Tanzania: Was the Arusha Declaration Snuffed Out Before It Could Shine?

The Arusha Declaration, published on 5 February 1967, was an aspirational document. Much like South Africa’s 1955 Freedom Charter, it did not describe the world as it existed. Instead, it attempted to articulate the goal of our collective struggle for complete and genuine freedom.

The Arusha Declaration, a product of the struggle against colonialism, emerged at a crucial juncture in Tanzanian history. During this period, Tanzania gained independence from direct colonial rule and was threatened by indirect colonial rule in the form of neocolonialism. The Declaration, which synthesized the aspirations of the Tanzanian people, was a bold step in the thousand-mile journey to conclude the struggle for national liberation.

When the Arusha Declaration was adopted 58 years ago, the country was forced to decide whether to capitulate to imperialism’s interests or chart its independent path forward. With Mwalimu Julius Nyerere at the center, the drafters consciously chose to pursue independence for Tanzania as an alternative to subordination. Therefore, this text simultaneously represented a goal and a declaration of war.

Imperialist countries in the global north had assumed they would be able to continue accumulating wealth and developing their own countries through the exploitation and underdevelopment of African countries. The Arusha Declaration was unequivocal: Tanzania would seek a path of development that would bring prosperity to its people, not its erstwhile colonizers.

What was the content of the Arusha Declaration?

A commitment to socialism

As a document articulating the people’s aspirations, the Arusha Declaration outlined the elements of genuine freedom for the Tanzanian people. The first is captured in the commitment that “no person will exploit another”. The Declaration was a firm rejection of capitalism. It refused to accept that the producers of wealth should not also be its beneficiaries. The Declaration insisted that the beneficiaries of the production process should be the producers themselves. This commitment to end exploitation was, in other words, a commitment to socialism.

People’s democracy

The second element of the aspirational goals outlined in the Arusha Declaration insisted that “there cannot be true socialism without democracy”. It is unequivocal that “a state is not socialist simply because all, or all the major, means of production are controlled and owned by the government. It is necessary for the government to be elected and led by peasants and workers“. Whilst we must acknowledge that Nyerere’s government fell short of this important goal, it nevertheless remains a critical pillar. At its core, this is a rejection of the narrow interpretation of democracy where, every few years, people are encouraged to limit their political participation to make a mark at the ballot box. Instead, this is a conception of democracy that puts the majority of the population and the producers of wealth – workers and peasants – at the center. This peoples’ democracy insists that the people are the protagonists and beneficiaries of the struggle for complete liberation.

Self-reliance

The last element of this document confirms that “Independence means self-reliance. Independence cannot be real if a nation depends upon gifts and loans from another for its development.” This is a demand for sovereignty. A genuinely free Tanzania, or any country, must buttress territorial sovereignty with sovereignty in all respects, including food and finance. Again, this is not about isolationism but rather about having the strength to define our relations with the world without compromising the other pillars outlined above.

Socialism, peoples’ democracy, and self-reliance, therefore, constitute the essence of the Arusha Declaration. Only by striving for and constructing these pillars of the struggle can the objectives of the Arusha Declaration be actualized.

Was the declaration’s light extinguished before it could shine?

The Arusha Declaration was a product of contending political forces. Some viewed it as a reference point in the ongoing struggle for total liberation, while others saw it as an obstacle to their narrow interests. From the day of its inception as a declaration of war on imperialism, the Arusha Declaration has been a contested document. There is no doubt that Nyerere was one of the most important defenders of this document as an articulation of a genuinely free Tanzania. The Declaration-and Nyerere as its chief architect-faced constant attacks from both domestic and international enemies.

In the context of international counter-revolution against socialist projects, most notably in the Soviet Union, and the declaration of the end of history by figures like Francis Fukuyama, domestic opponents, primarily within Tanzania’s government bureaucracy, were able to gain the upper hand. In 1985, following the ousting of Nyerere, the aspirations encapsulated by the Arusha Declaration found very little support among a new generation of political leaders in Tanzania. These bureaucrats represented the interests of those who had opposed the declaration from the outset. The commitment to socialism, peoples’ democracy, and self-reliance were subordinated to the neoliberalism of the Washington Consensus, imperialist dictates, and dependency.

In a sense, this marked the dimming of the promise of the Arusha Declaration. The beneficiaries of neocolonial relations defanged the revolutionary content of this document, transforming it from a lighthouse for the future to a relic of history. One could be forgiven for seeing this setback as the extinguishing of a light for the aspirations of the Tanzanian people.

While the decade from the late 1980s to the early 1990s was a setback, it was not a defeat. It is not coincidental that this period witnessed the relegation of the aspirations in the declaration at a government level and the formation of the now 300,000-strong organization Mtandao wa Vikundi vya Wakulima Tanzania or National Network of Farmers Groups of Tanzania (MVIWATA).

The spirit of the Arusha Declaration was abandoned by a compromised government and was taken up by a group of peasant leaders.

For over 30 years, numerous progressive forces in the country, who embodied the declaration’s commitment to people’s democracy, kept the flame alive. They did not allow the guiding light of the Arusha Declaration to be extinguished. The principles of the declaration – socialism, peoples’ democracy, and self-reliance – constituted the framework within which this popular organization resisted the neoliberal setback of the late 20th century.