I was able attended a very interesting Rose Cafe, where Professor Nicolas van de Walle from the Cornell government department attended. He spoke about governmental and economic reform in African countries, which was of great interest to me, because I was just accepted into Cornell’s Global Health program and I will be traveling to Tanzania this summer.

I was particularly interested in the governmental reform aspect, because of the way that Tanzania’s republic formed. Julius Nyerere, known as the founder of Tanzania, ruled from 1961 to 1985, and was an impassioned advocate of socialism, but often mauled by his critics who state that his idealism failed to deliver prosperity to his people.

To his credit, Nyerere stepped down peacefully and voluntarily, long before it became fashionable for Africa’s self-appointed life presidents to subject themselves to the verdict of their peoples in multi-party elections.

In 1967 came Nyerere’s Arusha Declaration, his policy on socialism and self-reliance. Its cornerstone was ujamaa, or familyhood, which was imposed on Tanzania in the following years. The aim was to collect people into villages or communes, where they would have better access to education and medical services. Nearly 10 million peasants were moved and a substantial majority were forced to give up their land. But to most Tanzanians, the idea of collective farming was abhorrent. Many found themselves worse off; incentive and productivity declined, and ujamaa was effectively abandoned. It was a measure of Nyerere’s international prestige that the failure of this fundamental policy at home in no way dented his global standing.

Even to this day, Nyerere, is revered in Tanzania, and in East Africa, due to him providing a moral leadership to Tanzania, and indeed Africa, when the continent was taking its first shaky steps after independence.