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Tanzanian Political Culture and the Cabinet

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Jan Kees van Donge  and
Athumani J. Liviga
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Extract

THIS article aims to clarify the national political culture of Tanzania through an analysis of one important institution — the Cabinet. Although attention to the norms and rules that regulate political behaviour in formal and informal ways can reveal insights that are not disclosed by other approaches, political culture has been a neglected field in the study of African politics.

By way of contrast, class analysis has been a popular approach to African politics in past decades.1 It has been shown, for instance, that those in government positions siphon off surplus from the peasantry through the marketing of agricultural produce. This has happended in countries as diverse as Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Malawi, and Tanzania, 2 where there are enormous differences in economic performance, as well as with respect to the way in which political conflicts are handled. People n similar class positions can act in a variety of ways – this is a matter of culture – because there is more than one possible logic with which to perceive and defend interests.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 24 , Issue 4 , December 1986 , pp. 619 - 639
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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References

Page 619 note 1 Tanzanian political behaviour is portrayed as a logical consequence of class formation and the influence of the world capitalist system in: Shivji, Issa G., Class Struggles in Tanzania (London and Dar es Salaam, 1975);Google Scholarvon Freyhold, Michaela, ‘The Post Colonial State in Its Tanzanian Version’, in Review of African Political Economy (London), 8, 1977, pp. 75–90;Google Scholar and Saul, John S., The State and Revolution in Eastern Africa: essays (New York and London, 1979).Google ScholarMarkovitz, Irving Leonard, Power and Class in Africa: an introduction to change and conflict in African politics (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1977) offers an undogmatic overview of this approach to African politics.Google Scholar

Page 619 note 2 Beckman, Björn, Organising the Farmers: cocoa politics and national development in Ghana (Uppsala, 1976);Google ScholarHecht, Robert M., ‘The Ivory Coast Economic “Miracle”: what benefits for peasant farmers?’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), 21, 1, 03 1983, pp. 25–53;Google ScholarKydd, Jonathan and Christiansen, Robert E., ‘Structural Change in Malawi since Independence: consequences of a strategy based on large scale agriculture’, in World Development (Oxford), 10, 5, 1982, pp. 355–75;Google Scholar and Frank Ellis, ‘Agricultural Price Policy in Tanzania’, in ibid. 10, 4, 1982, pp. 263–83.

Page 619 note 3 Jackson, Robert H. and Rosberg, Carl G., Personal Rule in Black Africa: prince, autocrat, prophet, tyrant (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London, 1982).Google Scholar

Page 620 note 1 There are some institutional analyses dealing with the Tanzanian Cabinet in the first years after independence: Pratt, Cranford, ‘The Cabinet and Presidential Leadership in Tanzania, 1960–1966’, in Cliffe, Lionel and Saul, John S. (eds.), Socialism in Tanzania, Vol. I, Politics: an interdisciplinary reader (Nairobi, 1972), pp. 226–40;Google ScholarTordoff, William, Government and Politics in Tanzania: a collection of essays covering the period from September 1960 to July 1966 (Nairobi, 1967);Google Scholar and Hopkins, Raymond F., Political Roles in a New State: Tanzania's first decade (New Haven and London, 1971).Google Scholar

Page 620 note 2 We do not want to reintroduce a formal-legalistic type of institutional analysis as, for instance, criticised in Almond, Gabriel A. and Powell, J. G., Comparative Politics: a developmental perspective (Boston, 1966), p. 3.Google Scholar According to Heady, Ferrel, Public Administration: a comparative perspective (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1966), although one can accept this functionalist critique, structures can be studied with an eye for the functions they perform in the political economy. It can similarly be argued that although an institutional analysis should not be blind to the economic factors in society, one cannot study the entire polity.Google Scholar

Page 620 note 3 Hopkins, Raymond F., ‘The Influence of the Legislature on Development Strategy: the case of Kenya and Tanzania’, in Smith, Joel and Musolf, L. D. (eds.), Legislators and Development (Durham, N.C., 1979), p. 175.Google Scholar

Page 620 note 4 Martin, Dennis, ‘The Disturbing Six Percent’, in Hermet, Guy, Rose, Richard, and Roquie, Alain (eds.), Elections Without Choice (London, 1978), pp. 108–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Page 621 note 1 van Donge, Jan Kees and Liviga, Athumani J., ‘The 1982 Elections for Membership of the National Executive Committee of Chama Cha Mapinduzi’, in Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics (London), 23, 1, 1985, pp. 43–66.Google Scholar

Page 621 note 2 According to Lodge, Tom, Black Politics in South Africa Since 1945 (London, 1983), p. 314, Oscar Kambona while in exile during 1969–70 ‘promised that in return for their cooperation, in the event of a successful coup, the [Pan-African Congress] would receive lavish funding and facilities’. However, this attempt to recruit the Azanian Peoples Liberation Army, then based in Tanzania, was reported to Nyerere by Potlake Leballo, one of the P.A.C. leaders. Although there may have been some contact between Kambona and those who attempted a coup d'état in January 1983, he appears to have been genuinely surprised when the hijackers of a Tanzanian airliner on a domestic flight sought his mediation in London the previous year. In any case, there was clearly little local support for any such interventions against Nyerere's Government.Google Scholar

Page 621 note 3 Kangero, Mzirai, ‘A Tale of Two Histories. The Party of Labour of Albania and TANU’, Department of History, University of Dar es Salaam, 1983, illustrates these different treatments of conflict by comparing two official histories: witch-hunting in the Albanian case and denial of conflict in Tanzania.Google Scholar

Page 622 note 1 The Independence Constitution of 1961 was succeeded by the Interim Constitution of 1965 in which the presidential system, the one-party state, and the Union with Zanzibar found their legal expression. After the formal merger in 1977 of the Tanganyikan African National Union (T.A.N.U.) and the Zanzibar Afro-Shirazi Party (A.S.P.) in Chama Cha Mapinduzi (C.C.M.), a new constitution was adopted: Katiba ya Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania ya Mwaka, 1977. At the C.C.M. conference of 1982 where comprehensive party elections were held, new constitutional proposals were announced. These have been enacted in Sheria ya Marekebisho ya Tano Katika Katiba ya Nchi ya Mwaka, 1984.

Page 623 note 1 Interim Constitution, 1965, ch. I, pt. I, s. (3, 3); Katiba ya Jamhuri, 1977, ch. I, pt. I, s. (3, 2); Sheria ya Marekebisho, 1984, ch. I, pt. I, s. (3, 2).

Page 624 note 1 For the parliamentary debate, see Daily News (Dar es Salaam), 29 10 1984;Google Scholar for Nyerere's remark, see Sunday News (Dar es Salaam), 23 09 1985.Google Scholar

Page 624 note 2 United Republic of Tanzania, Report of the Presidential Commission on the Establishment of a Democratic One Party State (Dar es Salaam, 1965), s. xv, ‘Ministers and Junior Ministers in the National Assembly’.Google Scholar

Page 624 note 3 Sheria ya Marekebisho. 1984, s. (53, 2).

Page 625 note 1 ‘Proposed Constitutional Changes’, in Daily News, 31 January 1983; Theo Mushi, ‘PM Should Pick Cabinet’, in Sunday News, 31 July 1983;Google Scholar and W. A. Mgimwa, ‘One Country, One Government’, in ibid. 29 May 1983.

Page 625 note 2 A recent government paper prepared by Zahra M. Nuru Jumbe of the Cabinet Secretariat entitled ‘The Improved Policy Making Structure in the Tanzanian Cabinet’, Dar es Salaam, n.d., stressed that the principal secretary is the chief advisor and chief executive in each ministry, and that the cabinet minister was supposed to be a policy-maker. Yet this document admits that there is ‘interference and confusion in these two offices’ — which is not surprising, given their legal position, since in case of differences of opinion both can claim to express the will of the President and the C.C.M. which is supreme.

Page 625 note 3 The information on changes in the composition of the Cabinet has been obtained from Africa Research Bulletin: political, social, and cultural series (Exeter). The data on the later careers of ex-cabinet ministers have been collected through reading the Tanzanian Daily News and gathering information from personal acquaintances of these politicians. The cut-off date is 1984, when the last reshuffle of the Cabinet took place before the 1985 parliamentary elections in which, for the first time, Nyerere did not stand as a candidate.

Page 629 note 1 Data on the 1965 general election from Cliffe, Lionel (ed.), One Party Democracy: the 1965 Tanzanian general election (Nairobi, 1967);Google Scholar data on 1970 from Election Study Committee, University of Dar es Salaam (eds.), Socialism and Participation: Tanzania's 1970 national election (Dar es Salaam, 1974);Google Scholar data on 1975 from Miti, Katabaro, ‘National or Local Elections: Tanzania's 1975 elections’, Department of Political Science, University of Dar es Salaam, 1976; and data on 1980 from the results in the Daily News.Google Scholar

Page 630 note 1 For a defence of Babu's position, see Chase, Hank, ‘The Zanzibar Treason Trial’, in Review of African Political Economy, 6, 1976, pp. 14–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Page 631 note 1 See Pratt, loc. cit. and Tordoff, op. cit.

Page 632 note 1 Tanzania knows the rank of Deputy Minister. They have no executive responsibility but defend government positions in Parliament in case the cabinet minister cannot do so. Ministers of State must also be distinguished from Ministers without Portfolio because the latter are not attached to a higher office.

Page 633 note 1 Reported at a public lecture at the University of Dar es Salaam by Balozi Jaafar Msolomi, the administrative head of the N.E.C./party secretariat.

Page 633 note 2 McKinsey and Co. Inc., ‘Developing a Five Year Plan for Balanced Regional Development’, Dar es Salaam, 1974.

Page 633 note 3 Kleemeier, Lizz, ‘Tanzania's Policy towards Foreign Assistance in Rural Development’, in Taamuli (Dar es Salaam), 12 12 1982.Google Scholar

Page 635 note 1 Jumbe, op. cit. p. 5. The irregularity of cabinet meetings remains a feature of Tanzanian decision-making – interview with the private secretary of A. T. Apiyo – and apparently they had virtually stopped before Sokoine took over as Prime Minister.

Page 635 note 2 Avirgan, Tony and Honey, Martha, War in Uganda: the legacy of Idi Amin (Dar es Salaam, 1982).Google Scholar

Page 636 note 1 ‘Mwalimu's Isolation’, in Africa Confidential (London), 25, 6, 16 03 1983, pp. 2–3.Google Scholar

Page 636 note 2 Nyerere, Julius K., ‘Democracy and the Party System’, in his Freedom and Unity/Uhura na Umoja: a selection of writings and speeches, 1952–1965 (Nairobi, 1966), pp. 195–203.Google Scholar

Page 637 note 1 Pratt, loc. cit.

Page 638 note 1 Pomonti, J. C., ‘Guinea without Sékou Touré – the Nightmare is Over, but the Problems Remain’, in The Guardian Weekly (London), 1 07 1984, p. 13.Google Scholar

Page 639 note 1 Ellis, loc. cit.

Page 639 note 2 Hyden, Goran, Beyond Ujamaa in Tanzania: underdevelopment and an uncaptured peasantry (London, 1980).Google Scholar