A peep at the seemingly ‘withering away’ of the Ujamaa concept

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 5^th 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 9^th December, 1962.

This social and economic development strategy was   announced by   President Julius Nyerere in his inaugural ‘Address to Parliament’ on 10^th 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.

Subsequently, with the advent of the Arusha Declaration of 1967, these organized villages were re-designated “Ujamaa villages”; which were given this definition: – “An Ujamaa village, is a voluntary association of people, who decide of their own free will,to live together and work together, for their  common good”.

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.

This distinction between the failure of the economic aspect, and the success of its social aspect, should be clearly explained to the public. In order to enable them to appreciate this crucial   difference.

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.

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