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MILITANTS, MOTHERS, AND THE NATIONAL FAMILY: UJAMAA, GENDER, AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN POSTCOLONIAL TANZANIA*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 May 2010

PRIYA LAL
PRIYA LAL
Affiliation:
New York University
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Abstract

Between 1964 and 1975, development politics in Tanzania came to be organized around a version of ujamaa that normalized distinct gender roles and celebrated a generic ideal of the nuclear family. Yet as ujamaa villagization unfolded on the ground in the south-eastern region of Mtwara, rural people's practices rarely conformed to the ideas about gender and family implicit in official discourse and policy. Just as the institution of the family on the ground proved to be a complicated and fractured one, the Tanzanian state's understanding of familyhood and the larger project of ujamaa were deeply riddled with internal tensions.

Keywords

Tanzaniapostcolonialfamilygenderdevelopment
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 51 , Issue 1 , March 2010 , pp. 1 - 20
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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References

1 The Swahili word for kin is jamaa; thus ujamaa means kinship-ness, or familyhood.

2 J. Nyerere, ‘Ujamaa: the basis of African socialism’ (published as a Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) pamphlet in April 1962), in J. Nyerere, Ujamaa: Essays on Socialism (Dar es Salaam, 1968), 11.

3 Villagization between 1967 and 1972 was voluntary and emphasized socialist transformation. After 1973 – under Operation Vijiji – resettlement became compulsory, and the goal of achieving true ujamaa was eclipsed by the more immediate priority of merely achieving mass relocation to concentrated rural settlements.

4 On the spatial organization of villages, see J. Scott, Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (New Haven, 1998); Schneider, L., ‘High on modernity? Explaining the failings of Tanzanian villagisation’, African Studies, 66:1 (2007), 9–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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6 On the ‘breadwinner’ concept see L. Lindsay, Working with Gender: Wage Labor and Social Change in Southwestern Nigeria (Portsmouth, NH, 2003).

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8 The Council was run primarily by the wives of colonial officials: see S. Geiger, TANU Women: Gender and Culture in the Making of Tanganyikan Nationalism, 1955–1965 (Portsmouth, NH, 1997), 29–30.

9 Tanzania National Archives (TNA) 5/S.D.47/30, ‘Social Development Department: memorandum on UNICEF aid for the development of the women's club movement in Tanganyika’, n.d. [Dec. 1957], cited in Eckert, ‘Regulating the social’, 479.

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12 The functions of TYL ranged from recruiting party members to policing rallies and stifling opposition parties. TYL ‘security’ work continued even after the victory of TANU had been assured, mutating into a series of vigilante movements that extended across the colony by the time of independence (see Brennan, ‘Youth’).

13 P. Gleijeses, Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959–1976 (Chapel Hill, 2002).

14 On ‘nation-building’ projects see Jennings, M., ‘“A very real war”: popular participation in development in Tanzania during the 1950s and 1960s’, International Journal of African Historical Studies, 40:1 (2007), 71–95Google Scholar.

15 The TYL was closely affiliated with the National Service, comprising a feeder for the officially gender-neutral but actually male-dominated institution.

16 ‘TANU youth to be armed: Kawawa opens TYL General Council’, The Nationalist, 26 Sept. 1967. The Nationalist was one of four daily newspapers in Tanzania until the press was fully nationalized in 1972, after which it was replaced by the state-run Daily News. The Nationalist, along with Uhuru, its Swahili-language counterpart, was owned and operated by TANU.

17 ‘Plough and gun your weapons, Mwalimu tells youths’, The Nationalist, 6 Feb. 1968.

18 Comment, Daily News, 26 Nov. 1973.

19 See Mazrui, A., ‘Anti-militarism and political militancy in Tanzania’, Journal of Conflict Resolution, 12:3 (1968), 269–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

20 Comment, Daily News, 31 May 1972.

21 For more on Community Development see Jennings, ‘Very real war’.

22 See Geiger, TANU Women. The TYL theoretically admitted both male and female members, but in practice often excluded women.

23 Geiger, S., ‘Umoja wa Wanawake and the needs of the rural poor’, African Studies Review, 25:2 and 3 (1982), 49CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

24 TNA, Prime Minister's Office Dodoma (PMO) CD/CD.U.4/8 (18), UWT Seminar: 2, Letter from Bernadette N. Kunambi, Secretary of the Committee, UWT to Mr. Msuya, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Community Development and National Culture, Dar es Salaam, 22 July 1964.

25 ‘UWT's plans for national development: putting Tanzanian women in picture’, The Nationalist, 2 March 1965.

26 Ibid.

27 TNA, PMO CD/CD.U.4/8 (18), UWT Seminar, CD/6/23/70, letter ‘Re: Mwanza Women's Conference’ from M. C. Bulengo to Mrs. Nyerere, Chairman, Mwanza Women's Board c/o Regional Commissioner, 5 June 1965.

28 A. Ivaska, ‘In the “age of minis”: women, work and masculinity downtown’, in J. Brennan, A. Burton, and Y. Lawi (eds.), Dar es Salaam: Histories from an Emerging Metropolis (Dar es Salaam, 2007).

29 ‘500 to launch “Operation Vijana”’, The Nationalist, 30 Dec. 1968.

30 Michael Jennings explores the relationship between foreign development organizations and ujamaa developmentalism in Surrogates of the State: NGOs, Development, and Ujamaa in Tanzania (Bloomfield, 2008). Sinha, Subir provides a useful consideration in a comparative context in ‘Lineages of the developmentalist state: transnationality and village India, 1900–1965’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 50 (2008), 57–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

31 R. Schroeder, Shady Practices: Agroforestry and Gender Politics in the Gambia (Berkeley, 1999), 8. Schroeder addresses this tendency in more contemporary policy and literature on women and development that has been complicated by a group of ‘new household theorists’ who illuminate intra-household dynamics in development processes.

32 See for instance D. Chakrabarty, Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference (Princeton, 2000). For a critique see F. Cooper, Colonialism in Question: Theory, Knowledge, History (Berkeley, 2005).

33 J. Giblin, A History of the Excluded: Making Family a Refuge from State in Twentieth-century Tanzania (Athens, OH, 2005), 7.

34 Ibid. 263.

35 J. Ferguson, Global Shadows: Africa in the Neoliberal World Order (Durham, NC, 2006), 92.

36 E. Balibar, ‘The nation form’, in E. Balibar and I. Wallerstein (eds.), Race, Nation, Class: Ambiguous Identities (New York, 1991), 101.

37 Tapes and transcripts of fieldwork are in the author's possession. Interviews and translations (from Swahili and Kimakonde) in Mdui, Rwelu, Nanguruwe, and Mtwara town were conducted jointly by the author and her research assistant, Issa Chilindima, and will be cited as ‘author's field notes’.

38 Chuo cha TANU Kivukoni, ‘Taarifa ya vijiji vya Mkoa ya Mtwara’, 1976. Kivukoni College is now Mwalimu Nyerere Academy.

39 P. Seppala, ‘Introduction’, in P. Seppala and B. Koda (eds.), The Making of a Periphery: Economic Development and Cultural Encounters in Southern Tanzania (Dar es Salaam, 1998).

40 Interviews with S. M. Ali Mkwewe, H. H. Shaba, and I. S. Mfaki, Rwelu village, Jan. 2008. See also G. Liebenow, Colonial Rule and Political Development in Tanzania: The Case of the Makonde (Evanston, 1971).

41 Interviews with H. A. Saloum, E. A. Kulipatanga, and S. D. Kandolechi, Nanguruwe village, Feb. 2008.

42 Author's field notes; Chuo cha TANU Kivukoni, ‘Taarifa’.

43 M. Rizzo, ‘What was left of the Groundnut Scheme? Development disaster and labour market in southern Tanganyika, 1946–1952’, Journal of Agrarian Change, 6:2 (2006), 205–38.

44 Previously farmers had practiced shifting farming of annual crops; cashew, a tree crop, required permanent cultivation of a single area. See author's field notes. On the history of cashew cultivation in Mtwara, see Northwood, P. J., ‘Cashew production in the southern province of Tanganyika’, East African Agricultural and Forestry Journal, 28 (1962), 35–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

45 Liebenow, Colonial Rule, 334.

46 J. A. R. Wembah-Rashid's fieldwork elsewhere in the region also emphasizes the elasticity of familial bonds: see ‘Socio-political development and economic viability in a rural community: the case of Nakarara village, Mtwara Region Tanzania’ (unpublished PhD thesis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1983).

47 Examples were provided in interviews with S. M. Mpendemuka and E. M. Nantende, Nanguruwe village, Feb. 2008; and with S. H. Chinankwili, Rwelu village, Feb. 2008.

48 Author's field notes.

49 For instance, L. Mkenerere (interview, Mdui village, Jan. 2008) explains that polygamy was limited earlier because men had fewer resources to pay a bride price (posa or mahali).

50 Liebenow, Colonial Rule, 157–8; Rizzo, ‘Groundnut Scheme’, 205; author's field notes.

51 Beginning in 1964, guerillas organized under the umbrella of FRELIMO, the Mozambican nationalist party, become embroiled in violent struggle against Portuguese colonial occupiers. Tanzania provided a haven for FRELIMO until Mozambican independence in 1975.

52 Interview with Ali Ali, former District leader for TYL, Mtwara town, Jan. 2008.

53 Interview with I. S. Mfaki. TYL militants would particularly ‘protect’ TANU from the opposition nationalist party, the Tanganyika National Congress.

54 Interview with M. S. Yusuf, Mdui village, Jan. 2008.

55 ‘476 ujamaa villages established – Kisumo’, The Nationalist, 15 July 1969.

56 ‘TANU plans to boost Mtwara ujamaa villages’, The Nationalist, 12 Oct. 1970.

57 ‘Mtwara's giant step forward’, The Nationalist, 11 Jan. 1971. The state archives offer a different number – 601: TNA, PMO RD/12/14/1 (V), Mtwara Region Rural Development, RD/R.10/1/4, ‘Taarifa ya kazi za maendeleo tangu mwezi Oktoba hadi Novemba 1970’, 28 Dec. 1970.

58 Hirst, M., ‘Recent villagization in Tanzania’, Geography, 63 (1978), 122–5Google Scholar.

59 TNA, PMO, ‘Taarifa ya kazi’, 28 Dec, 1970.

60 Author's field notes. Wembah-Rashid records a similar process.

61 Chuo cha TANU Kivukoni, ‘Taarifa’.

62 The transition to ujamaa was to be spread out over two phases. First, farmers cultivated a large, contiguous area of village land parceled into private household plots. This type of ‘shoulder-to-shoulder’ (bega kwa bega) cultivation would eventually be replaced by true communal farming when private plots were abolished. See TNA, PMO CDR/12/14/4 (IV), Mtwara Region Rural Development, Mkoa wa Mtwara: Maongozi na Utaratibu wa Kutekeleza Azimio la Arusha Katika, March 1968, Ndanda Press.

63 Author's field notes; Chuo cha TANU Kivukoni, ‘Taarifa’. Cashew farm abandonment, however, eventually became a widespread problem throughout the region, leading to a drastic drop in cashew production from 1974 onwards. See P. Lal, ‘Between the village and the world: imagining and practicing development in Tanzania, 1964–1975’ (unpublished PhD thesis, New York University, forthcoming).

64 Interview with H. Ismail, Mdui village, Jan. 2008.

65 Interview with S. I. Ismaili, Mdui village, Jan. 2008.

66 Author's field notes.

67 Interview with H. S. Mkumbange, S. Y. Chembeya, H. S. Nampungila, and M. S. Malenga, Mdui village, Jan. 2008.

68 Interview with S. H. Chinankwili.

69 Interview with A. S. Nanguo, Rwelu village, Feb. 2008.

70 Interview with K. M. Janike, Rwelu village, Feb. 2008.

71 Author's field notes.

72 Interview with H. S. Mkumbange, S. Y. Chembeya, H. S. Nampungila, and M. S. Malenga.

73 Interview with M. S. Chimbando, former TYL member, Mdui village, Jan. 2008.

74 Interview with Ali Ali.

75 Author's field notes.

76 I. Shivji, Not Yet Democracy: Reforming Land Tenure in Tanzania (Dar es Salaam, 1998).

77 Defense was emphasized as a primary function of ujamaa villages at other potentially vulnerable sites, such as along the TAZARA railway, constructed between 1969 and 1974 with Chinese support. See Monson, J., ‘Defending the people's railway in the era of liberalization: TAZARA in southern Tanzania’, Africa, 76:1 (2006), 113–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

78 ‘Stronger defence planned: forces to get better weapons – Sokoine’, Daily News, 29 June 1972.

79 ‘Be vigilant, look out for infiltrators’, The Nationalist, 14 April 1967.

80 ‘Be vigilant, border peasants warned’, The Nationalist, 5 Oct. 1970.

81 Mkoa wa Mtwara.

82 Interview with I. S. Mfaki, Rwelu village, Feb. 2008.

83 ‘Kawawa reveals T.Y.L. future plans: youths – bulwarks of nation’, The Nationalist, 3 Feb. 1967.

84 See Ivaska, A. M., ‘Of students, “nizers,” and a struggle over youth: Tanzania's 1966 national service crisis’, Africa Today, 51:3 (2005), 83–107CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Brennan, ‘Youth’.

85 See Editorial, ‘Stop this practice’, The Nationalist, 9 Sept. 1967.

86 TNA, PMO CDR/12/14/4 (IV), Mtwara Region Rural Development 5/6/1 (37), ‘Safari notes, Mtwara region’, from B. J. Renju, 11 Nov. 1966.

87 The Ministry of Regional Administration and Rural Development.

88 TNA, PMO RD/E6/1 FAO Home Economics General (80) E.6/1. RD.E.6/1, Maendeleo to FAO, ‘Request to UN/FAO assistance to establish a diploma course at Buhare H. E. Training Centre’, 12 Oct. 1971.

89 TNA, PMO UV/U4 Ujamaa Villages General 188. Ref. No. E.6/1, I. B. Lomayani, for Commissioner for Rural Development, ‘A PBFL orientation to Maendeleo programmes’, 21 Jan. 1972.

90 Author's field notes. See also P. Seppala, Diversification and Accumulation in Rural Tanzania: Anthropological Perspectives on Village Economics (Uppsala, 1998); S. Berry, No Condition is Permanent: The Social Dynamics of Agrarian Change in Sub-Saharan Africa (Madison, 1993).

91 Editorial, ‘Food and national prestige’, The Nationalist, 24 Jan. 1967.

92 TNA, PMO RD/E6/1 FAO Home Economics General (80) E.6/1. Re. No RD/E.6/1 (223a), I. B. Lomayani, Principal Secretary Prime Minister's Office, ‘Evaluation of the home economics programme in Tanzania’, 14 April 1972.

93 This approach persisted in Tanzanian national development policy for decades. See The United Republic of Tanzania, Ministry of Agriculture, Comprehensive Food Security Programme: Volume I: Main Report (Dar es Salaam, 1992).

94 For more on Tanzanian agricultural policy, see S. Ponte, Farmers and Markets in Tanzania: How Policy Reforms Affect Rural Livelihoods in Africa (Portsmouth, NH, 2002). On food security as a concept, see P. McMichael, ‘Food security and social reproduction: issues and contradictions’, in I. Bakker and S. Gill (eds.), Power, Production and Social Reproduction: Human In/security in the Global Political Economy (New York, 2003).

95 See for instance Nira Yuval-Davis, Gender and Nation (London, 1997); Balibar, ‘Nation form’.