Julius Nyerere
The Arusha Declaration: 1967–1970

In January 1967, Nyerere attended a TANU National Executive meeting at Arusha. There, he presented its committee with a new statement of party principles: the Arusha Declaration. This declaration affirmed the government's commitment to building a democratic socialist state and stressed the development of an ethos of self-reliance. In Nyerere's view, true independence was not possible while the country remained dependent on gifts and loans from other nations. It stipulated that renewed emphasis should be placed on developing the peasant agricultural economy to ensure greater self-sufficiency, even if this meant slower economic growth. After this point, the concept of socialism became central to the government's policy formation. To promote the Arusha Declaration, groups of TANU supporters marched through the countryside to raise awareness; in October, Nyerere accompanied one such eight-day march which covered 138 miles in his native Mara district.

The day after the declaration, the government announced the nationalisation of all Tanzanian banks, with compensation provided to their owners. Over the following days, it announced plans to nationalise various insurance companies, import-export firms, mills, and sisal estates, as well as the purchase of majority interest in seven other firms, including those producing cement, cigarettes, beer, and shoes. Some foreign specialists were employed to run these nationalised industries until sufficient numbers of Tanzanians had been trained to take over; the country's civil service nevertheless had little experience with economic planning, and eventually foreign companies had to be brought in to administer several nationalised industries. A year after these initial nationalisations, Nyerere praised the Tanzanian Asians for their role in ensuring the successful running of the nationalised banks, stating: "these people deserve the gratitude of our country".

Nyerere followed his declaration with a series of additional policy papers covering such areas as foreign policy and rural development. "Education for Self-Reliance" stressed that schools should place a new emphasis on teaching agricultural skills. Another, "Socialism and Rural Development", outlined a three step process for creating ujamaa co-operative villages. The first step was to convince farmers to move into a single village, with their crops planted nearby. The second was to establish communal plots where these farmers would experiment working collectively. The third was to establish a communal farm. Nyerere had been inspired by the example of the Ruvuma Development Association (RDA), an agricultural commune formed in 1962, and believed its example could be followed throughout Tanzania. By the end of 1970, there were reportedly a thousand villages in Tanzania referring to themselves as ujamaa. The peasants brought into these new villages often lacked the self-reliant enthusiasm of the RDA members; despite Nyerere's hopes, villagization rarely improved agricultural production.

The Arusha Declaration was a turning point in Tanzanian history and a widely influential speech in Africa. The speech defined the terms of political debate in Tanzania, and was initially widely popular in the country. But there were also voices of dissent.

— Historian Paul Bjerk

The Arusha Declaration announced the introduction of a code of conduct for TANU and government leaders to adhere to. This forbade them from owning shares or holding directorates in private companies, receiving more than one salary, or owning any houses that they rented to others. Nyerere saw this as necessary to stem the growth of corruption in Tanzania; he was aware of how this problem had become endemic in some African countries like Nigeria and Ghana and regarded it as a threat to his vision of African freedom. To ensure his own compliance with these measures, Nyerere sold his house in Magomeni and his wife donated her poultry farm in Mji Mwema to the local co-operative village. In 1969, Nyerere sponsored a bill to provide gratuities for ministers and regional and area commissioners which could be used as a retirement income for them. The Tanzanian Parliament did not pass the bill into law, the first time that it had rejected legislation backed by Nyerere. The majority of parliamentarians argued that its granting of additional funds to said officials broke the spirit of the Arusha Declaration. Nyerere decided not to push the issue, conceding that parliament had valid concerns.

Although the Arusha Declaration was domestically popular, some politicians spoke against it. In October 1969 a group of army officers and former politicians, including former head of the National Women's Organisation Bibi Titi Mohammad and former Labour Minister Michael Kamaliza, were arrested, accused of plotting to kill Nyerere and overthrow the government, convicted, and imprisoned. In 1969, Nyerere made a state visit to Canada. In 1969, Nyerere informed a journalist that he was contemplating retirement from the presidency, hoping to encourage new leadership, although at the same time had a desire to remain in place to oversee the implementation of his ideas. In the 1970 election, Nyerere again stood unopposed, securing 97% support for him to serve another five-year term. Again, parliamentary elections took place on the mainland but not in Zanzibar.
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