Assess the impacts of Arusha declaration in the history of post-colonial Tanzania
It prompted the doctrine of rural development by hard work and simple tools rather than by costly imported machinery and the establishment of collectivized villages. The third problem was the impediment, the absence or inadequate of the foreign capital that would economize on capital investment and promote nationalization. The major aims of Mwalimu Nyerere to introduce the Arusha Declaration were;
To create a society based on cooperation and mutual respect and responsibility, in which all members have equal rights and equal opportunities where there is no exploitation of one by another and where all have gradually increasing level of material welfare, to prevent government leader from under taking additional employment, holding shares or renting out poverty, salaries were also restrained. This prevented a bureaucratic bourgeois emerging in Tanzania on the scale that occurred in other African state. For example Mwalimu Nyerere the President by then himself even went to the extent of living and working in a village commune for a period of time in order to stress that all Tanzanians had to work to secure economic development. To have a direct control of the National economy, to Africanize and enlarge the small states bureaucracy that were inherited from the colonial era and it mainly transforming Tanzania from capitalist dependence to socialist nation
The major policies of Arusha declaration were to build a socialist state. The principles of socialism are laid down in the TANU Constitution and they are as follows; that all human beings are equal, every individual has a right to dignity and respect, every citizen is an integral part of the nation and has the right to take an equal part in Government at local, regional and national level, every citizen has the right and freedom of expression, of movement, of religious belief and of association within the context of the law and every individual has the right to receive from society protection of his or her life and of property held according to law.
The second policy was the Policy of Self-Reliance that involved a war against poverty and oppression in our country, the struggle is aimed at moving the people of Tanzania from a state of poverty to a State of prosperity. Nyerere’s main focus by then was to transform Tanzania from capitalist exploitation and create a very newly socialist and independent country.
Villagization policy, it was the policy introduced to combine tradition (village life of mutual assistance) with newly modern introduced production method that conducted in larger collective farms with access to technology, the policy introduced in order that the economics of the scale could be gained with the whole village combining to form the common land rather than having separate plots. The produced surplus could make such villages to develop and such villages acted as centers for agricultural trainings as well as to ease the provision of machinery and fertilizers for agricultural development.
After discussing the policies and aims of post Arusha Declaration in Tanzania the following are the impacts of Arusha Declaration in Tanzania.
Nationalization of the private sectors such as industries, banks, commercial enterprises, major food processing, export trading companies and schools, by the end of 1971 the government which was under Tanganyika African Nation Union (TANU) nationalized all private sectors which were operating by foreigners in Tanzania. This reduced the out flow of Tanzania’s wealth in form of interest and profit that would have been used for private gains rather it becomes for communal gains. Most of private gains was nationalized which resulted to formation of national bank of commerce (NBC), and other schools which was nationalized was St. Francis nowadays known as Tabora boys which offering education. Hence nationalization policy was successfully done under the Arusha Declaration which increased sources of income in Tanzania.
Led to the decentralization of power, from the beginning the political power was embraced by little class of people mainly was European. After independence the Tanzanian government remains with the same system of ruling but soon after the Arusha declaration the system was changed from centralized to decentralized power. The transfer of authority from central government to the local authority such as village government, ward government, municipal council and district under decentralization policy. Due to presence of high number of regions and districts the government under the leadership of Nyerere in 1972 transferred the authority so as to provide smooth and more manageable local administrative units under the leader ship of district officers.
Led to the development of agriculture, many people have been involved in self help which has been the means of binding the nation together. The government introduced various adult educations in improving agricultural sector, for example establishment of focal studies agricultural literacy, and this promoted knowledge in agriculture, also through the use of various slogans such as “kilimo ni uti wa mgongo”. The government also introduced the village farms so as achieve food for both consumption and surplus. They encouraged people to work together this time they introduced policy such as “kila mtu afanye kazi” (every person must work) this began during june1976 in order to reduce unemployed into more than thirty villages .
Formation of Ujamaa villages in 1974; before the Arusha declaration people lived scattered on the environment a matter that brought difficulties in achieving and accessing services. In order to overcome such difficulties, the government in 1974 encouraged people to move in village so as to live and work together so as to achieve sustainable development, for example after next seven years more than five million people were regrouped into some thousands cooperative or Ujamaa villages which accelerated to the achievement of unity and cooperation among the villagers.
Equality among the people who have and have not so as to prevent exploitation of one person by another or one group by another group, also to prevent the accumulation of wealth to an extent which is inconsistence with existence of classless society. After the Arusha declaration, the government decided to introduce and strengthen leadership code which encouraged the equality among the people in owning property and achieving services such as education and health care, such codes include; every member of Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) and government leader should be either peasant or worker and should no way be associated with the practices of capitalism and feudalism, no government leader should hold shares in any company, no government leader should hold directorship in any private own enterprises, no government leader should receive two or more salaries and no government leader should own houses and rents to others .
It left the country dependent on international aid, as one of the principle of Arusha declaration states that Tanzania will receive aid from the outside nations and those aid will be in terms of Gift, loan and through private investment, these aid will be used for development of Tanzania. This statement shows that Tanzania entered in the contact with the developed nations, unfortunately this situation had led into foreign debts, heavy ultimatums from the developed nations and exploitation of resources by the donor countries in return of the loans which they provide to the developing countries.
It put a serious restriction on open discussion and criticism, during and after Arusha declaration the state was under one political part which was TANU, any discussion which was conducted were to be recognized by the government and TANU members, criticism toward the government failure, for instance criticism on price and income were restricted by the state, anybody who appeared to criticize the government was considered as opponent to Ujamaa, therefore the situation of democracy was relying much on the government or TANU’s leadership, people were not free to criticize and judge anything about Ujamaa or polices of socialism, hence this limited the democracy to the people.
It discouraged private capital accumulation and investment by the smallest and largest business, Arusha declaration had formulated principles under TANU poll part which restricted individual or group of people to own property and not to have any kind of investment. Some of the principles stated that: - “NO TANU or government leader should hold shares in any country”. The impact of this discouragement is that it slowed the rate of development in the country for investment may increase foreign incomes and can provide employment to the people within a country.
Arusha declaration resulted into massive unemployment; this was followed by the policy of nationalization and reduction of nation expenditure on various sectors within a country. In nationalization many people who were employed in the Non Government Organization (NGO’s) remained jobless while on the side of government many workers were laid redundancy, this resulted into massive unemployment to the people especially those living in town experienced hardship of affording their daily needs for existence, many were required to work for Ujamaa village in agricultural production has also a negative impact in the development of the country.
Generally, Arusha Declaration as a political philosophy in Tanzania was a good tool for solving problems in all aspects of human life such as socially, politically and economically due to its corner stone’s like prohibition of corruption and embezzlement of government find, maintains of leadership code or moral conduct, introduction of education for self-reliance which were productive in the society. It was based on African context and it was practical oriented. Government should re think on how to develop Arusha Declaration for betterment in the society, equality and establishing the education for self-reliance.
REFERENCES
Duignan, P. & Jackson, R. Politics and Government in African States: 1960-1985, California, Hoover institution Press, .
Marsh, Z & Kingnorth G W. A History of East Africa 4th Edition: An introductory Survey, 4th Edition, London, Cambridge University Press, (1972).
Nyerere, J, The Arusha Declaration Nyanda Madyibi. Tanganyika Africa National Union (TANU). Tanganyika (1967)
Richard, W .Modern African Change and Continuity, print hall. Inc. Englewood Cliff.N.JO7632, USA, (1980).
Thomson, A. An Introduction to African Politics, Rutledge Publishers, New York, (2007) Uc- press E-Book collection, From Arusha Declaration of Tanzania to Zanzibar, University of California Press. (1982).
Yeager, R Tanzania an African Experiment, West view Press, England, (1982)
Post a Comment