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Julius Nyerere, Ujamaa, and Political Morality in Contemporary Tanzania

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 April 2014

Marie-Aude Fouéré
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Abstract:

Since the 2000s, Tanzania has witnessed the return in the public sphere of a reconfigured version of Ujamaa as a set of moral principles embodied in the figure of the first president of Tanzania, Julius Kambarage Nyerere. The persisting traces of Nyerere and Ujamaa are not so evident in actual political practices or economic policies, but rather in collective debates about politics and morality—in short, in contemporary imaginaries of the nation. Contributing to a long-standing discussion of the moral stature of Tanzania’s “father of the nation,” the article explores how and why a shared historical memory of Nyerere is being built or contested to define, mediate, and construct Tanzanian conceptions of morality, belonging, and citizenship in the polis today.

Résumé:

Depuis les années 2000, on observe le retour d’une version reconfigurée de l’Ujamaa dans la sphère publique en Tanzanie. Cette ensemble de principes moraux avait été incarnée par la personnalité du premier président de Tanzanie, Julius Kambarage Nyerere. Les traces persistantes de Nyerere et de l’Ujamaa ne sont pas tant évidentes dans les pratiques politiques réelles ou dans les politiques économiques, que dans les débats collectifs sur le politique et la moralité, bref, sur les imaginaires contemporains de la nation. Afin de contribuer à un débat de longue date sur la stature morale du “père de la nation” tanzanienne, l’article explore comment et pourquoi une mémoire historique commune de Nyerere est en train d’être construite ou contestée pour définir, négocier et construire les conceptions tanzaniennes de la moralité, du sentiment d’appartenance et de la citoyenneté dans l’espace citoyen d’aujourd’hui.

Keywords

NyerereTanzaniaMwalimuUjamaamemorynationhoodpolitical morality
Type
ARTICLES
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 57 , Issue 1 , April 2014 , pp. 1 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2014 

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