African Social & Political Thought
PHL 305: AFRICAN SOCIAL AND POLITICAL THOUGHT
QUESTION: TAKE ONE AFRICAN SOCIO-POLITICAL PHILOSOPHER AND DISCUSS:
A. HIS POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
B. THE PROBLEM HE TRIED TO SOLVE
C. THE EXTENT TO WHICH HE WAS SUCCESSFUL.
African socialism was one of the earliest theories proffered by many African leaders at the outset of independence. Leaders such as Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Obafemi Awolowo and Leopold Senghor all supported this concept but had different approaches to it.
In this essay, my focus will be on Julius Nyerere and his approach to the idea of African socialism.
Julius Kambarage Nyerere was born on the 13thof April, 1922 in Butiama in then Tanganyika (Tanzania).As President of the United Republic of Tanzania in 1964; he had a difficult course to steer. He believed that the new states of Africa were one and that they faced the problem of rapid economic development and the creation of new ideas based on African experience and heritage. How to achieve these objectives according Nyerere was the greatest challenge of African leaders. He came to the conclusion that socialism was the solution to the socio-political problems faced by African states and Tanzania in particular. He believed that development is liberation from the shackles of colonialism and that it was two ways, personal and social. Personal in the sense that the individual must develop himself, hence self-reliance. The foundation of Nyerere’s political philosophy was the principle of Ujamaa, derived from the Swahili word for extended family or ‘Family hood’, which was first articulated by Nyerere at Arusha popularly termed as ‘The Declaration of Arusha’ on the 5th of February,1967.Here the term socialism was taken to mean basically ‘an attitude of mind’. To him Ujamaa was an expression of the natural African condition and that Africans need not be converted to socialism than we were taught democracy. He believed that Ujamaa was the natural path for the emancipated
QUESTION: TAKE ONE AFRICAN SOCIO-POLITICAL PHILOSOPHER AND DISCUSS:
A. HIS POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
B. THE PROBLEM HE TRIED TO SOLVE
C. THE EXTENT TO WHICH HE WAS SUCCESSFUL.
African socialism was one of the earliest theories proffered by many African leaders at the outset of independence. Leaders such as Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Obafemi Awolowo and Leopold Senghor all supported this concept but had different approaches to it.
In this essay, my focus will be on Julius Nyerere and his approach to the idea of African socialism.
Julius Kambarage Nyerere was born on the 13thof April, 1922 in Butiama in then Tanganyika (Tanzania).As President of the United Republic of Tanzania in 1964; he had a difficult course to steer. He believed that the new states of Africa were one and that they faced the problem of rapid economic development and the creation of new ideas based on African experience and heritage. How to achieve these objectives according Nyerere was the greatest challenge of African leaders. He came to the conclusion that socialism was the solution to the socio-political problems faced by African states and Tanzania in particular. He believed that development is liberation from the shackles of colonialism and that it was two ways, personal and social. Personal in the sense that the individual must develop himself, hence self-reliance. The foundation of Nyerere’s political philosophy was the principle of Ujamaa, derived from the Swahili word for extended family or ‘Family hood’, which was first articulated by Nyerere at Arusha popularly termed as ‘The Declaration of Arusha’ on the 5th of February,1967.Here the term socialism was taken to mean basically ‘an attitude of mind’. To him Ujamaa was an expression of the natural African condition and that Africans need not be converted to socialism than we were taught democracy. He believed that Ujamaa was the natural path for the emancipated
References: • Assensoh, A. B. (1998) African Political Leadership: Jomo Kenyatta, Kwame Nkrumah, and Julius K. Nyerere, New York: Krieger Publishing Co. • Kassam, Y. (1995) 'Julius Nyerere ' in Z. Morsy (ed.) Thinkers on Education, Paris: UNESCO Publishing.