The Left and the Super-Left in Tanzania

William Tordoff; Ali A. Mazrui

doi:10.1017/S0022278X00022643

The Left and the Super-Left in Tanzania

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2008

William Tordoff and

Ali A. Mazrui

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The politically effervescent Frene Ginwalla has had to relinquish the editorship of The Standard in Tanzania, sacked by President Nyerere. The revolutionary wing of the student body of the University of Dar es Salaam has had its political claws blunted. Militantly zealous expatriates in Dar es Salaam have declined in influence. And those who used Uganda's problems following the January 1971 coup as an additional excuse for radical slogans have now been forced to cool down following the official rapprochement between the Governments of Tanzania and Uganda.

Type: Article
Information: The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 10 , Issue 3 , October 1972 , pp. 427 - 445

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X00022643 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972

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References

^{Page 428 note 1} Ali A. Mazrui, ‘Socialism as a Mode of International Protest: the case of Tanzania’, in Rotberg, Robert I. and Mazrui, Ali A. (eds.), Protest and Power in Black Africa (New York, 1970), especially pp. 1144–5.Google Scholar

^{Page 428 note 2} Wallerstein, Immanuel, ‘Elites in French-speaking West Africa’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), III, 105 1965, pp. 8 and 24Google Scholar; the full text of Césaire's letter to Maurice Thorez was published by Présence africaine (Paris), 1956.Google Scholar

^{Page 429 note 1} Africa Research Bulletin (Exeter), v, 2, 02 1968, p. 974.Google Scholar

^{Page 429 note 2} Hydén, Göran, Tanu Yajenga Nchi: political development in rural Tanzania (Lund, 1968), p. 59.Google Scholar

^{Page 430 note 1} Nyerere, Julius K., ‘Ujamaa: the basis of African Socialism’, in Friedland, William H. and Rosberg, Carl C. Jr (eds.), African Socialism (Stanford, 1964), p. 238.Google Scholar

^{Page 430 note 2} Reproduced in Mbioni, The Monthly Journal of Kivukoni College (Dar es Salaam), III, 12, 05 1967, pp. 15–16.Google Scholar

^{Page 430 note 3} Helleiner, G. K., ‘Socialism and Economic Development in Tanzania’, in The Journal of Development Studies (London), VIII, 2, 01 1972, p. 187.Google Scholar

^{Page 430 note 4} Nyerere, Julius K., Freedom and Socialism: a selection from writings and speeches, 1965–67 (Dar es Salaam, 1968), pp. 17 and 22–3.Google Scholar

^{Page 430 note 5} Mbioni, op. cit. pp. 1–2.

^{Page 430 note 6} Freedom and Socialism, p. 15.

^{Page 431 note 1} Nyerere, Julius, ‘A Statement of Policies’, in Punch (London), 16 03 1966, p. 371.Google Scholar

^{Page 431 note 2} Cf. Cliffe, Lionel (ed.), One Party Democracy: the 1965 Tanzania General Elections (Nairobi, 1967), pp. 339–49.Google Scholar

^{Page 431 note 3} The Observer (London), 30 04 1972.Google Scholar

^{Page 432 note 1} Cliffe, op. cit. p. 345.

^{Page 432 note 2} Proposals of the Tanzania Government on National Service as Applied to University Graduates and School Leavers (Dar es Salaam, 1966)Google Scholar

^{Page 432 note 3} Nyerere, , ‘Ujamaa’, pp. 243–5.Google Scholar

^{Page 433 note 1} Kambona, Oscar, ‘Tanzania and the Problems of African Unity’; Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Lagos, 6 June 1968.Google Scholar

^{Page 433 note 2} The Arusha Declaration and TANU's Policy of Socialism and Self-Reliance (Dar es Salaam, 1967)Google Scholar; a revised English translation is printed in Freedom and Socialism, pp. 231–50.

^{Page 433 note 3} Ibid. p. 4.

^{Page 433 note 4} Africa Research Bulletin, V, 3, 03 1968, p. 1010.Google Scholar

^{Page 433 note 5} Over a year later it was announced in the National Assembly that 20 Tanzanian leaders had failed to meet the leadership code requirements of the Arusha Declaration; The Standard (Dar es Salaam), 23 10 1969.Google Scholar Most of them seem to have ‘reformed’ sufficiently to escape disciplinary action.

^{Page 434 note 1} Helleiner, op. cit. pp. 191–2.

^{Page 434 note 2} Freedom and Socialism, pp. 233–4.

^{Page 434 note 3} Ibid. p. 254.

^{Page 434 note 4} Ibid. p. 365.

^{Page 434 note 5} Ibid. pp. 340 and 355–8.

^{Page 435 note 1} Ibid. pp. 407 and 405.

^{Page 435 note 2} A recent study found that many Lushoto peasants were not prepared to abandon their traditional, individual methods of agricultural production. Molloy, J., ‘Political Communication in Lushoto District, Tanzania’; Ph.D. thesis, University of Canterbury, 11 1971.Google Scholar

^{Page 435 note 3} Fred G. Burke, ‘Tanganyika: the search for ujamaa’, in Freidland and Rosberg, op. cit. p. 207. See also Feldman, David, ‘The Economics of Ideology: some problems of achieving rural socialism in Tanzania,’ in Leys, Colin (ed.), Politics and Change in Developing Countries (Cambridge, 1969), p. 111.Google Scholar

^{Page 435 note 4} Dryden, Stanley, Local Administration in Tanzania (Nairobi, 1968), p. 56.Google Scholar

^{Page 435 note 5} Freedom and Socialism, pp. 248–50.

^{Page 435 note 6} See, for example, Report of the Presidential Commission on the Establishment of a Democratic One Party State (Dar es Salaam, 1965), p. 15.Google Scholar

^{Page 436 note 1} Bienen, Henry, Tanzania: party transformation and economic development (Princeton, 1967), p. 409.Google Scholar

^{Page 436 note 2} Tordoff, William, Government and Politics in Tanzania (Nairobi, 1967), p. 170Google Scholar. Cf. Lionel Cliffe's review of Bienen's book in The African Review (Dar es Salaam), I, 1, 03 1971, pp. 519–35.Google Scholar

^{Page 436 note 3} See Finucane, James R., ‘Bureaucracy and Development in Rural Tanzania: the case of Mwanza Region’; Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 04 1972, p. 150.Google Scholar

^{Page 436 note 4} See editorial in The Nationalist (Dar es Salaam), 21 10 1968Google Scholar; this episode is discussed on pp. 438–9, below.

^{Page 436 note 5} Ibid. 11 April 1970 and 9 September 1971.

^{Page 436 note 6} Bienen, op. cit. p. 253.

^{Page 437 note 1} Svendsen, Knud Erik, ‘Socialist Problems after the Arusha Declaration’, in East Africa Journal (Nairobi), 05 1967, p. 10.Google Scholar

^{Page 437 note 2} Cf. Graham, Mytton, L., ‘Tanzania: the problems of mass media development,’ in Gazette (Leiden), 1968, XIV, 2.Google Scholar We are indebted to Mr Mytton for his help with this section.

^{Page 438 note 1} For the views of the leading spokesmen of this group, Giovanni Arrighi and John S. Saul, see their searching article on ‘Nationalism and Revolution in Sub-Saharan Africa’, in The Socialist Registsr, 1969 (London, 1970).Google Scholar They note that there are ‘formidable’ constraints upon the development of a revolutionary consciousness within the borders of Tanzania and Zambia.

^{Page 438 note 2} Parliamentary Debates (Dar es Salaam), 12 1963, col. 172.Google Scholar

^{Page 439 note 1} The Standard, May 1968.

^{Page 439 note 2} Ibid. 27 September and 2, 4, and 8 October 1968.

^{Page 439 note 3} Svendsen, loc. cit. p. 12.

^{Page 439 note 4} Speech by President Nyerere at the University of Toronto, October 1969; Africa Digest (London), XVI, 6, 12 1969, p. 105.Google Scholar

^{Page 440 note 1} Oscar Kambona, loc. cit.

^{Page 440 note 2} Sunday News (Dar es Salaam), 20 10 1968.Google ScholarUlimwengu was in fact closed down, but on a technicality of registration.

^{Page 440 note 3} Since the Newspaper Ordinance Amendment Act referred only to local publications, these Kenya newspapers were banned by Nyerere under Cap. 16, Section 51 (I) of the Penal Code, which he had similarly invoked after the army mutiny in January 1964.

^{Page 440 note 4} The Standard, 19 October 1968. The two West Lake M.P.'s – G. R. S. Kaneno (Karagwe) and M. J. Bakampenja (Ihangiro) – were excluded as a result of local party infighting; see Thoden van Velzen, H. U. E. and Sterkenburg, J. J., ‘The Party Supreme’, in Kroniek van Afrika (Assen), 1969, pp. 68–75 and App. B.Google Scholar

^{Page 441 note 1} Africa Digest, 12 1969, pp. 106–7.Google Scholar

^{Page 441 note 2} Freedom and Socialism, p. 8.

^{Page 441 note 3} Ibid. pp. 23–26.

^{Page 441 note 4} ‘Principles and Development’, a memorandum prepared by Julius K. Nyerere for the June 1966 meeting of the national executive of T.A.N.U.; Freedom and Socialism, p. 194.Google Scholar

^{Page 441 note 5} Berg, Elliot J., ‘Socialism and Economic Development in Tropical Alrica,’ in The Quarterly Journal of Economics (Cambridge, Mass.), LXXVIII, 4, 11 1964, p. 571.Google Scholar

^{Page 441 note 6} Feldman, loc. cit. p. 110.

^{Page 442 note 1} Freedom and Socialism, p. 8.

^{Page 442 note 2} Ibid. pp. 22 and 5.

^{Page 442 note 3} For example, by the Guide Lines to the 1971–72 Plan (Dares Salaam, 1971),Google Scholar by regional and national party conferences, and by allowing free comment in letters to the editors of local newspapers. See Finucane, op. cit. p. 316.

^{Page 442 note 4} Speech by President Nyerere at Cairo University, 10 April 1967; Mbioni, 05 1967, p. 15.Google Scholar

^{Page 443 note 1} Cited by Mazrui, Ali A., ‘Tanzaphilia’, in Transition (Kampala), VI, 31, 06–07 1967.Google Scholar See also Leys, Cohn, ‘Tanganyika: the realities of independence’, in International Journal (Toronto), XVII, 1963.Google Scholar

^{Page 443 note 2} Issa G. Shivji, ‘Tanzania: the silent class struggle’; Universities of East Africa Social Sciences Conference, Dar es Salaam, December 1970.

^{Page 443 note 3} See ‘Tanzania: Soviet views on the Arusha Programme,’ in Mizan: Journal of Sino–Soviet Policies (London), IX, 5, 09–10 1967, p. 197.Google Scholar

^{Page 444 note 1} Ibid. p. 201.

^{Page 444 note 2} The Standard, 28 January 1972, published the President's speech in which he announced these steps. They will lead to considerable administrative devolution, but not necessarily to increased popular participation in planning and decision-making.

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