INTRODUCING THE STUDY
5. Literature Survey and Location of the Study
5.3. Literature related to Ujamaa in Tanzania
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ethnic differences in the election process of Anglican bishops in Tanzania.68 Regardless of all these important studies, less was said about the church‘s reaction to Ujamaa and the responses of the state authority.
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led to the later fall of Ujamaa.76 There was no written document about how the Anglican Church reacted to this fall of Ujamaa. This study intended to bridge this gap.
5.4. Literature on the Subject of Ujamaa and Christianity77
President Julius K. Nyerere‘s book on Ujamaa na Dini detailed the role which religion should play and how to make the policy applicable to both the state and church.78 This publication motivated researchers to inquire further about the subject of Ujama and religion. Since Nyerere was a devout Roman Catholic, the first question which attracted researchers was whether his religious beliefs had any connection with his political activism.79 The work of J. V. Civille which analysed the socialism of Nyerere in the light of Roman Catholic teaching concentrated on this theme.80 However, Civille gave no concrete conclusion to the question. It was J. C. Silvano who concluded that there was a very close relationship, not only between the policy of Ujamaa na Kujitegemea and Nyerere‘s religious convictions, but also with his African life.81 However, Silvano‘s conclusion led to a strong critique by Muslims that Nyerere ruled Tanzania at the behest of the Roman Catholic Church.82 J. B.
Rwelamila‘s work about Tanzanian socialism, and Gaudium et Spes which compared Tanzanian Ujamaa with the Second Vatican Council‘s pastoral document, developed the subject a little further to conclude that the Ujamaa teachings are the practical aspects of the church‘s pastoral teaching.83 Laurent Magesa, another Roman Catholic theologian who focused on the theological implications of Ujamaa, concluded that Nyerere‘s religious convictions mark his political theology.84 Magesa also worked on
76 Julius K. Nyerere, Our Leadership and the Destiny of Tanzania, Harare: Zimbabwe Publishing House, 1992.
77 Ludwig Church and State in Tanzania, pp.8-13 has also worked on a similar literature survey and much of the information in this section bears some similarities to his work.
78 Julius K. Nyerere, Ujamaa wa Tanzania na Dini, Dar es Salaam: Government Printers, 1970.
79 Mbogoni, The Cross Versus the Crescent, p. 125.
80 J. V. Civille, ‗Ujamaa Socialism: an analysis of the Socialism of Julius K. Nyerere in the light of Catholic Teaching‘, in W.R. Duggan and J.V. Civille, Tanzania and Nyerere: A Study of Ujamaa and Nationalism, New York: 1976. See also Ludwig, Church and State in Tanzania, pp. 9-12.
81 Silvano, J. C, Kanisa Katoliki na Siasa ya Tanzania Bara 1953-1985, Ndanda-Peramiho: BPNP, 1992.
82 Mbogoni, The Cross Versus the Crescent, pp. 125, 127-152.
83 J. B. Rwelamila, Tanzanian Socialism-Ujamaa and Gaudium et Spes, Rome: Academia Alfonsiana, 1988.
84 L. Magesa, Ujamaa Socialism in Tanzania: A Theological Assessment, Unpublished PhD Thesis, Saint Paul University, 1986.
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the theology of liberation for Tanzania and used it to challenge the church‘s willingness to utilise the aims and prospects of the policy.85
A different approach was taken by Westerlund. In his book, Ujamaa na Dini, he emphasised the contradictions within the policy of Ujamaa na Kujitegemea as well as in the state‘s attitude towards the religious communities.86 He concluded that the state‘s tendency of limiting the activities of the religious communities to certain areas divided Tanzanians into religious and secular sectors. Frostin rejects this conclusion on the ground that the secularism of Tanzanian socialism was according to scholarly interpretation.87 Frostin added that the division of society into a religious and a secular sector has never been a primary concern of Ujamaa and that it was instead concerned with the imani (belief) in human equality. Nyerere has shown that the imani in human equality was the emphasis of the policy and that it would challenge the African tribal divisions and the missionaries‘ denominational and hierarchical stratification.88
The reaction of Lutherans to Ujamaa was well presented in the literature.89 For example, whereas Kijanga and Kweka focused on the role of the Lutheran Church in Ujamaa, Ludwig analysed a historical cooperation between the Lutheran Church and the state in Tanzania.90 Ludwig said that the ‗Anglican Church‘ was praised by the government because of its support of Ujamaa villages.91 However, he did not go into any detail. Instead, he limited his information to the role played by the Anglican and Lutheran churches in the formation of the Christian Council of Tanzania (CCT).
Available written materials about the Anglican Church engagement with Ujamaa was at best spartan. Research projects conducted by students from St. Mark‘s and St.
Philip‘s Anglican Theological Colleges in Tanzania in fulfilment of their Diploma requirements, and which cannot be qualified to academic works, were among such
85 Laurent Magesa, ―Towards a Theology of Liberation for Tanzania‖ in Edward Fashole-Luke et al., Christianity in independent Africa, London: Rex Collings, 1978, pp. 503-515.
86 D. Westerlund, Ujamaa na Dini: A study of some aspects of society and religion in Tanzania, 1961- 1977, Motala: ANL, 1980.
87 P. Frostin, Liberation Theology in Tanzania and South Africa: A First World interpretation, Lund:
Lund University Press, 1988, p. 42.
88 Nyerere, Freedom and Unity.
89 E. Kweka, Church and State in Tanzania, Minnesota: St. Paul, 1973, P. A. S. Kijanga, Ujamaa and the Role of the Church in Tanzania, Arusha: Makumira, 1978.
90 Ludwig, Church and State in Tanzania, p. 13.
91 Ludwig, Church and State in Tanzania, pp. 173-175.
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studies. Nevertheless, none of these works gave a clear description of how the Anglican Church reacted to the call to Ujamaa. Deborah D. Honore‘s book on Trevor Huddleston, the bishop of the Diocese of Masasi (1960-1968), analysed the diocese‘s early attempts to respond to the policy of Ujama na Kujitegemea.92 However, her description was limited to educational matters within the diocese. Three chapters dedicated to Anglicans on the ‗Modern Tanzanians‘ provided clues to some issues such as the concept of the Ujamaa village was basically an African model adopted by the missionaries and developed by Nyerere.93 This study benefited from this material.