Journal of Social Development in Africa (1989) 4,1, 85-110
BOOK REVIEWS
The State and the Working People of Tanzania, Issa G Shivji (ed), CODESRIA,
Dakar, Senegal, 1986 (194pp, price not stated).
Tanzania seems to be less in the limelight of late as a model in development debates,
whether as a model of the ideal African socialist, self-sufficient, one-Party participatory
democracy, or, on the other hand, as a terrible object lesson on the damage
bureaucratic doctrinaire socialism can do to an otherwise healthy economy. This
collection of essays should give proponents of each of these views reason to rethink
their positions.
The contributions cover many aspects of Tanzanian life over the years since
Independence: Parliament and the electoral process; the State and the Party; labour
legislation; the State and the peasantry; agricultural marketing; and die State and
student struggles. Each contributor argues to die same position, best summed up by
taking the more negative of the two images above and answering: 'bureaucratic, yes;
socialist, no.' The overall picture is one of growing Party and State bureaucracies
extending their power into every level of national life, and into the remotest parts
of the country. In this process they are alienating the majority even as they restrict
the people's power to organise their own lives, their control over die fruits of dieir
labour, and even their freedom to discuss political issues.
The case is, on the whole, cogently argued. Some of the facts presented are so
readily available elsewhere, and speak so direcdy, that it is amazing that previous
commentators, whether supporters of what they believed to be happening in
Tanzania or not, did not advert to them. For example, there has never been an
election which chose all the members of parliament by 'one person, one vote': the
pre-independence parliament was chosen on a franchise which was qualified on
grounds of property, race and education, while subsequent parliaments have
contained a high proportion of indirecdy elected or appointed MPs, who were, in fact,
in the majority from 1970 to 1985. This devalued parliament was declared in 1962
to be subordinate to the Party, a position which was written into the 1965, and
subsequent amendments, Constitudon, and is included in die new 1977 Constitution.
Whatever view one might hold on the classical Leninist 'leading role of the Party'
ideal, it is clear enough, as Shivji argues in his introductory chapter, that wherever a
vanguard Party containing hardly any socialists is going to lead its country, it will not
be along the road to socialism.
The introduction of a strong executive presidency shows, it is argued, that the
leadership of independent Tanganyika, and later of Tanzania, preferred die style of
government they had grown up under, with the President taking the place of the
colonial governor, and parliament taking the place of his biddable and largely
appointed legislative council. The main difference is diat in an independent country
the bureaucracy is larger, and thus not so easily controlled by the new president as it
was by the colonial governor. It must be very difficult for the philosopher kings of
modern Africa to resist the temptation to become king, even if that is against their
86 Book Reviews
philosophy; but now they run more risk of being little more than figureheads.
The history of workers' and students' movements is traced through legislation and
salient events. This history is one that moves from something fairly free, maybe
becoming more radical and eventually facing banning to, in the end, the
establishment of a tame and docile national organisation, easily manipulated by the
government administrative machine. This process is outlined, sometimes by
participants in the key events, and backed with convincing arguments.
An area in which conclusive proof is, in the nature of things, more difficult to offer
is that, it is argued, in which growing bureaucratic control of producer prices, selling
conditions, choice of crops to plant, supply of inputs and even how the crop is
cultivated, is a direct cause of the decline in Tanzania's agricultural production.
Figures are massed in support of the argument, which is plausible enough, and they
undoubtedly show a more or less steady decline from 1966 to 1981 in agricultural
production per head of population for both food and cash crops. Growing
bureaucratic control, first by eliminating the middlemen in favour of co-operative
unions, then by dismantling the co-operative movement, and now by a return to
State-controlled co-operatives, has accompanied the decline in production. The
tables showing the simultaneous decline in the price paid to the peasant producer
and the total marketed amount of cotton and cashew nuts would be more cogent
evidence if they were extended beyond the 5-6 year periods (different periods for
each crop) given by Mapolu. It might then be easier to identify particular changes in
amounts grown and marketed with particular changes in producer prices or with the
introduction of further government control over the whole process of peasant
production.
In addition to arguing their cases effectively as regards developments in Tanzania
over the past 30 years, the authors have given us an analysis of a case that is not too
different from most countries in this part of Africa. The book, therefore, needs to be
widely read.
This reviewer prefers to avoid nitpicking about typographical errors, but it needs to
be pointed out that one of the lines enumerating 'total non-agricultural use' in table
III, ch 5, should be 'total agricultural use'; on page 164, paragraph 2, 14th line would
make more sense in the overall context if the word 'liberal' were changed to 'illiberal';
and the second sentence of the second paragraph on page 39 makes no sense;
presumably a line is missing.
Reviewed by Brian MacGarry, Silviera House, Harare.
The State and Agriculture in Africa, Thandika Mkandawire and Naceur Bourenane
(eds), CODESRIA (Dakar), London, 1987 (385pp, price unknown).
Hazarding a philosophical synopsis of independent Africa's transition to sovereign
nationhood, one journalist once stated, "While it may have taken 100 years to put
colonialism on a sound footing in Africa, it will probably take twice that time to
eradicate its effects on the continent". Indeed, most independent African governments
soon discover, to their frustration, that the profound processes and
mechanisms used to entrench colonialism are not so easily dismantled or replaced
by those purporting to promote the lofty ideals of freedom and independence that
characterise nationalist campaigns for popular support.