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The Legacies of Julius Nyerere: Influences on Development Discourse and Practice in Africa
Julius Kambarage Nyerere is widely recognized as one of the most important African figures of the twentieth century. From politics to economics to language policy and education, Nyerere has had an important influence on development discourse and practice in Africa and beyond. The essays in this book offer a critical reflection of these influences good, bad, and undecided. Written by scholars with extensive experience in development debates in Tanzania and other parts of Africa, the essays cover a wide range of themes and points of view. Contributors include Ngugi wa Thiong'o, John S Saul, Julius Nyang'oro, Cranford Pratt, Gerry Helleiner, Colin Leys, Eunice Njeri Sahle, and David A McDonald.
145 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2004
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July 16, 2022
I expected hagiographics and was pleasantly surprised that the essays criticized Nyerere’s tendencies towards authoritarianism and sang praises of his integrity and socialist vision in equal measure.
It’s a shame that a lot of Nyerere’s primary texts are out of print (any leads to print copies much appreciated). The reproduction of the intro to Uhuru na Ujamaa inserted as an appendix to this book illuminates how he envisaged the journey to socialism for post colonial occupied Africa. Nyerere saw socialism as an indigineous african value. Traditional african societies were organised in accordance to socialist principles, even when the people did not call themselves socialists and were not socialists by deliberate design or study. To reject this, is to debase Africa’s contribution towards the march of humankind and to accept a colonial notion that Africa has to reject its own past and import a new political economy. To achieve african socialism, therefore, african people have to return to their base and decolonise institutions (and especially education) that during colonialism had oriented Africa to serve the colonial project.
According to Nyerere, this process necessarily has to rely on different mechanisms than those employed during the independence struggle. The struggle for independence not only lacked an ideological content but it also presumed that capitalist structures established by colonialists would carry on, only now headed by black people. The parties and alliances established to fight for independence therefore simply couldn’t hold for charting a socialist path.
Anyway- Nyerere was clearly a complicated man but had clarity of vision that is scarcer and scarcer in current political establishments. I’d like to read more about the man and the stuff he wrote.
Back to the essays, I enjoyed them and there is quite a lot to think about, although the short essay format means it’s not a suitable intro text to Nyerere, I found that it raised a variety of issues without investigating or analysing any in depth. I was also astonished that so many of the authors were white men whose claim to knowledge of Nyerere is “working in Tanzania in the 60s” and even more astonished that there wasn’t a single Tanzanian included.
Comme ci comme ca
It’s a shame that a lot of Nyerere’s primary texts are out of print (any leads to print copies much appreciated). The reproduction of the intro to Uhuru na Ujamaa inserted as an appendix to this book illuminates how he envisaged the journey to socialism for post colonial occupied Africa. Nyerere saw socialism as an indigineous african value. Traditional african societies were organised in accordance to socialist principles, even when the people did not call themselves socialists and were not socialists by deliberate design or study. To reject this, is to debase Africa’s contribution towards the march of humankind and to accept a colonial notion that Africa has to reject its own past and import a new political economy. To achieve african socialism, therefore, african people have to return to their base and decolonise institutions (and especially education) that during colonialism had oriented Africa to serve the colonial project.
According to Nyerere, this process necessarily has to rely on different mechanisms than those employed during the independence struggle. The struggle for independence not only lacked an ideological content but it also presumed that capitalist structures established by colonialists would carry on, only now headed by black people. The parties and alliances established to fight for independence therefore simply couldn’t hold for charting a socialist path.
Anyway- Nyerere was clearly a complicated man but had clarity of vision that is scarcer and scarcer in current political establishments. I’d like to read more about the man and the stuff he wrote.
Back to the essays, I enjoyed them and there is quite a lot to think about, although the short essay format means it’s not a suitable intro text to Nyerere, I found that it raised a variety of issues without investigating or analysing any in depth. I was also astonished that so many of the authors were white men whose claim to knowledge of Nyerere is “working in Tanzania in the 60s” and even more astonished that there wasn’t a single Tanzanian included.
Comme ci comme ca
Displaying 1 of 1 review