AFRICAN SOCIALISM
The wave of socialism inspired African states men, politicians and intellectuals to build socialism in Africa because socialism was seen as the best way for development in African countries due to its main features in society like no exploitation of man by man, no oppression, no segregation and no humiliation. Hence after the Bolshevik revolution in Russia in 1917 many African states which had got independence began to adopt Socialism as their political policy which was popularly known as African socialism while was designed according to African environment.
Examples of African socialism:-
1. Nyerere of Tanzania designed a brand (type) of socialism known as ujamaa (brother hood) in 1967 following the Arusha declaration on 5/2/1967
2. Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia designed type of socialism known as Humanism.
3. Milton Obote of Uganda designed as the common man’s charter in 1980.
4. Nkrumah of Ghana designed known as conscinitization.
5. In Senegal socialism was known as Negnitude.
6. In Egypt socialism was known Nasserism.
7. Tom Mboya in Kenya adopted socialism known as seasonal paper no 10 of 1965.
8. Communicative – Guinea.
9. Hanti – Wadagaga diniga – Kudhisani in Somalia.
FEATURES OF AFRICA SOCIALISM
1. African socialism was against all evils of colonialism and capitalism like exploitation, humiliation, segregation and oppression because the systems of colonialism and capitalism was seen as the source of under development of African nations due to exploitation of human and natural resource of African.
2. African socialism rejected/ opposed the private ownership of the major means of production and its profit created by private individuals.
3. African leaders wanted to build socialism in Africa based on African type of communal social system or communalism where by African were helping each other on their areas.
4. African state were attempting to create a type of socialism which was not based on Marxism – Lenism based on class struggle and revolutionary action in steady they focused on reviving of indigenous cooperative work and common ownership of land and cattle.
Question: – Why African state failed to build the strong socialism like that of Russia?
Many African socialism failed e.g. in Tanzania the Ujamaa of Nyerere had a little success, Nkrumah was overthrown with his socialist ideology, Tom Mboya in Kenya was assassinated with his ideology of socialism , Milton Obote of Uganda was overthrown by Amin.
The following are the reason to why Africans failed to build strong socialism like that of Russia.
1.
Lack of clear theory of socialist ideology.
Many African was dominated by pseudo that lacked committed people to implement African socialism.
2. Existence of poor working class.
Many African states were dominated by peasants who lived in acute poverty and who were ignorant therefore they fall to organize themselves to support African leaders in establishing the string African socialism.
3. Existence of dependent economy.
Since the period of colonialism and even after independence many African states had dependent economy which forced them to rely to metropolitan countries and even after independent they continue to lie on colonialist or former colonial members. This can be verified on what African used to say we produce what we don’t consume and we consume what we don’t produce, hence the capitalist nation used the weakness of African economy to hinder African economy.
4. Puppets / some African leaders were puppets.
Some African leaders, intellectuals and African politicians were used by the capitalist nation in order to suppress all ideas of construction African socialism,, e.g. African leaders who were very rich and had investment feared socialism due to lose their properties and wealth therefore they had to cooperate with capitalism to suppress African socialism.
5. Imperialist mechanism / maneuvers.
The imperialist used a lot of mechanisms to suppress socialist ideas in Africa e.g. they sabotage and sometimes they cut AID to that countries that adopted socialism, this contributed to the failure of socialism in Africa.
6. Internal problems of African states.
African states before, during and after colonialism experienced internal problems like civil wars, tribalism, diseases, poverty, illiteracy, famine and hunger, death, floods etc. therefore after they adopted socialism these instead problems hindered African socialism because African did not have simple time to concentrate on construction of socialism needs unity, mobilization and strong leaders hence the failure of African socialism .
TANZANIA SOCIALIST EXPERIMENT (1967 – 1985)
UJAMAA SOCIALISM IN TANZANIA
Socialism and self reliance was philosophy advocated BY J. K. Nyerere that intended to create self sufficient economy with mass participation in sharing of economy resources
Some of the key characteristic of socialism in Tanzania were absence of exploitation of major means of production and exchange are under the control of workers and peasants, existence of democracy. Also socialism is perceived as a belief, therefore people had to be trained and educated on how to accept and implement socialism
THE POLICY OF SELF RELIANCE
- To fight the war against poverty and oppression
- We should not depend money for development
- To disnglish-swahili/courage” target=”_blank”>courage foreign aids and loans
- To disnglish-swahili/courage” target=”_blank”>courage foreign investment and ennglish-swahili/courage” target=”_blank”>courage local investment
- To depend on our financial resources for development
- To put much emphasize on industrial sector
- To improve peasants condition by providing subsidies (farm implements)
- To abides by the belief that development is brought by people and not money
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ARUSHA DECLARATION
Arusha declaration refers to the decision made in Arusha in which the essence of socialism and self reliance through villagenization program was discussed and realized.
MAJOR ECONOMIC CHANGES AFTER ARUSHA DECLARATION
- Increased centralization economic authority
- Abolition of cooperatives and local government
- Nationalization of all public enterprises
- Ennglish-swahili/courage” target=”_blank”>couragement of home market
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People of Tanzania were urged to consume home product. There was disnglish-swahili/courage” target=”_blank”>couragement of foreign goods.
- Improvement of industrial sector.
- Agriculture was recognized as the backbone of Tanzania Economy.
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EFFECTS OF UJAMAA IN TANZANIA
- The creation of one party system under the leadership of CCM
- The villagenization of production which capacity
- Transformation of economic and cultural attitudes
- The implementation of free and compulsory education for all Tanzanians in order to sensitize them to the principles of Ujamaa.
- Establishment of collectives farms. Nyerere forced people to relocate into collective farms.
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A substantial amount of the country wealth in the form of building structured and improved.
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