Arusha Declaration and Tanzanian Ujamaa
Tanganyika became independent in 1961 and united with Zanzibar in 1964 following the revolution there. The Arusha Declaration set out a leadership code barring officials from holding shares, directorships or multiple salaries, nationalised the banks, insurance and major industry, and made rural self-reliance rather than industrial or aid-driven growth the organising goal. Ujamaa vijijini, villagisation, aimed to gather a dispersed rural population into communal settlements where schooling, water and clinics could be delivered. The social results and the economic results diverged sharply. Adult literacy rose from around a quarter to over four-fifths, and Tanzania achieved a degree of national cohesion and freedom from ethnic politics unusual in the region, helped by Swahili as a genuinely national language. But from 1973 villagisation was pursued compulsorily, moving millions of people, sometimes by force and onto land they had not chosen; agricultural output fell, and the combination of the oil shocks, the collapse of the East African Community and the 1978-79 war with Idi Amin's Uganda left the country dependent on the aid it had set out to do without. Nyerere acknowledged the economic failure and stepped down in 1985.
- Year: 1967 CE
- Category: Political
