Do we need Ujamaa and self-reliance or individualism and dependency?

Marie Memouna Shaba 

By Marie Memouna Shaba 

In Summary

• Nobody heeded these voices in the wilderness because we didn’t have the perseverance to sacrifice or diligence to build our economy using our resources.

Civic and political rights gained momentum and have dominated constitutional debates since we agreed to the conditions for economic reforms prescribed by the IMF and WB in the mid 80s.

Among other things we were told to restructure our economy and democratize our political institutions. We followed neo-liberal policies and “free” market, free media, multi-party democracy and human rights principles.

Abiding by the IMF/WB conditions made us eligible for loans and tied aid so that we can have strategies to reduce and not eradicate “poverty”. From that time onwards we were officially branded as underdeveloped, indebted, and the poorest country.

We were made to believe that we cannot share poverty because that is what Ujamaa and self-reliance is all about.

Many African countries were persuaded to follow neo-liberalism because socialism and communism had failed to solve chronic poverty and had lynched democracy.

Few leaders like Nyerere in 1987 publically discredited Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) as prescribed by the IMF/WB as a death trap because the system was based on economic exploitation and repression.

Nobody heeded these voices in the wilderness because we didn’t have the perseverance to sacrifice or diligence to build our economy using our resources.

It was easy to get loans and alms or sell our hard built properties rather than evaluate what went right or wrong so that we could improve and decide on our destiny. We opened up our doors to the foreign direct investments to come and loot our resources mercilessly.

At that time the former President Mwinyi warned us that “When you open windows, you get fresh air and impurities”

It seems we got more infesters than investors! Why is it that after 28 years of SAPs we as Africans are worse off economically than the investors?

Why have we been advocating civic and political rights more than economic, social and cultural justice? We have done and given everything but are still indebted, corrupt, undemocratic, and underdeveloped.

When will it end? No wonder the tax payers in the West believe we must be corrupt and lazy because why can’t we take care of ourselves with such god given wealth? Now we know freedom is not free, freedom is a process and that SAPs with the IMF/WB is a never ending story either.