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Ujamaa Revisited: Indigenous and European Influences in Nyerere's Social and Political Thought

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

Viktoria Stöger-Eising
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Abstract

The debate over the indigenous versus the European roots of ‘African democracy’ has regained importance recently. Using the critical tools of cultural anthropology, the social and political thought of Julius K. Nyerere from Tanzania is examined for its African and European sources. The most recurrent themes in his writings are ‘traditional African values’ and the centrality of ‘the traditional African family’. They constitute the core element of Ujamaa. The aim of this article is to show that Nyerere’s statements on African socialism and on African democracy are not merely rhetorical devices employed by an aspiring politician. Nor are they the romantic appeal of a Westernised university graduate to a mythological or even ‘invented’ African past. Nyerere presented his own specific version of ‘traditional’ African values because he was socialised in a non-hierarchical ‘tribal’ society. He sought to synthesise these ‘traditional’ values with Western elements in order to create a Tanzanian identity that would cut across ethnic lines. In those cases when African and European value systems collided, however, Nyerere’s politics became problematic.

Résumé

Le débat entre racines indigènes et racines européennes de la “démocratie africaine” a récemment regagné de l’importance. Usant des outils critiques de I’anthropologie culturelle, cet article étudie les sources africaines et européennes de la pensée sociale et politique du Tanzanien Julius K. Nyerere. Les thèmes les plus récurrents de ses écrits sont “les valeurs africaines traditionnelles” et la centralité de “la famille africaine traditionnelle”. Ils constituent l’élément central de Ujamaa. Cet article tend à montrer que les propos de Nyerere sur le socialisme africain et sur la démocratie africaine ne sont pas de simples moyens rhétoriques employés par un politicien ambitieux. Ils ne reflètent pas non plus l’attrait romantique d’un diplômé d’université occidentalisée pour un passé africain mythologique, voire même inventé. Nyerere a présenté sa propre version spécifique des valeurs africaines “traditionnelles”, ayant été lui-même socialisé dans une société “tribale” non hiérarchique. Il a cherché à faire une synthèse entre ces valeurs “traditionnelles” et des éléments occidentaux pour créer une identité tanzanienne faisant abstraction des frontières ethniques. La politique de Nyerere devient problématique cependant chaque fois que s’opposent les systèmes de valeurs africain et européen.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 70 , Issue 1 , February 2000 , pp. 118 - 143
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2000

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