Everyone in Tanzania knows that the country is at war but what they would probably fail to tell you is with what or with whom. When the country’s founding father Julius Nyerere led the Kagera War of 1979 against Uganda’s Idi Amin, who had invaded Tanzanian soil, we knew who the enemy was. But every time the current president, John Magufuli, says the country is at economic war, there is a lot of room left for guesswork as to who the enemy is.
After Tanganyika gained independence from British rule in 1961 and united with Zanzibar in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania, Nyerere attempted to introduce a form of African socialism, Ujamaa. Nyerere designed villages under the Arusha Declaration of 1967 that were supposed to create a sense of unity and social cohesion, restoring the social and economic health that colonialism had disrupted. Ujamaa was based on the idea that we the African people should be responsible to remain free and become self-reliant, creating a sense of ownership of our own development.
