will live together in close proximity; and therefore make it easier to provide them with these modern tools for comfortable living Unfortunately, however, the initial steps that were taken by the government constituted what may be described as a “false start “A special “Village Settlement Agency (VSA) was set up; and in the course of three years, eight such Settlements had been established. But this programme was later terminated, because it was found to be very expensive in the use of capital, including social overheads, and touched relatively few people.
The seemingly ‘withering away’ of the Ujamaa concept
“Appearances can be deceptive” The notion that the Ujamaa concept has “withered away”, is a case in point. Admittedly, the word ‘Ujamaa’ is currently out of fashion, and is rarely heard; which has led to the false perception that the “Ujamaa concept has “withered away”, or that it is “dead and gone forever”! This is a wrong perception, which needs to be corrected by CCM cadres.
This ‘ misconception problem’ actually started appearing soon after the meeting of CCM’s National Executive Committee which was held in Zanzibar in February 1991, which resolved to introduce a totally new approach to the implementation of the Ujamaa economic agenda, titled “Mwelekeo wa Sera za CCM za Uchumi katika Miaka ya Tisini” , which was seen as a complete departure from the direction prescribed in the Arusha Declaration; with some detractors even claiming ´ that the “Ujamaa concept “was buried in Zanzibar”.
This misconstrued point of view has persisted in the minds of many people, and is what I have chosen to describe as the seemingly “withering away of the Ujamaa concept”.
It is ‘misconstrued’ in the sense that because it fails to take into account the whole, wide meaning, of the Ujamaa concept; which Mwalimu Nyerere helpfully explained in his book “Freedom and Socialism” as follows: – “Ujamaa is “first and most central of all, the purpose of all social activity. Thus, all service to ‘man’ in furtherance of his human development is, in fact, the purpose of society itself”. And he further that “Ujamaa is an attitude of mind, which is needed to ensure that the people care for each other’s welfare” What is it then, that created this misconstrued view point?
The bungled implementation of the villagisation exercise
As we have seen above, an ujamaa village was intended to be a “voluntary association of people who decide of their own free will, to live together “This aspect of “people deciding of their own free will” was sadly missing in implementing the ‘Ujamaa villagisation’ exercise which was carried out countrywide, in 1973/74. In a substantial number of cases, some of the officials who had been assigned to undertake this delicate task, just resorted to the unnecessary use of brutal force, and even committed the crime of arson; plus some other inhuman actions, purportedly in order to force people to move out to their new (unprepared) places of residence and stay there; in what was officially described as “Ujamaa villages”.
Naturally and understandably, such brutal actions created justified ‘collective anger’ among the affected population, and, consequently, created a collective dislike and immense hatred; which scandalized the whole Ujamaa concept, and thus rendered it undesirable. It is my humble submission that this is what largely accounts for the seemingly ‘withering away’ of the Ujamaa concept. Indeed, it came as surprise when the results of the 1975 Presidential election showed that he had won more than 90% of the total of the total ‘YES’ votes; in the then prevailing circumstances of ‘collective anger’, it could have been worse. I show that the Tanzanian voters were able to make a clear distinction between the innocent policy maker at the top level President Nyerere; and the brutal implementing officials at the bottom level.
That was in respect of the implementation of Ujamaa in the rural Ares. But there was also the aspect of implementing Ujamaa in the Urban areas; and this focused mainly on attempts to create “Ujamaa industries”, through the nationalization of the few ‘capitalist’ industries that had been established at the material time. Primarily due to the lack of managerial skills and relevant experience on the part of the new managers who were recruited from the Public Service, the nationalized industries failed to produce enough goods to satisfy the needs of the population; which resulted annoying scarcities that made life pretty difficult for the consumers.
Seen by critics as “disastrous s”Ujamaa economic policies
Mwalimu Nyerere has been condemned by his critics, for what they referred to as his “disastrous” economic policies. One such critic was Kenyan Professor Ali Mazrui; who, in his published article titled “Nyerere and I”, commented as follows: – “Nyerere’s policies of Ujamaa amounted to a case of heroic failure. They were heroic because Tanzania was one of the few African countries which attempted to find its own route to development, instead of borrowing the ideologies of the West. But it was a failure because this experiment did not deliver the goods of development”
Indeed, the economic problems described in the above paragraphs, easily confirm that the Ujamaa economic experiment had failed to deliver “the goods of development”.And that is precisely why the February 1991 Zanzibar meeting of the CCM National Executive Committee already referred to above, resolved to introduce a different approach, by crafting a new policy titled “Mwelekeo wa Sera za Uchumi za CCM katika Miaka ya Tisini”; which introduced a totally new direction for the implementing CCM’s economic policies; which was basically different from that which was prescribed in the Arusha Declaration. But It created such sensation among the public, with detractors saying that “Ujamaa was killed in Zanzibar”.
The political situation was so bad, and serious, that the Party Chairman, President Ali Hassan Mwinyi, felt obliged to make a “clarification” on the matter, which took the form of a lengthy document titled “Twende na wakati” in which both the contents, and the reasons, for that resolution were presented. This document was introduced to the public at a specially convened meeting of CCM Elders, held at Diamond Jubilee, Dar es Salaam, in March 1991.
However, whereas it is true that the problems described above scandalized, and bungled, the economic aspect of Ujamaa); but the social aspects of the Ujamaa concept, namely that Ujamaa is a way of life; this actually survived, is still alive, and is being practiced (perhaps unconsciously), among the people in their everyday lives.
For example, in many places throughout Tanzania, both in urban areas where people live close together in street neighbor’s, as well as in rural areas, where people also live close together in village neighbor hoods, it has become common practice for them to form voluntary associations for the purpose of helping each other in times of great difficulties, such as when death occurs within their neighborhood.
Here in Ukerewe, such neighborhoods groups are called ‘Luguyo’; and they are to be found in every village, throughout the District These are, in fact, Ujamaa groups, and they are (perhaps unconsciously), implementing the Ujamaa concept.
And even the government Authorities, whose responsibility it is to offer services to the people “in furtherance of their human development”, when they go to such great lengths, (as the sixth phase government of President Samia Suluhu Hassan is currently doing)to ensure that education, and health services, and other essential social amenities, are made available to all the people; the government is, in fact (perhaps unconsciously), implementing the Ujamaa concept.
With regard to its social aspects, it should be remembered that “Ujamaa is a way of life; and that “Ujamaa is an attitude of mind, which is needed to ensure that the people care for each other’s welfare”. And lest we forget, it should also be remembered that an Ujamaa group: “is a voluntary association of people who live close together, who decide, of their own free will, to work together for tier common good”. Thus, the appearance that Ujamaa “has withered away “is actually deceptive; and the CCM cadres are strongly advised to devote themselves to the task of correcting this false notion; especially for the benefit of our younger generation.
Article 5 of the CCM constitution (Malengo na Madhumuni ya CCM) shows a list of provisions which must be implemented by the party, of which sub-article 5 (3) directs the party’s members and leaders: Kuhimiza ujenzi wa Ujamaa na kujitegemea”.
Because it is a constitutional requirement, party members have a binding obligation to implement this directive. But, presumably because of the mistaken belief that the Ujamaa concept has “withered away”; this is, unfortunately, either not being done, or is not being done at the level of devotion and enthusiasm that it actually deserves.This may be due to the lack of this kind of background information, which we have endeavoured to provide in this presentation.
piomsekwa@gmail.com / 0754767576
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