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

Abstract

Tanzania's post-colonial social and economic policies, often referred to with the shorthand term of ujamaa and variously translated as ‘familyhood’ or ‘African socialism’, have attracted the attention of scholars since their inception. While the first analysts were interested in these policies primarily as strategies of development, historians have recently begun to focus on the importance of ujamaa and related political metaphors, particularly those of ujamaa na kujitegemea (ujamaa and self-reliance), wakupe (ticks) and mirija (straws) as a set of discursive strategies aimed at constructing state legitimacy in a post-colonial context. This article builds on these developments, but argues that focussing on discourse produced at the centre has its limitations. It is suggested here that attention to the use of ujamaa vocabulary on the periphery and by non-official actors in the months after the Arusha Declaration demonstrates that it could be employed to argue about social and economic morality in a way which necessarily engaged with a broader national discourse. It is also further argue, however, that there were limits to the power of nationalist discourses to construct political legitimacy rhetorically, and that discourse must be examined in interaction with the material challenges facing the post-colonial state. Methodologically, this approach has the potential to offer a richer view of political life in the post-colony.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the participants of the African Studies Seminar in Oxford, John Lonsdale and Charles West for comments on earlier drafts of this paper.

Notes

1. Letter from Damas Anthony and Joseph Machami Mambo, ‘Usiwe Kupe Jitegemee’, Kusare, 2 September 1967, 3.

2. The term ujamaa had been present in popular nationalist discourse since 1962, but as Burke notes, it was little used by politicians in speeches and appeared rarely in Kusare before 1967. Burke, ‘Tanganyika: The Search for Ujamaa’, 196.

3. ‘Kusema kweli tangu neno hilo lianze mpaka sasa latumika kama dharau au tukano. Hivi sasa watu wamelizoea sana na wengi hatujui maana yake. Zaidi ya hayo kuhusu neno hilo kwa upande wetu sisi Wachagga wa Kilimanjaro tangu zamani twapendana kwani tunakula pamoja na tunakunywa pamoja kijamaa au kirafiki, hivyo kwa ujumla tunajitegemea.’ The letter ends with the injunction: ‘Tuchungue sana wenzangu juu ya hilo neno tusiwe hatarini ya vita vya ndani ndani wala si kujitegemea nikuangusha nchi yetu’. Letter from Damas Anthony and Joseph Machami Mambo, ‘Usiwe Kupe Jitegemee’, Kusare, 2 September 1967, 3.

4. On development see in particular Jennings, ‘We Must Run While Others Walk’; and Schneider, ‘Freedom and Unfreedom in Rural Development’. For a useful summary, see Burton and Jennings, ‘The Emperor's New Clothes?’

5. This point is made by Maddox, Practicing History in Central Tanzania, 14. For a summary of the Ujamaa literature, see Sheridan, ‘Environmental Consequences of Independence and Socialism’, 92. The phrase ‘uncaptured peasantry’ is that of Hyden, Beyond Ujamaa in Tanzania.

6. Maddox and Giblin, In Search of a Nation; Giblin, A History of the Excluded.

7. Brennan, ‘Blood Enemies’, 398.

8. Brennan, ‘Blood Enemies’, 408–13.

9. Burke, ‘Tanganyika: The Search for Ujamaa’, 194.

10. For recent examples of works which have similarly sought to consider the locality in relation to the central state, see Maddox, Practicing History in Central Tanzania; and Giblin, A History of the Excluded.

11. See Burton, African Underclass.

12. Howard and Millard, Hunger and Shame, 217.

13. ‘Waziri huyo alilaumu fikara mbaya kuwa ati Kilimanjaro imeendelea sana na kwamba maendeleo yanasimamishwa ili kungojea sehemu nyingine za Tanzania. Huo ni uvumi mtupu usio na msingi. Mawazo kama hayo hayawezi kufikiriwa na kiongozi yeyote Tanzania kwani watu walioko Kilimanjaro ni Watanzania. Halmashauri ni budi iendelee kuwaelimisha watoto ila tu iwe macho kuona kuwa haitumii mapato yake yote kwa elimu pekee. Ni lazima pia halmashauri iwapatie wananchi maji ili waweze kuendeleza kilimo wakati wowote ule bila ya kutegemea mvua.’ ‘Halmashauri ya Wilaya Yakutana’, Kusare, 22 April 1967, 1.

14. ‘Kumbukumbu za Mkutano wa Gazeti la Wachagga Uliofanyika Chagga Council Tarekh 3.12.52’, Tanzania National Archives (TNA) 5/10/21, f. 29.

15. Sturmer, The Media History of Tanzania, 117.

16. Darnton, The Kiss of Lamourette, 60–93.

17. In a 1969 pamphlet Nyerere put these two texts together, framing these interventions in terms of his intellectual progression. Blommaert, State Ideology and Language in Tanzania, 42.

18. On the ‘expectations of independence’ in a neighbouring context, see Macola, ‘It means as if we are excluded from the good freedom’.

19. Sadleir, Tanzania: Journey to Republic, 227–30, on a five-week ‘Uhuru na Jasho’ campaign undertaken in September 1959 in Arusha and Moshi in his role as a public relations officer.

20. Nyerere, ‘Resignation as Prime Minister’, 158.

21. Pratt, The Critical Phase in Tanzania.

22. Cooper, Africa since 1940, 85–90.

23. TANU, Mafunzo ya Azimio la Arusha na Siasa ya TA NU juu ya Ujamaa na Kujitegemea, 6, 14.

24. Brennan, ‘Blood Enemies’, 404.

25. For examples of earlier uses of the term see Hunter, ‘Languages of Politics’, 149–50, 228–34.

26. ‘Jamani huu ni ungwana? Je huu ni ujamaa?’ Letter from H. H. E. Richard, ‘Ubaguzi wa Nyumba za Kupanga Kaloleni Arusha’, Kusare, 8 April 1967, 3. Young single men faced similar difficulties in Dar es Salaam, about which see Brennan, ‘Blood Enemies’, 412.

27. See for example Letter from Felix K. Lyaro, ‘Wenye Magari ya Abiria Moshi to Arusha Wapinga Siasa ya Ujamaa’, Kusare, 8 April 1967, 3; Letter from G. K. Robert Makange, ‘Abiria Wanateseika “Uru”’, Kusare, 29 April 1967, 3.

28. Letter from M. M. S. Tesha and D. M. Adolf, ‘Polisi Kuwatesa Abiria’, Kusare, 26 August 1967, 3.

29. ‘Hawa wezi wanatekeleza “Azimio” gani? La Arusha ama azimio la Mkaburu?’ Letter from Silvester Robert Limo, ‘Wezi Wamechacha Mlimani Kilema’, Kusare, 24 June 1967, 3.

30. Ivaska, ‘Anti-Mini Militants Meet Modern Misses’, 589–90.

31. Letter from Engeni Sirili Tilya, ‘Heko Majizi Kukamatwa Mjini’, Kusare, 15 April 1967, 3.

32. Letter from N.E. Richard Mafuwe, ‘Umalaya Wachukiza Raia Wema’, Kusare, 5 August 1967, 3.

33. Letter from Rogers M. Ngaja, ‘Umalaya Wachukiza Raia Wema’, Kusare, 29 August 1967, 3.

34. Letter from Eshikaely N. Mmarison, ‘Umalaya Wachukiza Raia Wema’, Kusare, 2 September 1967, 3.

35. Ivaska, ‘Anti-Mini Militants Meet Modern Misses’, 591–92; Brennan, ‘Blood Enemies’, 391, 400–01.

36. ‘Watu wa namna hiyo na wale wanaoitwa kupe ambao hawataki siasa ya Ujamaa na Kujitegemea, na wanazidi kunyonya wazee wa miaka 45–70, jamani ninaomba tutekelze Azimio la Arusha kwa kujenga nchi yetu kwa kilimo bora Shambani.’ Letter from Peter L. M. Mirakuo Mmasi, ‘Uvivu Wapigwa Ziii!’, Kusare, 22 April 1967, 3.

37. Letter from Josph N. Lyamuya (Mzalendo), ‘Jinsi ya Kutekeleza Azimio la Arusha na Siasa ya Ujamaa na Kujitegemea’, Kusare, 13 May 1967, 3.

38. Maddox, Practicing History, 17.

39. TNA 548.C.10/6.

40. ‘Tunafahamu ati tujitegemee (tusiwe kupe). Basi kama huna kazi unaweza kujitegemea namna gani?’ Letter from James Mungai, ‘Darasa la 7 na 8’, Kusare, 1 July 1967, 3.

41. ‘Mbona wewe hutaki kutambua kuwa ardhi ni utajiri mkubwa kupita yote?’, Editor, Kusare, 1 July 1967.

42. Letter from Oleti L. Massawe, ‘Darasa la 7 na 8’, Kusare, 15 July 1967, 3.

43. Mhariri, ‘Darasa la 7 na 8’, Kusare, 15 July 1967, 3.

44. Letter from K. Colly Lucas R. Mfoi, ‘Zao Lipi Lafaa Kulimwa Kilimanjaro?’, Kusare, 29 April 1967, 3.

45. Letter from Joseph Machami Mambo, ‘Bei ya Kahawa Imeshuka Chini’, Kusare, 23 September 1967, 3.

46. International Monetary Fund (IMF), Surveys of African Economies, 219–26.

47. Morrison, Education and Politics, 200.

48. TANU, Mwelekeo wa Maendeleo ya Kijamaa Mkoani Kilimanjaro.

49. Burton and Jennings, ‘Emperor's New Clothes?’, 1.