Tanzania: Rise of Nationalism (1945-1961)

Updated September 2005

In the immediate aftermath of the war the priority of the colonial government was to place the economy on a healthy footing once more; this was assisted by the post-war boom demand for commodities, and the economy of the colony boomed. The high demand for commodities and the rising wages and incomes to be earned drew increasing numbers of Africans into small scale commercial farming and into wage labour on the plantations (Columbia Encyclopedia 2004, PBS Foundation Undated).

A 10-year plan was launched in 1946 to develop the territory, focusing on drawing greater numbers of Africans into the cash economy, improving education and bringing the indigenous people into the political framework through popularly elected local councils (PBS Foundation Undated). Aspects of the 10-year plan, such as the Groundnuts Scheme, proved unworkable and had to be scaled down or abandoned (Government of Tanzania undated).

In 1946 Tanganyika's status changed and it became a UN trust territory under British direction. British undertakings required that the territory be developed in the interests of its inhabitants and that the inhabitants prepared for participation in political government. Territorial representation of Africans in the Legislative Council began with the appointment of two Africans in 1945 and was later increased to four (as against three Asian and four European representatives). In 1955 the membership was changed to 10 representatives from each group (Government of Tanzania undated).

Alongside these economic and constitutional developments ran a new political thrust that was to transform the situation. The new levels of African political consciousness and organisation that emerged after the war were first manifested in the dockworkers' strikes of 1947 and 1948 in Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar respectively (Othman 2004). Indeed, labour unrest and the concomitant rise of the organised trade union movement characterised the 1950s in Tanganyika (Chachage 2003).

The general rise of nationalism on the African continent was expressed in particular in Tanganyika in the formation of the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) from the Tanganyika African Association on July 7, 1954, and in its subsequent growth into a mass based popular political party (Othman 2004, Temwende 2004, 1). From the beginning Julius Nyerere, an architect and founder of TANU, regarded the new movement as a vehicle for attaining independence from Britain.

Building on the grievances of the people, summed up by Chachage Seithy Chachage as "land alienation, forced labour, taxation, native authorities, low wages, low prices and bad living and working conditions in general under colonialism", TANU under Nyerere sought to connect the struggle for economic and social improvement of individuals and groups with the need for self government and independence as a means to social and political transformation. The vast bulk of the people of Tanganyika seemed to understand and accept this position, for TANU quickly became a mass political party (Chachage 2003).

Thus TANU mobilised people in different parts of the country around specific issues and grievances, and then went on to use these particular problems to highlight the general problems of colonial government and the need for a self-directed national life. In this way land evictions, coercive developmental measures and other unpopular administrative measures were used to rally the population around TANU and its independence programme (Chachage 2003).

References

CHACHAGE, CSL 2003 "Globalization and Democratic Governance in Tanzania", Development Policy Management Forum, [www] http://www.dpmf.org/Publications/Occassional%20Papers/occasionalpaper10.pdf [PDF document, opens new window] (accessed 23 Feb 2010).

COLUMBIA ENCYCLOPEDIA 2004, Sixth Edition, "Tanzania", [www] http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=101273670 [opens new window] (accessed 23 Feb 2010).

GOVERNMENT OF TANZANIA UNDATED "History", [www] http://www.tanzania.go.tz/history.html [opens new window] (accessed 23 Feb 2010).

OTHMAN, H 2004 "Forty years of the union: Is it withering away?", IPP Media, April 26, 2004 [www] http://ipp.co.tz/ipp/guardian/2004/04/26/9615.html [opens new window] (accessed 23 Feb 2010).

PBS FOUNDATION UNDATED "Tanzania Overview", [www] http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/lo/countries/tz/tz_overview.html [opens new window] (accessed 23 Feb 2010).

TEMWENDE, OK 2004 "Tanzania: A Political and Historical Overview", Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), [www] http://tanzania.fes-international.de/doc/bot-historical-overview.pdf [opens new window] (accessed 23 Feb 2010).