Independence refers to the total liberation of man from poverty, ignorance, disease, exploitation and oppression.
Such liberation can be achieved if African political systems can enable their people to plan their economic development and attain prosperity.
Since independence; African government have attempted various ways of bringing about real independence by improving communication system and expanding education, yet the whole it has proved very difficult for most of African countries to achieve real independence, partly due to colonial legacy.
COLONIAL LEGACY
This refers to the long lasting effects which African states inherited from colonialism at independence. There are many effects but the outstanding ones are the following;
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Effects on the African economies
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Export oriented economies.
African countries are still exporting raw materials (cash crops and minerals) and importing manufactured goods from the developed countries. African countries produced what they did not consume and consumed what they did not produce. This is a typical feature of distorted economy.
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Monoculture economies.
Colonial African countries specialized in the production of one majority commodity. Cocoa in Ghana, copper in Zambia and sisal in Tanzania. The danger of this is that market prices may fluctuate any time causing a disadvantage to the producer country.
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Subsistence peasant agriculture.
Since independence, there have been so fundamental attempts made to mechanize agricultural sector. The production in agricultural sector has qualitative and quantitative low because the main tool of production was the hand hoe.
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Poor transport system.
Post colonial state inherited a poor transport system, most of the roads and railways are still concentrated in production areas, with this type of transport system, and it was very difficult to attain real development.
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Small and weak industrial sector.
During the colonial period, the capitalist powers destroyed the African traditional industries so as to make sure that Africa is remaining the market for European manufactured goods and the producer of raw materials. The colonial powers only established import substitution industry and semi processing plant. Africa today has consumer producer industries with these industries; it is very hard to achieve real development.
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Cultural effects
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African culture has been despised; it has been substituted by western values, production and consumption patterns, music and dance. As a measure to control the deterioration of African culture in Tanganyika, there was establishment of ministry of education and culture in 1962 so as to revive and initiate all that was useless in the colonial pattern.
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Distortion of political systems of African states
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Tribalism
The colonialists ennglish-swahili/courage” target=”_blank”>couraged ethnicism and tribalism; they did so in order to disnglish-swahili/courage” target=”_blank”>courage tribal unities or affinities which could emanate into potential threats to the colonial state. This exercise was in accordance with the colonial policy of divide and rule.
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Class and class structure.
In post colonial Africa, classes have mostly or often being associated with racial grouping were the elites, middle class and the working class stand on racial lines for example the elites and the middle class have continued to dominate commerce while the African majority became peasants and members of the working class.
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POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT IN TANZANIA SINCE INDEPENDENCE
There were various changes in the political field that took place in Tanzania after independence. For example: constitutional changes and the introduction of multi – party politics.
The constitution of Tanzania
The constitution is the system of laws and principles that a state or an organization is governed by.
The constitution of a country is a supreme law of a state, it‟s more important than any other law in the country.
The constitution of Tanzania was ratified in 1977. Before the current constitution, Tanzania has had three constitutions i.e.; The Independence Constitution (1961), The Republican Constitution of (1962) and the interim constitution of Tanganyika and Zanzibar.
THE INDEPENDENCE CONSTITUTION (1961 – 1962)
After the attainment of independence, Tanganyika adopted the first constitution that was based on the west minister model with exclusion of the bill of rights. This constitution defined the governor general as the representative of the queen was the head of state.
The executive was led by the first minister who was chosen from the majority party.
THE REPUBLICAN CONSTITUTION (1962 – 1964)
In 1962, the parliament which comprised of only TANU members formed an assembly and drastically revised the 1961 constitution, most important was the establishment of a strong presidential system. The new president was now given the former roles of the governor general and those of the first minister. He was also given the power to choose a vice president and ministers.
The president also had power to dismiss the parliament under certain conditions.
INTERIM CONSTITUTION (1962 – 1977)
In 1964 Tanganyika and Zanzibar united to form Tanzania. The constitution of the new born country was based on Tanganyika‟s 1962 republican constitution which was modified according to the agreements between TANU and the Afro Shiraz party. These agreements had been ratified under the name, “Articles of Union” and became part of the new constitution as “Acts of Union”.
The most notable feature of the acts of union was the establishment of the double government structure that is also part of Tanzanians current constitution. This structure included one government for the union and one independent government for Zanzibar. The Zanzibar‟s government included its own parliament and president. The president of Zanzibar also served as vice president of the union.
PERMANENT CONSTITUTION (1977 – To date)
After the formation of CCM in 1977, the permanent constitution was approved. This constitution essentially confronts the main principles of the republican and interim constitution that is strong presidential double government structure and a single party.
Since 1977, several amendments have been made to the original constitution; many of these are related to the relationship between the united government and the Zanzibar government.
Significance of constitutional changes to the political development of Tanzania
There were various effects of the constitution changes to the political development in Tanzania
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Liberation from partial independence.
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The 1962 constitutional change liberated Tanzania from partial political independence.
The country was still under the control of the Queen of England who was represented by the governor general in the country. The 1962 constitution saw the establishment of a constituent assembly that introduced the post of a president who was a Tanzanian.
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Introduction of ujamaa.
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The 1967 change, introduced a political ideology of Ujamaa (African Socialism) and self reliance. This provided a political guideline in which the countries development would be attained.
Ujamaa was one of the two important principles of Arusha Declaration. It aimed at creating a truly socialist state where the society was classless. Ujamaa emphasized absence of exploitation of man by man. The principle aimed at putting the major means of production under the control of peasants and workers.
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Introduction of one party system.
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The banning of multiparty politics was significant in creating a solidified and united state so that it could be possible to achieve development. Multiparty politics was seen as recipe for disunity and could invite foreign interaction in the country.
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Reintroduction of multi party.
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The 1962 reintroduction of multiparty politics brought openness of the government and created freedom of press, speech and accountability of different actors in the political system of Tanzania.
It would be noted that one of the reasons for the re introduction of multiparty was the pressure from the donor community.