|
|
In the mid 20th century, many African leaders and policymakers sought to transform their countries into socialist societies, mainly as a possible method to overcome the extreme underdevelopment and hopeless poverty that colonialism had left them with. In 1967, Tanzania initiated one of the most important efforts of such a policy. President Julius Nyerere attempted to transform the rural countryside of Tanzania into a cooperative agrarian society. His plan centered on communal living, where everyone worked in hope to benefit the community, rather than focus on individual success. Nyerere’s ideology was an attempt to eliminate class struggles and competitive acquisition of wealth by implementing what he believed as “traditional African values,” therefore avoiding Western development models. However, by the 1980’s, Tanzania had regressed in terms of economic growth, and Nyerere’s African socialism was widely regarded as a failure. In this paper I will argue that African socialism failed because President Nyerere greatly misinterpreted traditional African societies. Due to Nyerere’s flawed assumptions regarding African societies in the pre-colonial era, it was impossible to impose his ideal vision of Tanzanian development. I will begin by examining Nyerere’s vision of African socialism, and how it relates to his perception of traditional African society. Next, I will compare this to the true pre-colonial thought in Tanzanian society, as well as post-colonial thought. Finally I will show the results of the contrasting views. Major problems concerning underdevelopment began to arise and multiply after Tanzania gained its independence in 1960. By 1967, 94 percent of the country’s population, or 11 million people, lived in rural areas. Of that total, 86.3 percent lived in scattered homesteads, or outside villages and urban areas. This, along with other factors such as low levels of technology, inequalities of income, and a growing reliance on foreign assistance, prompted President Nyerere to pass the Arusha Declaration in 1967. The Arusha Declaration called for “socialism and self reliance and a determined struggle against economic inequality and exploitation as the basis for the country’s future development.” It sparked the creation ujamaa villages, or cooperative communities where people live and work together, and they were a means to bring the scattered rural population together. Nyerere believed that in these creating communal villages, he understood the importance of a community as an entity, which he thought was a traditional African value. Julius Nyerere was convinced that the ujamaa villages were necessary, for colonialism had corrupted the traditional society, and capitalism poisoned African thought. He wanted to eliminate the option of gaining power and prestige, since a society based on wealth tends to corrupt. According to Nyerere, capitalist thoughts were nonexistent in pre-colonial times. For example, he was greatly opposed the ‘loiterer’ or ‘idler,’ two aspects that be believed derived from capitalism. “Not only was the capitalist, or the landed exploiter, unknown to traditional African society, but we did not have the other form of modern parasite – the loiterer or idler, who accepts the hospitality of society as his ‘right’ but gives nothing in return!” Before the Europeans came to power, he believed that the traditional way of life was for everyone to live communally. Everyone worked the same amount, and the common goal was for the community to succeed. Nyerere states, “In traditional African society everybody was a worker.
|
