How the Berlin Conference Clung on Africa: What Africa Must Do
Monday, 18 September 2023
Thursday, 14 September 2023
ANOTHER IMPORANT AND SIGNIFICANT PIECE OF OUR POLITICAL HISTORY: MWALIMU NYERERE’s DETERMINATION TO ‘MODERNIZE’ THE RURAL POPULATION.
We have regularly been presenting, in this column, different important/significant pieces of our rich political history. For today’s presentation, we have selected the story of President Nyerere’s strong determination to ‘modernize’ the country’s rural population, by re-settling them into properly organized“vijiji vya maendeleo”. Well- designed stories usually carry some lesson to be learnt there from, And, as we shall see later below, this story has its own lessons. One is that it clearly reveals the ‘unshakeable’ determination of a Head of State to implement what he believes will provide positive development for the people under his jurisdiction; such as is reflected in President Samia’s slogan Kazi iendelee”. The other is that it exposes the ‘crimes’ which can be committed by some unscrupulous officials who are assigned the task of implementing the relevant project.
At the time when President Nyerere’s project was being implemented, it was known as “Operashen Vijiji vya maendeleo” ; which actually commenced much earlier in 1962, as a ´Village Settlement” programme. However, unfortunately, its implementation was badly designed, and badly executed, leading to its failure and total abandonment; simply because of its ‘capitalist orientation’ nature.
For it
involved the provision by the government to every family in the established
village, of a house built by the government, common tractors for tilling the
soil, and even the provision of seeds required for planting the crops. The
financial burden was, obviously, much too heavy for the government to bear.
Thus, this ambitious, but obviously ill-conceived initiative, had to be totally
abandoned; and subsequently ‘resurrected’, in 1973/74; in the new form of “Ujamaa Villages”.
It is probable that this bold initiative remains practically
unknown to the present generation of Tanzanians. But it is nevertheless a very
significant part of our socio/political history. And it is for that basic reason, that today’s
presentation has been designed to focus on that matter.
The background to that ’village resettlement’ drive.
The background to that ’village resettlement’ drive.
There may, probably, be many people, who either still
remember, or who have been so informed as a result of their own learning
of Tanzania’s history, about Prime
Minister’ Julius Nyerere’s voluntary resignation from that high position very
soon after the country had achieved independence from British colonial rule.
Looking back at that matter now with the
advantage of ‘hind sight’; it becomes quite clear that this was Nyerere’s personal strategy to give himself time, to quietly
prepare the country for the subsequent
fundamental changes which occurred on 9th
December that year, when Tanganyika (now Tanzania Mainland) became a Republic, with him being at the apex of the country’s
leadership, both as ‘Head of State’ as
well as ‘Head of Government’. The lessons referred
to above.
In my considered opinion, there are two useful lessons
which could be learnt from this story. One, that it was, indeed,
President Nyerere’s ‘unshakeable’ determination,
to implement the “village settlement” project; for he knew, perhaps better than anyone else, the benefits that would accrue therefrom. For example, in a comment he made regarding
the American successful landing on the moon in 199; Mwalimu Nyerere said
this: “While others go to the moon, we
are going to the villages”.
President Nyerere’s plans.
President Nyerere’s plans.
President Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, revealed his plans for the country’s future,
in his inaugural ‘Address to Parliament’, on 10th December, 1962. In that powerful speech he said the
following, among other things:- “The Tanganyika we intend to build, must be different
from the Tanganyika that we inherited from colonialism”. And continued as
follows: “If you ask me what our government is planning to do in the next few
years, the answer is simple. It is that for the next few years, the government will be
doing all it can to enable the peasants of Tanganyika to live together in properly
organized villages.
And if you
ask why the government wants them to live in such villages, the answer is
equally simple, namely
that unless they do that, we shall not
be able to provide them with the things they need to raise their standard of
living. We shall not, for example, be able to provide
schools for their children, or provide medical infrastructures, or clean water
facilities, which are close enough to their homesteads. And even if we had
plentiful supplies of electricity, we shall not be able to connect that power to each isolated homestead.
However,
I do not want anybody to start thinking that by just going to live in an
organized village, he will find himself miraculously supplied with all these
good things. No, that is not what I am saying, for I know that we shall
still be a long way away from solving all our problems, even by the time we
succeeded to resettle every peasant family in an organized village community. All I am saying, is that if our
peasant population does not live in proper village communities, then all our
endeavours to develop our country will be just so much wasted effort.”. An unfortunate
‘false start’.
The President’s initial ‘experiment’ (obviously upon
persuasion by the expatriate advisers and officials who had been given that
advisory role); was to establish what were then called “Vijiji vya maendeleo” (Development villages). For the implementation
of this project, a government “Village Settlement Agency” was established;
which was mandated to do the design, as well as the operational
system that would apply to these
villages. We were informed then, that
these new villages would consist of
‘collective dwellings’ called “village settlements”; that each of
them would consist of 250 family households; and that they would be established on previously unoccupied land.
And further that in Its first phase, the
project would consist of 22 such ‘model’ villages; established in different
selected areas of the country. The
entire operational costs of implementing this project, were to borne by the
government. Such costs included: the
construction of houses for all the intended residents thereof, plus the provision of tractors (and other farm
implements), for tilling the soil; the
provision of seeds for planting, plus fertilizers, where these items were required.
In other words, these villages were (unwittingly), given the equivalent of the status
of “state farms”, where the people working there are employees of the government!
Such
‘capital intensive’ undertakings, obviously, could not possibly cover the whole vast country, and were clearly
unsustainable. The project was a kind of
‘false start’, and was, obviously, bound to fail, as it eventually did; and had to be totally abandoned.
It was, in other respects, a case of “conflict of
interests”; contradicting the Arusha Declaration policy of “Ujamaa and
Self-reliance”. For it was, by its
nature, ‘a capitalist oriented project’,
which was being undertaken by the
government in a country that was determined
to build ujamaa!
But the idea itself, of “resettling the rural
population into properly organized villages” was not abandoned; for it was later
vigorously ‘resurrected’ in 1973/74, under the code-name “the ujamaa villages development programme”; when the
entire Regional Administration
establishment, was mobilize to concentrate
on this particular undertaking, and, for
that purpose, was given a specific time-period,
within which to complete that the exercise.
As if to illustrate his firm determination to make the village re-settlement project a resounding success; at one regular meeting of TANU’s National Executive Committee, President
Nyerere revealed that when he was
resting at Butiama during the previous
year’s Christmas holidays; he had noticed some kind of reluctance, in responding to the directives to re-locate to the designated villages; and that
he had consulted his brother the Chief of the Wazanaki, regarding what he
thought could be the cause of this reluctance. The Chief’s reply was: “Mwalimu,
the people have not yet been convinced that this is what the government
actually wants them to do. They still believe that these are mere noises coming
from groups of rabble rousers.
Mwalimu Nyerere further inquired: ”Chief, what then, do you suggest should be done, in order to convince them”? The chief’s reply was: “Mwalimu, Just mount
an ‘exhibition’ of a small contingent of
the military forces, passing through parts of the rural areas, but doing no more than just urging the people there to heed the government’s call to
re-locate to the designated development villages, and you will be
surprised by the peoples’ response”.
Mwalimu
Nyerere said he was persuaded by the Chief’s advice, and gave appropriate
instructions to the Chief of the Defence
Forces. The intended ‘small exhibition’
was duly mounted; and indeed, the targeted people immediately responded, and
very positively.
Lessons to be learnt there from.
The Holy Bible says the following in Ecclesiasticus:-“Miss not the discourse of the elders, for from them thou shall learn understanding, and how to give answer as needth”, The “villagezation” story is one such ‘discourse’, and from our own very distinguished ‘elder’, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, fonder President of the United Republic of Tanzania.
Lessons to be learnt there from.
The Holy Bible says the following in Ecclesiasticus:-“Miss not the discourse of the elders, for from them thou shall learn understanding, and how to give answer as needth”, The “villagezation” story is one such ‘discourse’, and from our own very distinguished ‘elder’, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, fonder President of the United Republic of Tanzania.
As already stated above, there are two useful lessons
that could be learnt from this little story. One, it
shows that a Head of State can go to very a Head of State can go to very great
lengths, in order to ensure that what he believes to be a positive development
project for the people who are under his jurisdiction; as we have just seen
above, in the part relating to Mwalimu Nyerere’s consultation with his Chief of
the Wanzagi people. (It may also be remembered that President Nyerere had,
in1963, engineered the abolition of the colonial “Chiefs’ Ordinance”; which had vested all the tribal Chiefs with
certain Executive, legislative, as well as judicial powers, to be exercised in their respective areas of
jurisdiction.
This incident also helps to clarify the point, that
the said legislative action, did not at
all remove the said Chiefs’ traditional roles, as custodians of their
tribal customs and traditions; which has been misunderstood by some people,
such as those who questioned President
Samia’s recent participation at a
traditional ceremony at the Bujora Sukuma Cultural Center, arranged and managed
by the country’s current Chiefs.
The second lesson, is that, the story exposes the
‘crimes’ that can be committed, without the knowledge of the boss, by some
unscrupulous officials who are given the task of implementing the relevant
project. This is illustrated by the cruel, anti-human treatment, which was, in
some areas, perpetrated on some of the
people who were involved in this exercise,
when forcing them to move to new areas. There was evidence to show that in some
extreme cases, people were forced to
move from their previous dwellings to
some empty areas of land, and just abandoned there, under the trees, and left there to fend for themselves,
without any assistance; and their previous homes were burnt down, in order to
prevent them from returning there.
Many of the offenders were subsequently apprehended, and
punished appropriately according to law;
but, as that famous English Playwright William
Shakespeare said a long time ago: “The ‘good’ that men do, is often interred
with their bones, but the ‘bad’ lives
long after them”. The
said “bad things”, or crimes, that were committed by those unscrupulous
officials have lived long after their commission. These are matters that should, perhaps, best
be forgotten. But we cannot obliterate history.
piomsekwa@gmail.com/0754767576.
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