Many socialists feel dismayed to see Africa regarded as
simply a place of war, disease and hunger, a sick entity deserving pity and sustenance
and all help possible. On the surface the continent may seem so but a
socialists looks deeper beyond outwardly appearances. Socialists are frustrated
by having Africa viewed as squalid and inept, a basket case for which rock
music celebrities feel compelled to raise funds. The flourishing inhabitants of
the continent are more attuned to contemporary norms and more advanced and
sophisticated than has been presented.
Ralph Ibbott wrote “Ujamaa: The Hidden Story of Tanzania’s Socialist Villages”.
Julius Nyerere, the leader of Tanzania’s independence
movement had seen how a welfare state could protect people from some of the
effects of capitalism. He told Tanzanians that they had to reject exploitation
of the many by the few. He proposed ujamaa: African socialism. In the village,
all worked and all benefited. Decisions were made by consensus. He had “grown
up in tribal socialism”. Although traditional society was generally presumed to
be backward, Nyerere saw its social and economic possibilities for overcoming
backwardness. Rural people, 96% of the population, could adapt the communalism
they already knew to modern needs and aspirations. It was socialism without
money, rooted in the native soil; a strategy for a poor country determined to
pull itself out of poverty and remain sovereign. People working communally without
bureaucratic interference, would themselves develop while solving problems.
In Litowa, the first ujamaa village they created,
organising production, distribution, housing, health and education. Others came
to join and were encouraged to form new villages. The Ruvuma Development
Association was formed, with its Social and Economic Revolutionary Army, to
help new villages to establish themselves. By 1969, the association had 17
villages. Several times a week the villagers had communal meals at which they
made decisions. The women were encouraged to speak – a slow process – and their
interests were considered. Housework and childcare counted as part of the
village workday. Piped water ended fetching and carrying by women and children.
Spare cash from the sale of surplus crops was divided equally among all,
including to elderly and disabled people, who contributed by scaring wild
animals from “sharing” food crops, or working in childcare facilities. Child
mortality plummeted. Pupils at the self-governing Litowa school came from all
the villages, boarding at Litowa during the terms. They were trained to develop
their exciting, caring rural society. Domestic violence almost disappeared and
women’s status was rising.
Ujamaa was about to mushroom into a mass movement. By 1963
about a 1000 socialist villages had been set up with very little government
support. Many failed but in Ruvuma in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania 17
such settlements, making up about 500 households, prospered and became an enormous success. It was,
to quote Ralph Ibbott:
“ an organisation completely built up by the people who were
in it, who always made all decisions and controlled development”
They formed the Ruvuma Development Association (RDA) the
organisation through which they could co-ordinate their labour, educate their
children, sell their produce and develop their small scale industries. The RDA
grew slowly by supporting existing villages and new settlements. Before a
village was accepted it was made clear that the villagers should not expect to
get rich overnight and membership would be deferred or refused if it there was
uncertainty about a community`s commitment to co-operation. Villages belonging
to the RDA became self-sufficient in food, improved the health of their
residents, built a school, provided water supplies and set up village
industries. They also created an outreach service called the Social and
Economic Army (SERA), made up of experts in various fields who could provide
support for member villages.
What went wrong? It is important to stress that it did not fail despite the many practical difficulties and
challenges that the people involved faced. It was killed off. The Ruvuma
Development Association was destroyed by the greedy and ambitious new ruling
elite. They hated the creativity of the people. Where was the power for them? Regional
Commissioners and most government officials could not accept a situation where
the villagers were deciding the details of their own development. They could
not sit down with and discuss with these village people as equals. In September
1969, it was announced that TANU – the ruling party – would run all Ujamaa
villages and the RDA was declared a prohibited organisation. Their equipment
was confiscated, the expatriate staff working with them left and the school was
closed. Only one village managed to continue its communal activities and
survives to this day.
Thus a great grass-roots development that might have changed
the history of Tanzania and beyond tragically ended. Selma James of Women`s
Global Strike at the King`s Cross Women`s Centre has presented it as an example of how it is
possible for people to not only survive and dream of a better world when faced
with the most challenging of circumstances but also manage to successfully
create a thriving self-reliant community organisation, one that is even more
relevant today as a model of development when we examine what our options are
for the future in the face of unemployment, cuts in welfare and the looming
threat of climate change.
However, Ralph Ibbott, a RDA technical adviser, continued
the struggle in his own way. Ibbott, went
to the United Kingdom and applied ujamaa principles as a community development
worker in Greenock, one of Scotland’s most deprived areas. The tenants’
association and youth club persuaded the council to build a sports centre,
which the youth ran. Much was accomplished by young people previously dismissed
as troublemakers. Such communal effort can succeed anywhere if it is able to
bypass or defeat those greedy for power and control.
[We may question the use of socialist...perhaps to be more accurate, the term socialistic should have been applied. - Socialist Banner]
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