Ujamaa: Essays on Socialism

A selection of essays and policy statements by Tanzania's first president, gathered from his longer volumes of speeches and published in 1968. Ujamaa is the Swahili word for familyhood, and the opening essay, “Ujamaa: The Basis of African Socialism” (1962), argues that socialism is an attitude of mind rather than a doctrine. Traditional African life, Nyerere claims, already rested on sharing, on the duty of everyone to work, and on treating the land as belonging to the community. He rejects both capitalism and the European idea of socialism born from class war. The volume includes the Arusha Declaration of 1967, which commits Tanzania to self-reliance and limits leaders' private wealth, and “Education for Self-Reliance”, which calls for schooling suited to a rural nation. “Socialism and Rural Development” proposes cooperative ujamaa villages. Critics point to the later forced villagisation programme and the economic difficulties that followed.

It is the clearest statement of African socialism by the leader who tried to put it into practice, and it raises lasting questions about community, development and the role of education.