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By the time most African countries achieved independence in the early 1960s, education had become a sacred cow for both the governments and the people. For the former, education represented a major tool for nation-building and development which, in those days, meant essentially rapid industrialisation; for the latter, education–especially at the post-primary levels–was the main vehicle for social mobility, primarily because it made possible the acquisition of a well-paid job in the modern sector. For a few years it looked as if there was no contradiction between the aspirations of the people and the goals of the governments, on the one hand, and the socio-economic realities, on the other. Soon the bubble burst, however: industrialisation turned out to be no panacea; the limits of Africanisation were rapidly reached in the civil service, but proved to be a protracted affair in the economy. As the ugly scourge of youth unemployment started to spread in Africa by the mid-1960s, attention was focused on educational systems which began to be perceived as ‘dysfunctional’–i.e. as incompatible with the social and economic realities which were largely agricultural and rural. But more ominously, schools came also under attack as serving mainly the interests of the emerging bourgeoisies.
1 These two concepts are borrowed from Court, David, ‘The Education System as a Response to Inequality in Tanzania and Kenya’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), 14, 4, 12 1976, pp. 661–90; see also a revised version in Barkan, Joel D. with Okumu, John J. (eds.), Politics and Public Policy in Kenya and Tanzania (New York, 1979), pp. 209–328.
1 See Morrison, David R., Education and Politics in Africa: the Tanzanian case (London, 1976); Court, loc. cit.; and Mbilinyi, Marjorie J., ‘Peasants' Education in Tanzania’, in The African Review (Dar es Salaam), 6, 2, 1976, published 1978.
2 Chamungwana, W. M. S., ‘Socialisation Problems in Tanzania: an appraisal of Education for Self-Reliance as a strategy for cultural transformation’, Department of Education, University of Dar es Salaam, 1974, p. 23.
3 This in a nutshell is the position taken by Shivji, Issa G., Class Struggles in Tanzania (London, 1976), and Marjorie J. Mbilinyi, ‘The Transition to Capitalism in Tanzania’, University of Dar es Salaam, 1974.
1 See Harrington, Michael, The Vast Majority: a journey to the world's poor (New York, 1977), P. 195, where he asks himself the question: ‘Do I…think that it is possible to build socialism in a small, desperately poor African nation?’, and replies: ‘No…I still think that a certain level of technology, of abundance, and a democratic sophistication among the masses, a capacity for self-government, in the economic as well as the political structure, is necessary for socialism.’
John Kenneth Galbraith reminds us that even ‘Marx urged…that economic and political development was firmly sequential. Capitalism was an essential pre-requisite for socialism; it developed in modern firms, industrial discipline and experience that made the later transition to socialism possible…In the poor country, administrative capacity is a scarce resource and this must develop before socialism can succeed’; The Nature of Mass Poverty (Cambridge, Mass. and London, 1979), p. 112.
2 For information on education in the pre-Musoma era, the following can be consulted with profit: Auger, G., ‘Tanzania: education since uhuru. Bibliography, 1961–71’, Institute of Education, University of Dar es Salaam, 1971;Gillette, A. L., Beyond the Non-Formal Fashion: towards educational revolution in Tanzania (Amherst, 1977); Morison, op. cit.; Cameron, J. and Dodd, W. A., Society, School and Progress in Tanzania (Oxford, 1970); and Nkonoki, S., ‘The Challenger of Education in East Africa’, Department of Education, University of Dar es Salaam, 1970.
1 T.A.N.U./N.E.C., ‘Directive on the Implementation of Education for Self-Reliance’, Proceedings of a Meeting held in Musoma in November 1974, in ‘Papers in Education and Development’, No. 3, Department of Education, University of Dar es Salaam, December 1976, pp. 1–14.
2 In the colonial era, education was characterised by rigorous racial segregation; there were separate schools for European, Asian, and African children. The lion's share of the budget went to European and – to a lesser extent–Asian schools which, even though they formed slightly more than I per cent of the population, received about 50 per cent of the educational outlays. Cf. A. van de Laar, ‘Growth and Income Distribution in Tanzania Since Independence’, in Cliffe, Lionel and Saul, John S. (eds.), Socialism in Tanzania, Vol. I, Politics (Dar es Salaam, 1972), p. 108.
3 New organisations created included the National Council for Swahili, the Swahili Institute at the University, the Association of Swahili Writers and Poets, and the Annual Swahili Festival. For more details, see M. H. Abdulaziz, ‘Tanzania National Language Policy and the Rise of Swahili Political Culture’, in Cliffe and Saul (eds.), op. cit. pp. 155–63.
4 Thus, the Maji Maji rising of peasants in 1905–7 is now taught as a ‘national epic’, a symbol of Tanzanian resistance to German colonial oppression. Cf. Gwassa, G. C. K. and Iliffe, John, Records of the Maji Maji Rising. Historical Association of Tanzania, Paper No. 4 (Dar es Salaam, 1968); and Mutahaba, G. R., Portrait of a Nationalist: the life of Ali Migeyo. Historical Association of Tanzania, Paper No. 6 (Dar es Salaam, 1969).
5 Crash programmes to train primary and secondary teachers were undertaken under the auspices of Unesco and Unicef. Auger, op. cit. pp. 52–3.
6 Cf. Nyerere, Julius K., ‘Education for Self Reliance’, in Ujamaa: essays on socialism (London, 1968), pp. 44–75.
1 Ibid.
2 Cf. T.A.N.U./N.E.C., op. cit. para. 32.
3 Ibid. para. 35.
1 Colclough, Christopher, ‘Formal Educational Systems and Poverty-Focused Planning’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies, 15, 4, 12 1977, p. 579.
2 Gillette, op. cit. p. 181.
3 According to the Daily News (Dar es Salaam), 28 11 1980, there were then 35 such ‘community oriented’ schools in Tanzania.
4 Mwobahe, B. L. and Mbilinyi, Marjorie J., ‘Challenge of Education for Self-Reliance in Tanzania’, University of Dar es Salaam, 1975, pp. 13–14, quoted in Stabler, E., ‘Kenya and Tanzania: strategies and realities in education and development’, in African Affairs (London), 310, 1979, p. 45.
5 Ishumi, A. G., ‘Community Education and Development’, University of Dar es Salaam, 1974, p. 253, quoted in Gillette, op. cit. p. 258.
1 Saguge, E. Gesase, ‘Struggle Over the School in a Tanzanian Village’, in ‘Papers in Education and Development’, No.2, Department of Education, University of Dar es Salaam, May 1976, p. 84.
2 Ibid. pp. 84 and 95.
3 Mbilinyi, ‘Peasants’ Education in Tanzania’, p. 220.
4 According to Sheffield, J. S., ‘Basic Education for the Rural Poor: the Tanzanian case’, in Journal of Developing Areas (Macomb, Ill.), 14, 10 1979, p. 104: ‘Enrollment has grown from 825,000 in 1967 to over 3 million in 1977…[and] practically 100 per cent of the children have been enrolled in Standards 1 to 3.
1 Kahinga, M. M., ‘Some Reflections on Teacher Education’, in ‘Papers in Education and Development’, No. 2, pp. 121–30.
2 Stabler, loc. cit. p. 50.
3 Other national programmes which may be placed in the same category include: Villagisation, 1974–1976; Maduka (nationalisation of internal trade) which failed in 1976, but was revived in 1980; and Decentralisation, 1972.
The ‘philosophy’ behind this approach can be summarised as follows: ‘Tanzania is one of the poorest and least-developed countries of the world; we have a long way to go and, therefore, no time to waste, especially to deal with opposition; let us then first create the facts and worry about the consequences–if and when they arise.’ This mode of thinking is dangerous and deceptive, and may lead to a lot of wastage. In a situation of scarcity of resources, if too much is attempted, one may end up with too little. Goran Hyden was the first to reveal this ‘philosophy’, described above; see ‘We Must Run While Others Walk: policy-making for socialist development in Tanzania-type politics’, University of Dar es Salaam, 1975.
For a detailed treatment of the villagisation programme, see Ergas, Zaki, ‘Why Did the Ujamaa Village Policy Fail?–Towards a Global Analysis’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies, 18, 3, 09 1980, pp. 387–410. Between 1972 and 1979, the number of bureaucrats increased by 92 per cent; on this and Operation Maduka, see ‘Tanzania: end of a dream’, in Africa Confidential (London), 16 07 1980.
1 By contrast, Kenya, with a slightly smaller population, managed in 1979 to absorb about 95,000 primary-school leavers into the secondary system: 35,000 went to government schools, and 60,000 to unaided or partly subsidised harambee schools. Admittedly the proliferation of the latter has created serious problems, but Tanzania has gone too far in the opposite direction. Cf. ‘Private Schools in Kenya’, in Weekly Review (Nairobi), 11 01 1980, p. 32, and T. Kamwela, ‘The Historical Development of Secondary Education in Tanzania and Recommendations for the Future’, in ‘Papers in Education and Development’, No. 4, University of Dar es Salaam, 1977, p. 55.
2 Sheffield, loc. cit. p. 105.
3 ‘Back to Back: a survey of Kenya and Tanzania’, in The Economist (London), Special Supplement, 03 1978.
4 As a result of the large-scale nationalisation of the economy, a major segment of the ‘dominant groups’ in Tanzania is formed by the bureaucratic élite which has been quite successful in finding loopholes in the law in order to protect and promote its interests. For example, the effects of the much publicised ‘Leadership Code’ were easily blunted by the establishment of trusts in the names of members of family. Cf. Oleen Hess, ‘Tanzania: ujamaa and development’, Cornell International Agriculture Monographs, No. 52, Ithaca, N.Y., 1976, p. 39.
5 E. O'Connor has noted that only a school quota would be really effective, but that this is not politically feasible, another indication of the power of the dominant bureaucratic class in Tanzania; ‘Contrasts in Educational Developments in Kenya and Tanzania’, in African Affairs, 290, 01 1974, p. 71.
1 Mmari, G. R. V., ‘The Role of Formal Education in Developing Countries: the Tanzanian case’, in ‘Papers in Education and Development’, No. 1, University of Dar es Salaam, July 1975, p. 16.
2 ‘No Admittance Through Back Door’, in New African (London), 12 1979, pp. 45–6.
3 Sheffield, loc. cit. pp. 109–110.
4 Mbilinyi, ‘Peasants’ Education in Tanzania’, pp. 202–6.
5 Mbilinyi, Marjorie J., ‘Contractions in Tanzanian Educational Reforms’, in Coulson, Andrew (ed.), African Socialism in Practice: the Tanzanian experience (Nottingham, 1979), p. 221.
6 Mbilinyi, ‘Peasants’ Education in Tanzania’, p. 209.
1 Cf. G. R. V. Mmari, ‘Implementation of the Musoma Resolutions: the UDSM admissions experience’, in ‘Papers in Education and Development’, No. 3, University of Dar es Salaam, pp. 15–51. To give an example of the third group, entry to the M.D. programme will be open also to (i) academically outstanding Assistant Medical Officers, and Medical Assistants ‘with at least credits in Form IV physics, chemistry, and biology’, (ii) those who have passed their ‘pre-medical’ studies in the United States and elsewhere; (iii) holders of a good diploma in medical laboratory technology; (iv) nurses in register A, with at least credits in Form IV physics, chemistry, and biology; and (v) those with a nursing degree or an equivalent qualification.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid. p. 46.
1 Ibid. pp. 46–7.
2 Stabler, loc. cit. p. 51.
3 Sheffield, loc. cit. p. 102.
4 Harman, D., ‘The Experimental World Literacy Programme of UNESCO/UNDP. A Critical Assessment’, in Harvard Educational Review (Cambridge, Mass.), 3, 1977, pp. 444–7.
1 Villaume, L., ‘Literacy and the Adoption of Agricultural Innovations’, Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1977, cited by Harman, loc. cit. p. 445.
2 This is not to say that literacy campaigns are useless, but their impact seems to be more in the socio-psychological sphere, as Y. O. Kassam observes, perhaps a little too enthusiastically: ‘[literate peasants] have got rid of their former state of marginality, alienation and fear, they feel more self-confident and have begun to be self-assertive…[and] they have regained their complete human dignity’. ‘Illiterate No More: the voices of new literates from Tanzania’, University of Dar es Salaam, August 1977, p. 59.
3 Hall, B. L., ‘Development Campaigns in Rural Tanzania, in Rural Africana (East Lansing), 27, 1975, p. 73.
4 Rwabwisho, V. B., ‘The Current Functional Literacy Problems in Kinondoni District’, University of Dar es Salaam, March 1980, pp. 34ff., my emphasis. The usually candid field reports of third-year social-science students generally provide reliable information about the real situation in the rural areas of Tanzania.
5 Ngussa, S. Y. N., ‘A Study of Secondary School Students in Teaching Functional Literacy to Adults in the Coastal Region’, University of Dar es Salaam, February 1980, p. 120.
6 Mbilinyi, ‘Peasants’ Education in Tanzania’, p. 216.
1 Mlekwa, V. M., ‘Policy and Practice in Adult Education. Research Reports from Kahama District, Shinyanga Region’, in ‘Papers in Education and Development’, No. 1, University of Dar es Salaam, July 1975, pp. 57–81.
2 ‘No Admittance Through Back Door’, loc. cit. p. 46.
3 Muganyizi, L. K., ‘Implementation and Usefulness of Self-Reliance in Schools: findings of research carried out in Bukoba District in May and June 1975, in ‘Papers in Education and Development’, No. 2, May 1976, pp. 97–120. Muganyizi's conclusions are supported by those of Stabler, Mbilinyi, and Sheffield, already cited.
1 Nkonoki, op. cit. p. 43.
2 Bowles, Samuel and Gintis, Herbert, Schooling in Capitalist America: educational reforms and the contradictions of economic life (London, 1976), p. 8.
3 It is generally recognised that the expansion of education was largely brought about by capitalist development. See, for example, Swai, B., ‘The Political Economy of Tanzanian Primary School Leavers: a theoretical consideration’, in Taamuli (Dar es Salaam), 8, I, 1978, p. 39.
1 Cf. Bourdieu, Pierre and Passeron, J. C., La Reproduction: éléments pour une théorie du systèmed' enseignement (Paris, 1970), pp. 21–2: ‘Dans une formation sociale determinée, l'action pédagogique …correspond …aux intérêts objectifs (matériels, symboliques) des groupes ou classes dominants.’
2 Cf. Bates, Thomas R., ‘Gramsci and the Theory of Hegemony’, in Journal of the History of Ideas (Philadelphia), 36, 1975, pp. 351–66, mentioned by Hirschmann, Albert O., ‘The Turn to Authoritarianism in Latin America and the Search for its Economic Determinants’, in D., Collier (ed.), The New Authoritarianism in Latin America (Princeton, 1979), pp. 61–98.
3 Apple, M. V., ‘The New Sociology of Education: analysing cultural and economic reproduction’, in Harvard Educational Review, 4, 1978, p. 495.
4 D. Swartz, ‘Pierre Bourdieu: the cultural transmission of social inequality’, in Ibid. 4, 1977, p. 545.
1 I am indebted to Brian Cooksey for raising these legitimate questions. For a stimulating discussion of similar issues, see his ‘Education and Class Formation in Cameroon’, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Birmingham, 1978, and ‘Social Class and Educational Performance: a Cameroon case study’, in Comparative Education Review (Chicago), 25, 3, 10 1981, pp. 403–18.
2 Hyden, Goran, Beyond Ujamaa in Tanzania: underdevelopment and an uncaptured peasantry (London, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1980), p. 12.
3 The original concept of ‘pattern variables’ by Talcott Parsons includes values, attitudes, behaviour modes, institutions, structures, etcetera. Parsons was a leading figure in the structuralist–functionalist school, which was very influential in the 1950s–1960s. See, for example, his Social System (Glencoe, Ill., 1951), and The Structure of Social Action (Glencoe, Ill., 1968).
During the same period, an influential school of economic anthropologists, led by M. J. Herskovits and M. Harwitz, supported the theory that modernisation was constantly changing the society in which it occurred, in the sense that ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’ patterns were being constantly rearranged. See, for example, their Economic Transition in Africa (London, 1964); also Scott, C., ‘The Obsolete Antimarket Mentality: a critique of the substantial approach to economic anthropology’, in American Anthropologist (Washington), 66, 04 1966, pp. 323–45. For a recent treatment of the same issue, see Eisenstadt, S. N., ‘Convergence or Divergence in Modern and Modernizing Societies’, in International Journal of Middle East Studies (London), I, 1977, pp. 1–27.
4 The patron–client relationships that exist in the shanty-towns encircling the big African societies are a good illustration of these ‘hybrid societies’. There, the ‘big men’ are local entrepreneurs and landlords who provide jobs for the ‘urban poor’ at low wages (‘surplus extraction’), as well as security in a dangerous and violent world. For more details, see Pearce, Adrian, ‘Prestige, Power and Legitimacy in a Modern Nigerian Town’, in the Canadian Journal of African Studies (Ottawa), 1 and 2, 1979, pp. 25–51. The distinction made by Philip Raikes between ‘commodity production areas’ and ‘labour reserve areas’ may also be relevant in this context; the latter are related mainly to survival, while the former are characterised by surplus generation. ‘Rural Differentiation and Class Formation in Tanzania’, in Journal of Peasant Studies (London), 3, 1978, pp. 285–325.
1 This has been documented by several authors recently. See, for example, Kitching, Gavin, Class and Economic Change in Kenya: the making of an African petite bourgeoisie, 1905–1970 (New Haven and London, 1980), pp. 364 and 409; and Hyden, op. cit. pp. 161–3, who relies on Michaela von Freyhold's work on the subject, notably Ujamaa Villages in Tanzania: analysis of a social experiment (New York and London, 1979).
2 Cf. Kilson, Martin, Political Change in a West African State (Cambridge, Mass., 1966), quoted by Price, Robert M., Society and Bureaucracy in Contemporary Ghana (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London, 1975), p. 27: ‘Traditionally in African society, a person contracts ties beyond his primary unit more as a member of the primary collectivity than as an individual, thereby continuing basic allegiance to the primary unit and its needs and obligations.’
3 Cagan, E., ‘Individualism, Collectivism and Radical Educational Reform’, in Harvard Educational Review, 2, 1978, p. 261.
4 ‘No Admittance Through Back Door’, loc. cit. pp. 45–6. Some researchers, however, challenge this perception; see, for example, Marvin, Richard, ‘“Economic Baba”–Is This a Satisfactory Explanation of Why African Parents Value Schooling?’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies, 13, 3, 09 1975, pp. 429–45.
1 Cf. Collins, R., ‘Some Comparative Principles of Educational Stratification’, in Harvard Educational Review, I, 1977, pp. 1. See also, H. Gintis, ‘Towards the Political Economy of Education: a radical critique of Ivan Illich's Deschooling Society’, in Ibid. I, 1972, pp. 71–96, and Bowles and Gintis, op. cit.
The Marxist paradigm challenges the conservative paradigm which states that ‘education socializes the young and provides socially necessary technical skills … Schooling is therefore an essentially rational device for selecting talented individuals in an increasingly complex and “expert” society transmitting consensual values to the young.’ Collins, loc. cit. p. 1. See also, Brookover, W. B., ‘Review of C. J. Hurn's The Limits and Possibilities of Schooling: an introduction to the sociology of education (Boston, 1978), in Harvard Educational Review, 4, 1978, p. 510.
2 Castles, S. and Wurstenberg, W., The Education of the Future: an introduction to the theory and practice of socialist education (London, 1979), p. 50.
3 For more details, see ‘The Soviet Union, 1917–1931’, Ibid. pp. 43–7.
4 Cf. Reich, W., The Invasion of Compulsory Sex Morality (London, 1931, republished 1975), pp. 23–30.
1 Cf. Bronfenbrenner, Uri, Two Worlds of Childhood: US & USSR (London, 1970, republished 1974).
2 Cf. Freire, Paolo, Pedagogy in Process: letters to Guinea Bissau (New York, 1978). See also by the same author, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (London, 1971) and Cultural Action for Freedom (London, 1971).
3 For more details on ‘true socialism’, see Castles and Wurstenberg, op. cit. This is generally defined by three essential principles: (i) a democratic and participatory control of the production process by the workers; (ii) an equal sharing of the socially necessary labour by all; and (iii) the destruction of hierarchical relationships. The Marxist-Leninist prerequisite for state capitalism, but not necessarily of socialism, is that the state must control the means of production. In so far as a more egalitarian– and effective–distribution of the G.N.P. is concerned, this must be preceded by highly developed productive forces. In the less-developed countries, therefore, the enlargement of the economic pie should be given top priority.
1 Chairmen of holding parastatals, the highest-paid civil servants in Tanzania, made some TShs. 4,500 per month in 1977; the minimum wage for urban workers was recently raised to TShs. 600 per month. Cf. Mohiddin, Ahmed, African Socialism in Two Countries (Totowa, N.J. and London, 1981), pp. 211–15.
2 Number supplied by R. Mukandala, Lecturer at the University of Dar es Salaam, and Doctoral Student at the University of California, Berkeley.
3 Cf. p. 579, fn. 4, above.
4 This was explicitly recognised in an official ‘White Paper’ recently released by the Executive of the Party. Cf. C.C.M./N.E.C., ‘National Policy on Productivity, Incomes and Prices in Tanzania’, Government Printer, Dar es Salaam, 1980. See also, ‘Tanzania: end of a dream’, loc. cit., to which, predictably, the Government reacted angrily. On this and Xan Smiley's riposte, see African Business (London), 1980, pp. 16–18.
1 Collins, loc. cit.
2 There should be a ‘golden mean’ between Tanzania and Kenya, where the Government has allowed too many secondary schools to be built by local initiative. These harambee (‘let us pull together’) schools mushroomed all over the country to the extent that there are now more secondary pupils in them than in government schools. See Republic of Kenya, ‘Educational Trends, 1973–77’, Central Bureau of Statistics, Ministry of Economic Planning and Community Affairs, and Unicef (Nairobi, n.d.); also Edmond J. Keller, ‘The Limits of Community Self-Help in Kenya: a cost-benefit analysis of the Harambee movement in education’, Bloomington, 1980. See also, p. 579, fn. I, above.
3 This is what emerges from Kassam, op. cit. especially the section on ‘Dialogues’, pp. 20–51; see also, p. 583, fn. 2, above.
1 It is, of course, entirely possible to be élite without being élitist, as Robert Price remarked during the presentation of an earlier draft at Berkeley in February 1982. However, to the extent that it is generally recognised that a committed revolutionary cadre does not exist in Tanzania, this is not very relevant here. As Amilcar Cabral once put it, it would have been necessary for the petit bourgeois nationalists to commit suicide as a class in order to become revolutionary. This did not generally happen in Africa after independence was achieved.
2 See Ergas, Zaki, ‘The State and Economic Deterioration: the Tanzanian case’, in the Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics (Leicester), 20, 3, 11 1982, pp. 286–308.
3 On the mobilisation of the peasantry, see Johnston, Bruce F., ‘Agricultural Production Potentials and Small Farmer Strategies in Sub-Saharan Strategies’, in Robert, H. Bates and Lofchie, M. F. (eds.), Agricultural Development in Africa: issues of public policy (New York, 1980), pp. 67–97.
* Earlier drafts of this article were presented there and at the Truman Research Institute of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
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