Tanzania’s History and Togetherness

A few nights ago, while our group was staying in Njoro village, we were told that we would have an opportunity to interview some of the villagers who were especially interested in us. Wanting to learn more about Tanzanian culture, I (and most of our group) jumped at the chance. To my pleasant surprise, however, it was less of an interview and more of a group discussion – six or seven of us sat in a circle, joined by about a dozen villagers at the home of a local retired doctor. We asked questions back and forth, Americans to Tanzanians, and vice-versa. It was a very interesting and informative talk, but among all of our topics of conversation, ujamaa stood out.

Modern Tanzanian society cannot be understood without understanding its postcolonial history, which was defined by its experiment in socialism. It was an ideology called ujamaa, which is the Swahili word for “collective economics.” It was a Maoist ideology, emphasizing the centrality of the countryside and rural life, and specifically, the village. It sought to bring a disparate people into villages which would collectively own and farm land. Economically speaking, it has been all but abandoned, but the legacy of its villagization campaigns remains.

What ujamaa did can still be seen in the Tanzania of today. It is a friendly country, where villagers know one another and welcome outsiders. It is a collective country, and whatever one’s feelings about individualism are, Tanzania does not have the same problems as the United States when it comes to widespread feelings of isolation and loneliness. A great example of this would be the community meeting itself – many people from throughout the village came to the home of their neighbor just for a visit and a chat with some foreigners.

I’m not an economist. I can’t speak about the wisdom of ujamaa when it comes to production and trade. What I can say, however, is that it put the “social” back in “socialism.”