Independent Africa - Tanzania Flashcards

Tanzania: Independent Africa

Introduction

• Tanzania was known as Tanganyika during its colonial period.
• The Swahili word ‘Tanganyika’ means a ‘plain that can be sailed on’, indicating the great size of the main lake.
• The capital city of Tanganyika is Dar es Salaam (which means ‘residence of peace’ in Arabic).
• Off the coast is the island of Zanzibar, which for centuries had been an important Arab trading center.
• Germany occupied Tanganyika in the late 1800s.
• Zanzibar’s sultan initially protested that the land along the coast of Tanganyika belonged to him, but after Germany sent a number of warships as a show of force, the sultan backed down. The sultan continued to control Zanzibar Island.
• The United Kingdom took control of Tanganyika from Germany after World War I (as a result of the Treaty of Versailles).

Colonisation and Independence

• Complete independence was achieved in 1961.

Tanganyika Under British Colonial Rule

• The British allowed limited local rule, established some hospitals, encouraged agriculture, and developed railway lines.
• They encouraged primary education, which had begun during the period of German colonization.
• Many local people worked on large farms producing cash crops, but the majority of the local people were subsistence farmers.
• Only a small portion of the country was really suitable for farming, as much of it was too dry.
• During this time, Dar es Salaam was multi-racial. While African people were the majority population, Indian and Arab people were a fairly large part of the population.
• Under British rule, many white people also settled in the colony.

World War Two, Formation of TANU, and Independence

• After World War II there was an increase in African nationalism.
• In 1954 the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) was formed.
• Other parties also existed. For example, there was one that wanted citizenship of the new state to be limited to Black Africans only.
• In preparation for independence, general elections were held in two stages in Tanganyika, at the end of 1958 and the beginning of 1959. TANU won 28 of the 30 elected seats.
• Julius Nyerere, the leader of TANU, was appointed the chief minister of the British administration in Tanganyika in 1960. The governor remained British and was the British monarch’s representative in Tanganyika.
• In August 1960, TANU won another round of general elections (70 of 71 seats).
• Independence for Tanganyika came about in 1961, in a peaceful transition from British rule.

Tanzania Under Julius Nyerere

• After independence, Nyerere became the prime minister. Queen Elizabeth II of the UK remained the monarch of Tanganyika during this time.
• Many British civil servants stayed on after independence and helped to train the locals to take on their administrative roles.
• In 1962, Tanganyika passed the Preventative Detention Act, allowing people who disrupted the peace to be imprisoned.
• In the same year, Tanganyika abolished the monarchy and became a republic. Nyerere became the president.
• Nyerere made Swahili the official language of the country hoping that this would help to unify the 130 different ethnic groups. (English remained the language of instruction in secondary and tertiary education, and also in commerce.)
• In 1963 TANU allowed non-Africans to become members of TANU.
• Nyerere was determined to create unity in the new state. Therefore in 1963 he recommended that the country should become a one-party state under TANU.
• Criticism of this idea was not tolerated.
• Also in 1963, Nyerere was one of the leaders who established the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).
• In January 1964 there was an army mutiny by Black soldiers who were frustrated that white officers had kept their senior positions in the army, despite the transition to independence. The Black soldiers also wanted promotions and pay rises. With the assistance of the British army, the Tanzanian government temporarily contained the mutiny.
• However, the demand for affirmative action within TANU was substantial, and therefore Black citizens were given preference when there were vacancies in civil service.
• In 1964 there was also a revolution in Zanzibar. The sultan of Zanzibar was overthrown, and Zanzibar became a communist republic and a one-party state under the Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP).
• Later that same year Zanzibar merged with Tanganyika. Together they became the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar, which was soon renamed the United Republic of Tanzania.
• Nyerere was president of this new state.
• Both TANU and ASP continued to co-exist for some time after the merger, as the sole parties on the mainland and on Zanzibar Island respectively.
• They had similar ideals and worked co-operatively (so this was not a significant move away from the one-party system).
• Tanzania tried not to take sides in the Cold War. In 1964 it joined the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).
• Nyerere criticised the UK’s support of apartheid South Africa, and this caused the relationship with the UK to decline.
• In 1965 Tanzania passed the Bank of Tanzania Act, and in June 1966 the Bank of Tanzania was opened. It was the country’s central bank.
• Also in June 1966, Tanzania introduced the Tanzanian shilling.

The Arusha Declaration and Ujamaa

• Nyerere was concerned that Tanzania’s farmers were remaining poor, while the urban elite was becoming richer.
• In January 1967 TANU published the Arusha Declaration.
• Written by Nyerere, this document declared that Tanzania would become a socialist state, so that no people would be exploited by others.
• It also stated that Tanzania would ‘co-operate with all political parties in Africa engaged in the liberation of Africa’.
• The Arusha Declaration therefore clearly laid out TANU’s commitment to Pan-Africanism.
• This declaration said that the country must focus on becoming self-reliant, rather than being dependent on aid, and must focus on improving agriculture through hard work and intelligence rather than trying to build industries that would require foreign loans.
• Nyerere, who wrote the declaration, did not want to help the urban people at the expense of the rural people, but aimed to raise the standard of living of all Tanzanians.
• Nyerere’s term for African socialism was “Ujamaa”, which comes from the Swahili term for “family” and “brotherhood”, like the Xhosa and Zulu term “ubuntu”.
• Ujamaa was a concept that implied that a person became a person through contributing to their community.
• The Arusha Declaration and Ujamaa led to the creation of solidarity villages that used collective farming, so that economy was centered around the labor of peasant farmers.
• The civil service almost doubled in size in the 1960s.
• Later in 1967 the banks and most of the large industries were nationalized, and owners were paid reasonable compensation.
• Small companies were left independent under private ownership.
• The government tried to improve access to education and healthcare, particularly in the rural areas.
• The Ujamaa solidarity villages helped to deliver these services to the people, and nearly 5 million Tanzanians benefitted from basic literacy programs. Healthcare roll-out was not as successful, but life expectancy still improved during the 1970s.
• The government wrote a ‘leadership code’ in an attempt to prevent corruption. This code did not allow civil servants to be involved in any capitalist business ventures.
• From 1973 people were forced into the solidarity villages as part of Operation Vijiji in order to speed up the transformation of Tanzanian society.
• The year 1973 was the beginning of a global recession, which had a negative impact on Tanzania’s economy.

The State of the Tanzanian Economy as a Result of Ujamaa and the Arusha Declaration

• This ‘forced villagisation’ resulted in resistance and a decrease in productivity.
• Critics of Tanzania’s political system continued to be imprisoned.
• Food production remained Tanzania’s priority.
• But the state also encouraged the production of cash crops such as tea, coffee and tobacco, which could be exported.
• Exports were important because the foreign currencies they earned could be used to pay for necessary imports, such as oil.
• The Tanzanian economy also benefitted when China paid for the building of the TanZam Railway between 1970 and 1975. This huge aid project joined Zambia’s copper mine in Dar es Salaam, so that Zambia could transport its goods to sea without depending on South Africa and Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe), which were still controlled by white minorities.
• However, the economic results of Ujamaa turned out to be disastrous. Despite Nyerere’s dreams of Tanzania becoming self-reliant, the reality was that food production fell sharply under the new system.
• The state also levied an export tax on cash crops. The effect of this was that the farmers received bad prices for their produce.
• In addition, the administration of agriculture was inefficient and costly. In some cases it cost more to pay the crop authorities more than the crop itself earned.
• Many nationalised businesses went bankrupt.
• To compound the problem, the high taxes levied on private businesses stifled entrepreneurship and production in the private sector.
• Prices of products rose (inflation) but national salaries did not, and therefore most people’s buying power declined.
• Tanzania then passed the Regulation of Prices Act to fix the official prices of 400 products in an attempt to help people afford these products.
• This resulted in the creation of a black market.
• Civil servants also abused the system of giving permits for different activities, requiring bribes before giving permits. Therefore corruption crept into the civil service.

The 1973 Oil Crisis and Challenges of the 1970s and 1980s

• The oil price increased significantly after October 1973, and this meant that Tanzania could import less of this important resource, causing even more economic problems.
• In late 1973 and 1974 Tanzania suffered from a drought and the farmers were poorly equipped to deal with this.
• In 1975, to save people from famine, Nyerere had to accept aid from the IMF and the World Bank and had to import food to feed the people. During the rest of the 1970s Tanzania also received a huge amount of foreign aid.
• However, the state continued to persevere with its socialist policies, despite the continuing shortages of basic products.
• Farmers of cash crops changed over to farming food crops. This was partly a move back towards subsistence farming, but food was also sold on the black market and smuggled to neighboring countries in order to avoid export taxes.
• Because the state had to borrow money to import the items it needed, Tanzania ended up with a large national debt that needed to be repaid.
• The state could not afford to maintain the roads and the railways, so transport became a problem, and electricity was often not available.
• In the early 1980s the economy continued to deteriorate.
• In 1980 Nyerere asked for a loan from the IMF to help Tanzania’s economy, but he did not like the conditions attached, such as the reduction of state expenditure on social services.
• Therefore in 1981 Nyerere turned to the World Bank instead, but again conditions were attached to the loan that was offered, and Nyerere did not want to make the required changes to his economy.
• However, Tanzania’s involvement with the IMF and World Bank changed when, in 1985, Nyerere voluntarily retired, and handed over the power to Ali Hassan Mwinyi.
• In 1986 Mwinyi started to move the economy away from the Ujamaa policies and encouraged private enterprise.
• Under his leadership the country started to co-operate with the IMF again, taking large IMF loans and agreeing the conditions attached.
• In August 1977, Nyerere traveled to the United States where he met President Jimmy Carter. He was the first black African leader invited by President Carter to visit him at the White House.

The Kind of State that Emerged

• Under Nyerere and TANU, Tanzania became a one-party state.
• However, the government did have widespread support and Nyerere was recognised as a leader who was trying to help his people.
• African socialism was implemented, but it was not a successful economic strategy.
• In 1985 Nyerere retired and Mwinyi started to move the economy more towards free-market policies, which helped economic growth.
• Julius Nyerere was the first President of Tanzania who insisted on being called a Mwalimu – teacher.

Political Challenges After Independence

• POLITICAL SUCCESSES:
  • Nyerere and other local officials used their experience gained under the British administration to help them create stability in the newly independent country.
  • Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form Tanzania, and the country remained unified despite its diversity.
  • The use of Swahili as the national language was an effective way to build a national identity.
  • Discrimination was discouraged and equality was encouraged.
  • When Tanzania nationalized foreign businesses and banks it paid compensation to the previous owners, which helped maintain good foreign relations.
  • As a member of the Non-Aligned Movement, it had fairly good foreign relations with members of both the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War.
  • The government had widespread support for a number of years.
  • It was a largely stable and peaceful country.
  • It quickly increased access to healthcare.
  • In 1992, under Mwinyi, a multi-party system was re-established, and in 1994 Tanzania held democratic elections.
• POLITICAL CHALLENGES
  • Racial tensions continued to exist after independence.
  • TANU abolished the multi-party democracy soon after independence.
  • Nyerere imprisoned TANU’s political opponents.
  • People were forced into collective farms against their will.
  • Despite Nyerere’s vision of equality, inequality continued to exist as the civil servants became a kind of elite (although there were not huge differences in wealth in Tanzania when compared to many other countries).
  • Despite Nyerere’s vision of self-reliance, the country had to accept foreign aid, and the strings attached to this foreign aid, and this limited its economic independence in a global economy.
  • Historians have different perspectives on how successfully Tanzania was governed under Tanzania.
  • Some historians focus on the successes, such as how Nyerere increased literacy levels and access to healthcare throughout the population as a whole.
  • Others focus on the failures, such as the fact that the country offered little opportunities for tertiary education and business success.
  • Tanzania under Nyerere went from being a multi-party system to a one-party system – and this can be seen as bad because the country was no longer democratic.
  • However, while some people hated his regime, the majority of people clearly did not find the ruling party too oppressive, because when the country returned to a multi-party system, the CCM was voted in again.
  • The country also benefitted from great political stability when compared to its newly independent neighbors.

Economic Challenges After Independence

• ECONOMIC SUCCESSES:
  • Imports were restricted to help prevent money flowing out the country.
  • Cash crops were exported to earn money for the country.
  • Food crops were also grown to feed Tanzania’s people.
  • The TanZam Railway helped with transport and trade.
  • Foreign aid and foreign loans were obtained when really required.
• ECONOMIC CHALLENGES:
  • Nyerere was reluctant to take loans to invest in development, so there was little economic growth.
  • The government focused on the agricultural sector, which meant the country remained very vulnerable to drought.
  • A lot of money was lost paying for the bloated bureaucracy in charge of agriculture.
  • Price controls were not very successful as they resulted in a black market. The high taxes on exports and private businesses reduced production and led to smuggling.
  • Civil servants took bribes as the buying power of their salaries decreased, increasing the cost of doing business.
  • The country neglected to develop its industrial and mining sectors.
  • The state failed to encourage tourism in its game parks, which were bringing significant benefits to its neighbor Kenya.
  • Food crops were badly affected by the socialist restructuring and drought, causing food shortages.
  • Tanzania had to import oil, and the price of oil rose a lot in the 1970s.
  • Tanzania ended up with a large national debt.
  • Tanzania was not economically successful under Julius Nyerere. Although Nyerere tried to distribute the country’s goods and services equally among its people, not enough goods and services were being produced. Economic successes occurred which had a limited impact. The fact that Tanzania relied on foreign aid to provide food for its people shows that Ujamaa was an unsuccessful economic policy.

Social Challenges After Independence

• SOCIAL SUCCESSES:
  • Independence led to the end of a system of white supremacy. Tanzanians came to identify themselves first as Tanzanians.
  • The provision of clean water increased, as well as access to health clinics.
  • The number of children in school increased, in particular the number of girls.
  • Women (in some industries) equal the number of men in the workplace, and regulations protect women’s rights.
  • The curriculum became more community-orientated, and more orientated towards the African context, while retaining the emphasis on science.
  • Since 2002 free school education has been provided, with funding coming from the European Union, Ireland and Norway.
  • Refugee communities are better integrated into society than in many other countries.
  • HIV cases eventually dropped, and access to free anti-retroviral drugs is increasing.
• SOCIAL CHALLENGES:
  • Enrollment in secondary education was low.
  • The quality of education and training needed to be significantly improved, particularly in rural areas.
  • Patriarchal customary and religious laws remain an obstacle to gender equality.
  • Refugees put a strain on the country’s financial resources.
  • Tanzania’s health improvements are too dependent on international funding.

Cultural Challenges After Independence

• CULTURAL SUCCESSES:
  • Swahili became the national language, which helped the people maintain their won cultural identity during the process of globalization.
  • Swahili became the language used in primary schools, and it was easier for the children to learn in than English.
  • Nyerere translated William Shakespeare’s play The Merchant of Venice into Swahili, to encourage the people to be wary of the moral pitfalls of capitalism.
  • Tanzanian people were free to choose and practice their own religion.
  • Widespread interaction occurred between people of different faiths: Christian, Muslim, Hindu and Masai.
  • Ebony-wood sculptures became celebrated symbols of Tanzanian culture, and they were referred to by their traditional name, Makonde.
  • Edward Tingatinga became famous for his busy and colorful stylized paintings of nature. He influenced a number of other artists, who came to practice a style of art they called ‘Tingatinga’, of which George Lilanga is the main exponent.
  • Tanzanian musicians also received acclaim, such as Hukwe Zawose who played the ilimba (a form of ‘thumb piano’) and, much later, Diamond Platnumz, a singer in the Bongo Flava genre (Tanzanian hip hop).
• CULTURAL CHALLENGES:
  • The government was not able to foster the 112 different languages in the country.
  • While primary schools used Swahili as the medium of instruction, secondary schools used English as a medium of instruction. This made the transition between primary school and secondary school very challenging.
  • There were fewer higher-education institutions (such as universities).
  • Even now, although more have been established, the rate of enrollment in higher education remains low.