Towards a National Cultural Policy for the Promotion of Art in Tanzania E, Jengo* In recent years there has been a growing interest in the study of the relationship between culture and development. This is largely a result of UNESCO's efforts since 1973 to promote and sponsor studies in national cultural policies. In Africa, for example, the Intergovernmental Conference on Cultural policies which aimed at,carrying out studies on themes related to national cultural policies was hel in Accra, Ghana in 1975. Tanzania was represented at the Accra conference by cultural planners and administrators. However, the neccessity for the formulation of cultural policies and a programme of the development of national culture had been high on the agenda in many African countries since independence. During the late 1969's, some African nations took positive steps towa- rds changing some structures of their colonial experiences, Chad, for example, declared a cultural revulution. G.Jbon announced renovation. Ghana put forward Aji-ican personality Tanzania launched operation vijana (operation youth), Togo proclaimed a new march and Zaire declared a policy of authenticity. There is no reason to suppose that these early efforts fowards cultural autonomy were directed towards the organisation of artistic production. Zaire's policy of authenticity, for instance, went no further than exhorting the citizens to drop their foreign names. In like manner, Tanzania's operation vijana decree did nothing more than force the youths to dress "decemtly". These efforts, however, were not trivial. If anything, they revealed a determination towards cultural decolonisation in order to change western cultural hegemony in Afr;'a. The main weakness of such sporadic efforts was that they assumed an idclogical void whithin which a cultural revolution was to take place. The result has been that in most of the countries where such attempts were made cultural confusion still reigns. The purpose of this paper is to analyse espects of Tanzania's cultural policy relevant tu the promotion of VIsual arts. Section I is devoted to a discussion on the need for cultural alms of development, their roles and scope in establishing national identity. The concept of cultural development will also be examined. Section II deals with the problem of art patronage within the ideologicai'set up of Tanzania. In this context, the impact of the marketing of art objects upon production will be examined. Section III concludes the analysis, making recommendations on the urgent need for a rational cultural policy for the promotion of art in the nation, 'Associate Professor, Department of Art. Music and Theatre. L:niversity of Oar es Salaam. On The Cultural Aims Of Development Concern has often been eXPressed over what constitutes development. The colonial view of development, according to Swall, was an attempt to bring the social and P?litical.lif~ of colonial territories into a healthy relationship with the more advanced countnes. ThIS vIew does not need detailed elaboration; economic exploitation disguised in the form of /a mission tj'd/atrice was the chief motive behind all forms of colonial administration. Economic exploitation, however, still continues. The late prokssor Rweyemamu summed t;p this Adte of affairs very wdl when he wrote: ." the sun of imperialism, far from being eclipsed at the dawn of independence, still glares down on the most improverished half of the planet, rather more fiercely, than before. This is revealed by the growing inequality of development, the "<:onstantly widening gap between the level of development of the advanced capitalist c<'untries and that of the economically and politically dependent -the so- called devdoping countries. 2 We thus find that the prevailing view of development puts heavy emphasis on CC ,.illC J!Jmuh. This view, however, is not fully shared by all oi lile leaders among us. Maleccla,for example, feels that the economic growtn of a nation is only one facet of development. He argues: The development of a country does not merely consist of the exploitation of its 1'''1''"l1al natural wealth. This is only u,:e facet. It also indudes the evoluti,in and refinement of the cultural, psyet'ological and spiritual aspects of a nation. These latter characteristics are, to a large extent, the ones which give a nation its distinguishing characteristics or personality. Nonetheless, they are the least understood by those whose task is to institute and direct the machinery for dev dopment. In certam devel~ping countries, therefore, people have concentrated their efforts on what they think is development 'out in actual fact is economic growth, although the two are totally differenU Malecela's position is fully shared by Amadou Mahtar M'Bow, the Secretary (feneral of UNESCO, who conceptualises development as follows: . ... it is chlelly in the so-called developing societies that the concept of development as nothing 1I10re than economic growth has shown its lI10st int'Olera~le: defects. There it has taken the form not of an tldventure experienced from wllhin but of a change brought about from outside ... The problem then arises everywhere of giving development full meaning again, VIZ. as both a qualitative and quantitative improvement, indissolubly linked, for one and all. At this point I believe the essential complimentarity between two concepts, cultural identity and integrated development, become evident. Restore to the economy purpose and coherence (which it can derive only from culture), and restore to culture its' vital function as a socio-economic regulator. Thus development can regain its meaning, viz. the full development of man's potentialiti~s.4 The foregoing quotations from Malecela and M'Bow seem to suggest that cultural development and economic growth operate independently in developing societies. Culture .bein~ a socially learned behaviour cannot be understof?d_ only from its internal laws of 2 development. It can only be understood through an analysis of the social system as a whole. And here the economic factor is of paramount importance. There is abundant evidence in Tanzania and elsewhere which reveals that with the change of the economic foundatiol1' of society, ~he entil; .;uperstructnre is rapidly transformed. This transformation goes hand in hand with cultural change in most aspects of human C;":l!~e. The refinement of the cultural, psychological and spiritual aspects 01 a nation which Malecela mentions occurs within the economic slructure of society, the real foundation On which such aspects rise. We should, therefore, expect these aspects of culture to be directly ;::terwoven with the material activity and material relations of men at any stage in the development of mankind. It must, however, be stressed here that the arts (architecture, art, music, poetry, literature and theatre) do not lose their significance when the economic foundations of society are transformed. This is because they have a lasting communicative function. They are basically reflections of particular social conditions and relationships. The feudal Ife in Nigl'ria, for example, produced great sculpture that shook the art world when it was "aiscovered" between 1914 and 1948. The 1ft. bronze heads in question had been produced in the 14th {'('ntury A.D. Ife art tells us a lot about the character of social relations peculiar to that period since, as would be expected, the sculptures portrayed the Ife royalty. This is a typical characteristic of feudal art, as is the case in all class societies where culture is seen from the perspective of the dominant class in society. It can thus be seen that the concept of development refers to the material well-being of society and that the mode of material production conditions cultural life. It i" not out of pi'.ce to cite th~ lat" Amilcar Cabral on the interaction of culture and. "l:onomic developmeJ" In his memorial lecture for Eduardo Mondlane he observed that: ...culture has as Its physical base the lorces 01production and means 01 production. It plunges its roots into the material reality olthe soil olthe envL,""Hcr,t in which it gmws and relleets the organic nature 01 society but all the same capable olbeing inllueneed by exterior lactors. 5 -,ral was lnoking at culture as one of the strongest weapons in the struggle for national liberation in Guinea-Bissau. Yet he was quite aware that culture draws its sustenance from tile matc";'f actIvity cf men. FrOm the forcgoing discussion, it is apparent that economic development is inextricably linked with cultural development. In fact, some western cultural anthropologists often k)()k at culture as being the same thing as economic dt-c1op..,ent. Sahli,,, dnd Service, for example, state: Culture is thl' superorganic means available to the human species for utilIZing the "arth', resources in the service 01 survival... Culture, c.ontinuing the lile process, appropriates Iree energy,.and builds it into an organisation lor survival, and like Iile, culture moves to maximize the amount of cncrgy exploitation.o The problem with this definition of culture is that Sahlins and Service did not consider the social relations of production when human sp<:des decide to utilize the earth's resources in order to survive, In an attempt to examine the nature and scope of development, therefore, the main arguments can be.summarized as follows: L Culture evoives from the economic structure of society. 3 2. Cultural change follows the economic transformation of society. 3. Peak periods of anistic production do not automatically coincide with economic: develupment. From this three points we may nOw proceed with an examination of the n,eed for cultural policy in Tanzania to promote art. Cultural Policy and the Visual Arts in Tanzania Development presents certain common features in all types of countries, but the situation of t~ ";sual arts, which is the subject of our discussion, assumes spe.cial characteristic~ .:l ~ucialist nations. An essentiai feature of cultural revolutions in these nations has been the stress laid on the relationship between class and culture. The revolutions are characterised by the extinction of the cultural monopoly of the former ruling classes, thereby uplifting the cultural levels of the peasants and workers, support 'from the state for the development and promotion of the arts and conscious activity by the ruling party and the state, with the aim of achieving these objectives. Socialist policy implies the existence of an art which appeals to the broad masses and whieh is democratically disseminated. This means that the visual artist is obliged to take a stand on matters of current interest, such as politics, scientific development and economic affairs. He is expected to identify with the cause of workers and peasants through the cr~ative activities that distinguish him as a visual artist. Socialist cultural policy on art is, therefore, a reaction to the capitalist lack of concrete programmes for artistic production. The Western European artist, unlike his counterpart in the socialist countries, frequently lives on the fringe of society however "committed" he is to ,t.t:ecapitalist cause. It was probably this fact which enraged Banun to charge: We clamour for an American literature, native music, and circumstantial landscapes. We put the artist on the spot and expect him to stay there. The' products of art must smell of the soil, or at least of the asphalt ofa particular city... We demand, but how do we providc"7 Indeed, one of the most important distinguishing features of socialist cultural policy has been for the state to subsidize artists' funds to enable them to deal with the problems of social security and even housing, something that would be impossible under capitalist relations of production. The first attempt at consolidating national culture in Tanzania was marhJ by the establishment of the Ministry of Culture and Youth in Del:cmberI962. The reasons given for its establishment by President Julius K: Nyerere were as follows: I havc set up this new Ministry to help us regain our pridc in our own culture. I wanl it to seek out the best of the traditions and customs of alltrihcs and make them p'm of our national culture.8 The. cultural task of Tanzanian nationalism has thus been to determine and propagate any serVIceable eXIsting features that could be found, or else to create such features. This task culminated in 1965 in the identilieation of cultural organs whieh the Ministry coulu administer. Cabinet Paper No. 39 of May 1965 grouped such organs as follows: Department of Museums, Department of Antiquities. Department of National Archives, National Swahili Council, National Sports Council, National'Festivals and State Celebrations Office, Film Censorship Buard and Department of Art and Crafts. The Cabinet. Paper argued that Tanzania's political and economic independence would not be a reality if Tanzania remained ,!ominated by outside forces.9Indeed,cultural policies become meaningful and effective only when they correspond to the state's political, eCclrtomic and social life. Bu: in an age in which the economic structures of Afric,.11natIOns' ,arc an integral part of the world capitalist system, what type of cultural palicies C.Ll we expect? If the function of Tanzania's cultural policy is the control of outside political and economic inflll:''',,:, thel' "'F: '.~'ould expect a policy which i., ,:,.11.1 :tcrised hy [he ;'"lluwlJl:_ I. mass awareness of the place of culture in socio-economic life; 2. mass i:;:volvement and participation in CJll1munity cultural events as the vanguard of progressive thought; 3. party involvement in dIrecting viable cultural events ill the nation. It is probably in the visual arts that the above characteristics show their greatest defiCiency in Tanzania. Yet it is in the visual arts that exploitation by "outside influences" has been the greatest. By about 1500, for example, Portuguese sailors had a free hand in collecting art objects along the East and West African coasts. By 1899, Duerden noted that there were 20,300 art objects whose origin could be traced to Africa ir. European museums. Furthermore, he observed that "the intellectual mania which led to the creation of museums also led to the wholesale pillaging of so-called primitive societies for specimens". 10 Lacking a clear policy to contain the menace of the exportation of art objects, the Ministry of Culture and Youth in 1975 created the National Arts Council. One of the functions of the new Council was to und~rtake or ass:st any institution or persons in the undertaking of production, importation, exportation and sale of artistic works for any matter appertaining to artistic works. 11 Tn a ""tion which ras no national a;'; gallery to preserve its artlstic heritage, it may seem easy to surrender this ~c'ponsibility to collectors from outside. ':'nd this is indeed what is happening at ihe moment, wiih th'e consequence that art objects from Tanzania can only be ,seen in European galleries. The inevitability of this is apparent since the Party's involvement in directing artistic activities has not yet been spelt out. !n formal education art is tolerated and the same tolerance is shown in adult education progl.lmmes. But whether these institutions take art as a body of knowledge necessary for ,,,, " ,'velopment of human potential, or as a form of consciousness to defend the interest of t.ie masses cannot be firmly assert"d. What is certain is that neither in formal nor in non- formal educallOn .ioes art constitute the core of the curriculum. And yet schools al"av. develop the dominant thoughts and aspirations of society. If society looks at art as a means of knowkdge which can help to educate the masses and thus raise their cultural level, sch.)QI~ will be called upon to promote art in order to fulfil the n.;:cdsau,-' aspiration~ ufsociety .• -..::~ the introduction of Ujamaa and Tllnzania's commitment to t;te liberation of Africa, for example, the VIsual arts cannot remain neutral or indifferent. Indeed it has been observed that: ... the most striking omission in the art of East Africa is Ihe art of social comment. Where does oil artist express feelings about African unity, Africanfrecdomflghters, African sociaiism or protest or social cOllllllcn/ of anI' ,lOr('" Miller was reacting to the neutrality and i;difference of the visual arts to the current political and social clitnate of East Africa of which Tanzanh is a part. Patronage or Visual Arts ,Lacki.ng a rational policy on the pfomotion of the visual arts, Tanzania's patronage is haph~zard and unco-ordinaled with a number of consequences, 5 Firstly, the great demand for products of folk art on the part of urban customers and foreign visitors to Tanzania trf^tens to result in a mass-production souvenir industry. No informal mass education on the part of folk artists Hy fhe National Arts Council »~ ;e Ministry of Information and Culture seems to have been conceived in order to rectify this problem. Secondly, there is a confusion among cultural administrators as to what constitutes African art; hence, Tanzanian art. As a result of this, wood scuplture is often looked upon as the authentic art of Tanzania. This, of course, is a European misconception since the days of Leonardo da vho thought that cultures "nth no painting tradition were uncivilised. With the discovery in Africa of cave paintings, da Vinci's view was dropped. The view resurfaced, however, with the early acquisition of wood and bronze sculpture from Africa. Western collectors, excited by what they saw, wrongly took it for granted that sculpture is the only significant art form of Africa. Several cases can be cited 10 disprove this. Among the Wanyamwezi, for example, wall painting is the most significant art. Economic transformation has brought with it many art forms in Tanzania. The Tinga- tinga school of painting is as significant as a piece of Makonds sculpture; they are both art forms arising from the contemporary economic structure of Tanzania. Amid the lii.Qk.of a rational socialist cultural policy for promoting visual arts, however, art patronage has been practised for historical and puiely functional reasons. The most important patron of the visual arts at the national level is the ruling party. From the days of TANU to CCM, the Party has been active ia commissioning national visual artists to design and execute art works on national monuments as shown in Table 1 below. TABLE 1: ART COMMISSIONS GRANTED BY T A N U AND CCM FROM 1971 TO 1981 10th Independence Anniversary Monument Arusha 1971 10th Independence Anniversary Monument Tabora 1971 10th lnd ndence Anniversary Monument Dar es Salaam 1971 10th Anniversary of the Arusha Declaration: Monument Dar es Salaam 1977 10th Anniversary of the Arusha Declaration: Monument Mwanza 1977 Kagera War Monument Arusha "1980' Kagera War Monument Moshi 1980 Kagera War Monument Songea 1980 Uhuru Struggle Murals CCM Regional Headquarters, Kilimanjaro f981. Cement relief characterises the art work on the Tabora monument, while the Arusha Independence monument's art work features stone chipping mosaic like the Dares Salaam monument symbolising the 10th Anniversary of the Arusha Declaration. The Kagera War monuments are cement sculptures of a single soldier symbolising victory. The murals at the CCM regional office of Kilimanjaro have been executed using coloured stone chipping mosaic. Next in importance as patrons of the visual arts come the parastatal organisations. Table 2 shows a record of art patronage by these public bodies. 6 . Table 2: Art Commissions Granted by Parastatal Organlsations From 1971 to 1981 Name of Parastatal 'Commission Location Year Organisation Bank of Tanzania Mural I'HI Oar es Salaam Kariakoo Markets Corporation . 197:' Mural Oar es SaliUlrr. Board of Internal Trade Mural Oar es Salaam 1976 ' lli.titute of Adult Education Correspondence D~partment Mural Oar es Salaam 1978 Tanzania Po.u-4U1c! Telecommunications H~adquarters Mural Oar es Salaam 1979 Bank of Tanzania Mural Mwanza 1979 University oCDar es Salaam Mural Oar es Salaam 1980 The scene is distinctly brightening here, but caut.:>n is needed. It is always the archite;;,s whO'advis~ their clients to' include murals an the buildings. The parastatal heads themselves ;eldom~take any iinterest'in art warks. This is to' be expected because aesthetic educatian h" had a shaky faundatian since calanial days. Calanial rule everywhere shawed little ar nO' tOlerance for ather peoples' expressive as1'P':,s af culture such as the visual arts. This legaCY seems to' have been carried on by national educational planners and curriculum developers ~~ause. the nation hicks a clear sacialist policy on the arts. Conclusion And Recommendadon~ . it is aften assumpd that the futnrp of the nan-Western cauntries lies alang the path af Westernizatian. Same nan-Western nations, therefare, especially thase building sacialism, respand to this assumption by attempting to' achieve a synthesis of East and West. Indeed, TaT17:mia seems to' ilh:,~trate this duality in cultural matters. In the process af building sacialism alang this s:..r;~hesis, the Party has nat been able to' devise a definite sacialist cultural palicy far the pramatian af the visual arts or any ather arts. As a result of this, it i. impossible taday to' evaluate the role afthe Regianal Cultural Officers, Ie! alone the Natianal Arts Cauncil, in the pramatian 0'( art. The functians of the Arts Council place heavy empl1asis on the production of works of art without mentioning the welfare of the artists. As; a result, mast urban artists praduce art works which bear no correspandence to'ihe socialist id::.Is of the nation. Among its funciions the Council undertakes: (a) to promote the develop-~ent and production of artistic works in Tanzania: (b) to a'e!ic works' auu marke'tin .. of SU~f, works, including the standard and quality of artistic works produced in Ta1)zania; (e) to provide adv;:,,::-y services and technical assistance necessary for, or incidental to, the proper, development of enterprises for the production of artistic works to parastatal organisations and other persons -engaged in su~h enterprises; (f) to advise the government on all matters relating to the development and production of artistic works in Tanzania; (g) to provide and promote training facilities for persons engaged in or employed in enterprises for, the prdduction of artistic works; (h) to undertake or assist any institution or persons ID the undertaking of production, importation, exportation and sale of artistic works for any matter appertaining to artistic works; . (i) to provide by-laws published in the Gazette and in other such manner as the Council may approve, for a system of registration of persons engaged in the production of artistic works for commercial purposes. 13 7 With the Council situated in Dar es Salaam, it is unlikely that such functions can be. performed in a nation with more than 8,000 registered villages (Ujamaa villages). In this fundamental respect, the Council will mainly cater for urban elites. No rational socialist cultural policy can accommodate this state of affairs, even if all the Regional Cultural Officers were to become members of the Arts Council. It is therefore recommended that: 1. There should be a dialogue between the Party and the Ministry responsible for national culture on the place of the visual arts as a means of progressive education. 2. The National Arts Council should be decentralised and villages should be required to set up cultural committees responsible for art promotion. The existing ad hoc committees which are called during national festivals should form the nucleus of the permanent cultural committees. 3. The Ministry of Education should have the responsibility for creating Secondary Schools with an arts bias and should'provide competent teachers to teach the Arts. 4. Factories should initiate art clubs, as they do with traditional dance (ngoma) groups. Only one factory, Tasini Textiles, had an art club when it was privately owned. The > club has since died away for lack of management guidance, after Tasini became a public corporation. , 5. A radio programme on the arts and the socialist revolution should be started by the Ministry or the Arts Council in order to educate the masses on the place of art in the building of socialism. Notes and References .1. B. Swai, "Crisis in Colonial Agriculture: Soil Erosion in Tanganyika During the Inter-War Period/'Utafiti. Vol. V, No. 1, 1980. 2. J.F. Rweyemamu, "International Trade and the Developing Countries" in World Development: An Introductory Reader, New York: Macmillan, 1971. 3. John Malecela, "Some Issues of Development Planning" in Planning in Tanzania: Background to Decentralisation, Rweyemamu (ed.), Dar es Salaam: East African Literature Bureau, 1974. 4. Amadou Mahtar M'Bow, UNESCO Cultural Development Newsletter, No. 25/1981. 5. Amilcar Cabral, "National Liberation and Culture", in Transition, No. 45, Volume 9 (ii), 1974, p. 13. 6. Marshall D. Sahlins and Elman R. Service (eds.) Evolution and Culture, Michigan: The University of Michigan Press, 1970, p.8. 7. Jacques Barzun, "The Arts, The Snobs and The Democrats" in Aesthetic Today, Morris Philipson (ed.), New York: Meridian, 1961, p.15. 8. Quoted in L.A. Mbughuni and G. Ruhumbika, "TANU and National Culture" in Towards Ujamaa, G. Ruhumbika (ed.), Dar es Salaam: East African Literature Bureau, 1974, p. 277. 9. Quoted in L.A. Mbughuni, The Cultural Policy of United Republic of Tanzania, Paris: UNESCO, 1974, p. 30. 10. DennisDuerden,"Art and Technical Progress" in Transition, No. 45, Volume 9 (II), 1974, p. 30. 11. United Republic of Tanzania, The National Arts Act No. 12 of May 1975, p. 2. 12. Judith von D. Miller, Art in East Africa, London: Frederick Miller, Ltd. 1975, p. 18. 13. United Republic of Tanzania, The National Arts Act No. 12 of May 1975, p. 2. 8