Ujamaa – The Basis of African Socialism

Introduction

Julius Nyerere, leader of Tanganyika’s independence movement and later president of Tanzania, published the pamphlet in 1962 for his party, the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU). The Swahili word ujamaa means “familyhood”. Nyerere argues that socialism is not a doctrine imported from Europe but an attitude rooted in traditional African society, in which everyone worked, wealth was used for the good of all and no one exploited another. He rejects both capitalism and the socialism of class struggle; land should belong to the community. The Arusha Declaration of 1967 made ujamaa official policy, but the resettlement of the rural population into ujamaa villages in the 1970s was often enforced and failed economically.