Shortly after independence, Julius Nyerere, the first President of Tanzania, embarked on a socialist experiment: the ujamaa, the villagization initiative of 1967-1975. Ujamaa, or "familyhood" in Swahili, both invoked established socialist themes and departed from the existing global repertoire of development policy by seeking to reorganize the Tanzanian countryside into communal village to achieve national development. This live interview with Priya Lal will discuss how ujamaa was envisioned and unfolded in Tanzania and how that experience spoke to particularities of African socialisms, nation building and development in the 1960s and 1970s.
This event is part of the Socialism: Past, Present, and Future Pop-Up Course.