RevisitingUjamaa: Political Legitimacy and the Construction of Community in Post-Colonial Tanzania

Development and Progress as Historical Phenomena in Tanzania: “Maendeleo? We Had That in the Past”

“…While it is “widely used in East Africa and often denotes similar ideas about development and progress, maendeleo is not a unitary, fixed discourse over time and space, but rather is mutable, contingent, and open to local reinterpretation and appropriation” (Mercer 2002:111). Maendeleo resonates with the socialist political and economic thought of Julius Nyerere and is related to terms like kujitegemea (self-reliance), kushirikiana (cooperation), and umoja (unity), all of which figure heavily in the ideology of ujamaa (“familyhood”) (Harrison 2008; Hunter 2008). As Green (2000) explains further, the term is often used to refer to interventions by external agents (especially in relation to projects established by NGOs) and small-scale private investments alike.…”

Contextualizing citizenship in Tanzania

“…Generally, Nyerere continues to stand as a symbol promoting national unity and criticism of the shortcomings of Ujamaa inside Tanzania is scarce (see Hunter 2008;Schneider 2004). In a similar vein, any open criticism of power holders, or explicit contestations between different political views is not prevalent except for the most vocal, mostly urban-based, civil society activists and opposition politicians.…”

Habits of contributing citizenship

“…In Tanzania, the "allegedly customary" ways of sharing and mutual help were also adopted by post-colonial, socialist governance (Rodima-Taylor 2014, 568), and articulated in the post-independence ideologies of Ujamaa and self-reliance formulated by the first president, Julius K. Nyerere (Ibhawoh & Dibua 2003). The subsequent creation of Ujamaa villages called for the participation and hard work of all to increase productivity and improve livelihoods (Sheikheldin 2015); the system also insisted that people live peacefully together, and demanded that individuals, all considered equal, become persons through the medium of community (Hunter 2008). It has been argued that President Nyerere's philosophy failed from an economic perspective (Ibhawoh & Dibua 2003) and, at times, the noble political ideals were implemented through forced resettlements (Rodima-Taylor 2014) and/or the imposition of obligatory participation (Schneider 2004).…”