However, not all Tanzanians share this perspective. Some who lived through this era tell a very different story — one riddled with imprisonment without charge or trial, enforced disappearances, and destroyed livelihoods. Nyerere promised to establish a new economic order based on traditional African communal values. He argued that Tanzania did not need to borrow ideas from Marx or Lenin because the culture of socialism — defined as hospitality, cooperation and hard work — was already a staple of societies throughout Africa.
We took care of the community, and the community took care of us. He argued that these core African values just needed to be strengthened and built. For him, that meant villagisation along with the nationalisation of banks, farms and industries. To be considered an ujamaa village, an agricultural settlement had to consist of at least households, with each house adhering to specific measurements.
Every family, regardless of size, was allocated a maximum of one or two acres of land. Mohammad did not live in one of these villages as he was a lieutenant in the Tanzania army at the time, but he looked on them admiringly.
Yet relatively few of his compatriots were as convinced. This came at a significant price. Homes and entire villages were burned to the ground as people were ushered into agricultural collectives, which oftentimes lacked adequate planning and sanitation.
He noted in Define and Rule: Native as Political Identity that Tanzania went from exporting , tons of surplus maize in to importing , tons of maize in Between and , total per capita food production fell to its level. Many other scholars agree. Lesira Samburi in his village of Terat in Simanjiro. For some Tanzanians who were on the receiving end of these policies, however, indignation still runs deep.
Lesira Samburi, 67, is a leader in the semi-pastoralist Maasai community from the village of Terat in the Simanjiro district. They came and burned our bomas [homesteads]. Samburi sits on a green plastic chair next to his traditional home — constructed of cow dung, mud, wood and cowhide — and offers tea mixed with milk to other Maasai who have gathered to listen.
Samburi says that the Maasai, who were scattered across a vast region of land in northern Tanzania, did not own radios at the time. We were busy caring for our cattle. Samburi explains that the community was initially dismayed at the ujamaa policies but gradually saw the benefits.
But, in the end, most of us realised that when we are together, we are provided better services. Nyerere believed that this was necessary to build national unity and avoid political divisions.
Opposition parties were banned. Public dissent was at times met with enforced disappearances and prison without charge or trial. But that did not stop some, like Agostino Lissu Mughwai, from resisting. The year-old returned to Tanzania in July for the first time since when unidentified assailants shot him numerous times in an assassination attempt. He was forced into exile once again following the disputed elections, which led to violence and hundreds of opposition members being arrested or abducted.
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Establishing new groups of rural populations also made the distribution of fertilizer and seed easier, and it would be possible to provide a good level of education to the population as well. Villagization was seen as a way to overcome the problems of "tribalization"—a plague which beset other newly independent African countries that drove people to separate into tribes based on ancient identities.
Nyerere set out his policy in the Arusha Declaration of Feb. The process started slowly and was voluntary at first, but by the end of the s, there were only or so collective settlements. In the s, Nyerere's reign became more oppressive, as he began to force people to leave the cities and move to the collective villages. By the end of the s, there were over 2, of these villages: but things weren't going well in them.
Ujamaa was intended to recreate nuclear families and engage the small communities in an "economy of affection" by tapping into the traditional African attitudes, while at the same time introducing essential services and modern technological innovations for the rural population that was now the majority.
But traditional ideals of how families operated no longer matched the reality of the Tanzanians. The traditional devoted female domestic guardian of the family rooted in the village was contrary to the actual lifestyles of women—and maybe the ideal never had worked. Instead, women moved in and out of working and raising children throughout their lives, embracing diversification and flexibility to provide personal security. At the same time, although young men complied with the official orders and moved to the rural communities, they rejected the traditional models and distanced themselves from the older generation of male leaders within their family.
According to a survey of people living in Dar es Salaam, villagization did not provide enough economic incentive to people who had been used to wage labor. Ironically, Ujamaa villagers resisted engaging in communal life and withdrew from subsistence and commercial agriculture, while urban residents chose to live in the cities and practice urban agriculture. Nyerere's socialist outlook required Tanzania's leaders to reject capitalism and all its trimmings, showing restraint over salaries and other perks.
But as the policy was rejected by a significant fraction of the population, the main foundation of ujamaa, villagization, failed. Toward the end of Nyerere's rule, Tanzania had become one of Africa's poorest countries, dependent on international aid. Ujamaa was brought to an end in when Nyerere stepped down from the presidency in favor of Ali Hassan Mwinyi.
Pros of Ujamaa. Cons of Ujamaa.
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