UTAFl'll NOTES "The world at present is in great disorder, and factors tending towards both war and revolution are increasing", the Chinese are fond of saying; "there- fore, the international situation is getting better and better". The world was certainly astir while the University for the best part of the period covered in this report was on vaca tion. The students missed the opportunity, for instance, to demonstrate (or manifest, as the French call it) when the arch-imperialist Kissinger visited Dar es Salaam. His visit wa sa result of deepening contradictions in Southern Africa, especially in Zimbabwe, where the prospects for revolution and inter-imperialist war are certainly on the increase. The UNCTAD conference in Nairobi in May 1976 displayed once again the sharpening contradictions between the people of the third world and imperialism. An interesting revelation was the figure of the debt burden incurred by the 86 third world countries up to 1973, a figure of US $118,900 million expected to have reached a figure of $160,000 million at the time of the Conference. Compare this with the estimate given by the World Bank, that citadel of finance capital, in its report of 1970-71, in which it estimated that by 1976 the debt burden would amount to only $4,176 million declining to $2,862 by 1980, the implication being that the third world countries can merrily go on increasing their debt to finance capital for it is ultimately self- liquidating. Obviously the World Bank is up to some game. The other serious problem that came up at UNCT AD was the problem of commodities. The third world countries demanded an integrated programme for commodities, but U. S. imperialism would not have it, and insisted on individual commodity agreements. At the World Employment Conference of the 1LO in Geneva, and the Ecology Conference in Vancouver, similarly, the contradictions between the third world countries and imperialism surfaced in their sharpest form and showed the total bankruptcy of what passes in the name of development programmes for the third world worked out in the board rooms of imperialist countries. The Utafiti would greatly welcome articles from its readers analys- ing the issues that arose in these two conferences. Nearer at home, the situation was getting worse for imperialism, for while Vorster' s machine guns robbed Soweto of hundreds of its valiant fighters for the cause of justice, especially the youth, imperialism has never before seen, certainly not during the cowardly Shnrpeville massacre, the revolutionary fire of the South African youth as it did this time. Vorster immediately clambered on to the nearest plane to confer with his master, 99 Kissinger, in Germany. That was in June. In July, Israel invaded the Entebbe Airport in Uganda in total impunity, and in total disregard of the sovereignly of Uganda and a few days later, in Philadelphia in the United States, a group of Ugandans in exile backed by the physical presence of American and Israeli officers, declared itself sworn to overthrow the Amin regime. Imperialism, it would appear, can place and overthrow their stooges as they want. In August, Amin himself unleashed t e r r o r on the campus at Makerere and carried out a brutal carnage of hundreds of students, leading to the virtual closure of the University. A massive demonstration by the Dar es Salaam students who marched 12 kilometres to town in protest showed that the Makerere massacre deserved as much condemnation as did the Soweto massacre. In the midst of all this, the relations between Kenya and Uganda rapidly deteriorated, and by the time the University of Dar es Salaam opened for its new session in July, it looked as if the institution that suffered most as a result of these contradictions was the East African Community. This, in brief was the political landscape of the period covered in this report. The University was in the midst of examinations in the first half of this period and in vacation in the second half. However, three important events are worth reporting. One is the launching of the discussions on the ways and means by which the University could be made more self-reliant; the second is the formal inauguration of the three-year Decentralisation project of the Faculty starting April, 1976j and the third is the Adult Education and Development Conference held in June at the University organised by the Tanzanian National Conference Committee and the Inter- national Council for Adult Education. We shall start with the last one first. EDUCATION FOR SELF-RELIANCE The conferees from all over the world at the Adult Education conference heard President Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere at the inaugural session define the meaning of Adult education and development. Since the purpose of development i s "the liberation of Man", the purpose of education is "the liberation of Man from the restraints and limitations of ignorance and dependency". But education i s a process of self-learning. "Adult learners should be learning by doing, just a s . . .a child learns to walk by walking". *What then in the role of the adult educator? His role is to give to the adult learner what he already possesses. "The adult educator.. . i s not giving to another something which he is possessing. He is helping the learner to develop his own potential and his own capacity". This method has three advantages. "He has built up the self-confidence of the man who wants to learn, by show- 100 ing him that he is capable of contributing. He has demonstrated the relevance of experience and observation as a method of leaming when combined with thought and analysis. And he has shown •.. the 'mutuality' of learning - tha t is, that by sharing our knowledge we extend the totality of our understanding and control over our lives". But "adult education is not something which can deal with just 'agricul- ure', or 'health' or 'literacy' or 'mechanical skill', etc." Indeed, "the first function of adult education is to inspire both a desire for change, and an understanding that change is possible. For a belief that poverty or suffering is the 'Will of God' and that mar.'s only task is to endure, is the most .funda- mental of all the enemies of freedom". The second stage of adult education, then, is "helping people to work out what kind of change they want, and how to create it" . Hence education is an intensely political activity. "Politicians are some- times more aware of this fact than educators, and therefore they do not always welcome real adult education" . The President thus put his finger just right on the spot. Education is indeed an intensely political activity. I t was therefore somewhat surprising to hear Ndugu A. Jamal, the Minister of Finance and PIa nning, addressing the conference in the following terms. "Today science and technology", he observed correctly, "serve for the most pa rt of the purpose of capital accumula- tion in the hands of the few". But he went on then to add, obviously unaware of any contradiction: "Instead (sic!) science and technology must now move into the rural areas and the slums of the world, and make a frontal attack there in the service of healthy human development. It is a colossa I waste of global resources for the rich to continue to direct science and technology to increase their own ca pacity for still higher consumption as well as towards arming themselves ••• when the sa me effort aimed at the villages and slums of the poor countries would benefit ten times more people". Did the Minister really think that the tiger will change its colour, that Ca pitalism will cha nge its character and cease to serve the needs of "accumulation in the hands of the few" by moral appeals to the poverty of the third world, and the "New Economic Order?" Indeed, is not the invitation of capitalist technology into Our rural areas an invitation to the tiger into our ba ckyard so that it can more effectively pillage our people? Socialism, we are often told, is a conception of man-centred society. But is it difficult to understand that technology, under the ca pitalist mode of prOduction, cheapens the value of man's labour-power, and increases the value of the commodity in relation to the value of the man? I t is the paradox of capitalist production that it values dead labour (technology) more than it 101 values living labour. Witness the vast reserve of unemployed industrial reserve armies in the third world countries as evidence of the fact that the increasing value of the world of commodities proceeds in direct proportion to the devaluation of the world of men. Technology is not just a thing. Inherent in it are certain relations of production; relations between men appearing as relations between things. Adult education that aims simply to impa rt technica I skills to our rural peasants in the science of agriculture produces at the sa me time a certai n social relationship of production. As we observed in the Utafiti Notes of the last issue, the question of production relations are often ignored in preference for the demands of increased productivity in certain sectors of the planning activity in Tanzania. Education, sure enough, is"an intensely political activity. Indeed, it is even more specific than that. I t is, as Janaki Tschannerl put it in her paper for the Conference"an instrument for class struggle and class dictatorship, and all knowledge that comes from it is bound to be thoroughly permeated with a class character". This aspect of Adult Education and development was all too ea sHy ignored at the Conference. There was much talk of how education could be democratised, and how the bureaucrats could be "deburea ucratised" Ca Utopian aspiration, this one), but not enough on the underlying socia I relations of production. FROM EDUCATION FOR SELF-RELIANCE TO SELF-RELIANCE IN EDUCATIONAL I NSTI TIJ TI ONS Writing in the editf)rial of the August 1970 editors of the Ea st Africa Journal, "iconoclast" had this to say a bout the newly established University of Dar es Salaam "Our guess is that the University of Dar es Salaam win only be allowed to be educationally innovative in areas that people do not care very much a bout. It will be impossible for it to be the instrument of radical social change since it has to begin by accepting the straitjacket of 'the principles of sOcialism' accepted by the people of Tanzania". Anyone familiar with the inside working of the University of Dar es Sala am will quickly see that this was one of those prophets of doom who has lived to see the folly of his own prophecy. Thi s is beca use for the past few months several meetings have been held on ca mpus and in town with the a im of finding ways in which the University can involve itself more intimately with the kind of socia I change that can be brought through implementation of the accepted party policies. The specific policies under discussion were those in respect to productive work and to self-reliance. 102 When the Party National Ex ecutive Committee deci ded in November 1974 (see the Mlsoma Resolution in the Document section) to re-examine the policy paper "Education for Self-Reliance", most people thought tha t this was the beginning of another theoretical debate when what the pa rty was asking for was practical translation of the declared principles. Publicity bas been given to the large farm run by the Faculty of Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Sciences at Morogoro as University's participation in the exercise. What other faculties, institutes and bureaux have been asking themselves is whether they too can embark on productive projects. Already the Faculty of Engineering has on drawing boards blue prints for an insti tute of Production lnnovation which will challenge the designing ca pability of the University engineers (rather than the 'maintenance' engineers critics of the faculty ;tiiVe assumed exist there). The IPI will not involve itself with just big projects for parastatals and large private firms but will also look at the whole question of indigenous technology which needs improving to help peasa nts and workers of Tanzania take a more significant part in the ongoing revolution. The Faculty of Science has alrea dy produced a few prototypes of apparatus and facilities for USE' in the schools. They ha ve decided to be pretty innovative about it in order to maximize use of the Tanzanian environment rather than use of imported technology tied to the international ca pita lis t system. Abuudant solar energy, sea products, tropic a 1 vegetation etc., all play an important part in the Faculty's efforts to ansWer the national call. The faculty does not see any contra dicti on between maintaining its independ- ence in scientific research methods and service to the public; one complements the other. The F acul ty of Medicine, a part from the monumental socia 1 service it renders through its work in the Muhimbili consultant hospital, is also looking at ways it can further help Tanzania be self-reliant in medical and related fields. The remaining faculties, institutes and burea ux are also involved in onE! way or another in examining how best they can respond to this call. Taking part in these discuss ions ha ve been all heads of departments, directors of institutes/bureaux, deans of faculties, heads of service institutions widlin the University, representa tives of workers and students. The discussions are not completed yet since they would be meaningless without the rest of the staff and students taking pa rt. '1'0 this end, arrangements a re being made to Ca rry on the discussion in a wider circle - in Board meetings, student a ssembly etc. The discussion on productive work rai.ses the important question of definition. Wha t exactly, is productive work? This question is forcing ea ch participrolt to re-define his understanding of the concept so that both the 103 implementation and the evaluation at the end can be done as objectively as possible. A major contradiction which ha s surfaced so far is betweeen efforts to produce while no efforts have been taken to seriously cut down on costs. Any g~in through productive work could well end in offsetting losses incurred through careless and unplanned use of resources and facilities. An awareness of the contradiction has led all discussion groups so far to also focus on strategies for reducing costs everywhere. The task will not be as easy as it appears at first sight but recognition of the contradiction is an important beginning. Since this is a political question, it will be important to raise the political consciousness of all those concerned, including that of those who do not necessarily believe in Tanzania's experiment. It would be impossible at this stage for Utafiti to inform its readers of the extent to which the University has succeeded in effectively involving itself in the two tasks i. e. prodllctive work and self-reliance. One would have to read 'progress reports' from time to time in these columns to follow the debate as it advances. SELF-RELiANCE ANDDECENTRALlSATION Tanzania is one of the few African countries which have attempted a major and systematic reorganisation of the administrative structure inherited from the colonial period in an effort to bring about a more rapid and evenly distributed development in the rural areas. It has introduced, since 1972, wide-ranging decentralisation measures, following the advice of Mackinsey Consultancy. And the Faculty of Arts and Social Science of the University has been involved in a major way in helping the Government and the Party in evaluating the progress of the Decentralisation measures, and in carrying out both long-term academic research and short-term policy-oriented research which would ensure regula r feedback to policy-makers. The University has released five full-time and part-time staff for the purpose, with Dr. S. Mushi of the Department of Political Science as its Director. There is no question tha t the Denentralisation Project is of major importance. The project has only just begun (April, 1976) though some amount of preparatory work has already gone into it. Perhaps in a future issue of the Utafiti it might be possible to give space to the progress and achievements of this Project, but at this stage it is only possible to raise some pertinent issues. 'There is, of course, nothing inherently socialist about decentralisation. It can move in the direction of organismg people at the local level to master their own affairs, but it can also move in the direction of providing the cstral government with the means to make the people at the local level more 104 responsive to its demands, for example, of increased production. Decentralisa- tion as a science of administration has made its fullest developmentunder capitalism, as the Mackinsey Consultancy no doubt knew. As Lenin once said in his polemics with Rosa Luxemburg: "Obviously, one cannot conceive of a modern, truly democratic state tha t did not grant such autonomyto every region •••• The principle of centralism, which is essential to the development of capitalism, is not violated by this autonomy, but on the contrary is applied by it demo- L, craticall not bureaucra tically. The broad, free and rapid development of capita ism would be impossible, or at least greatly impeded by the absence of such autonomy, which facilitates the concentration of capital, the development of productive forces, the unity of the bourgeoisie and the unity of the proletariat on a country-wide scale; for bureaucratic interference in ~ure~ local questions is one of the greatest obstacles to economic and po itic development in general, and an obstacle to centralism in serious, important and fundamental matters in particular." ("Critical Remarks on the National Question"). It is necessary to have this historical understanding of decentralisation in the context of the development of capitalism. I n the context of the deve- lopment of socialism, it is further necessary to bear in mind certain important Issues which could not have occurred, by the nature of things, to the manage- ment-mindedMackinsey Consultants. I n particular, and gi ven the openly declared policies of Tanzania and within their own terms, it is possible to raise the following twelve questions. ~. The predecentra lisation government structure wa s criticised in the past for the absence of functional integration between the activities of the various ministries working in the rural areas. Is it expected of the new measures tha t such an integration will now take place? Two. I n creating this horizontal integration, decentra lisation could limit the freedom of action of the professional and the specialist in the ministries, a nd could cause conflict between the specialist and the politician. Has this been one "f the effects of decentralisation? ~. One of the main objectives of decentralisation was to relieve the centre of some of its duties. But given the scarcity of resources for deve- lopment and recurrent expenditure, and a situation of competition between regions, has not the power of the centre in fact enhanced relative to the regions? ~. Has decentralisation lengthened the decision-making process? Has this meant putting more effective power in the hands of the villagers or in the hands of local bureaucrats? ~. Has decentralisation increased efficiency in terms of increased production and increased productivity? Six. Has decentralisation increased the flow of resources (material or - \ personnel) from the centre to the villages? 105 ~. Has decentralisation facilitated a more equitable distribution of material and technical resources in the rural areas, or has it tended to con- solidate the pre-existing patterns of allocation and socio-economic power? Eight. Has decentralisation, as expected, encouraged a more efficient use of locally available resources and discouraged village reliance for govern- ment subventions? Nine. It is suggested by some that the bias of decentralisation has been in the direction of making the peasants more responsive towards demands made by the centre, while the bias of measures such as Party Supremacy and the 1975 Villages and Ujamaa Villages Act has been towards making bureau- cr3.cy more responsive and accountable to people at the local level. If this is true, has it created contradictions between the professional bureaucrats and technical staff and the Political Party cadres? Or are they, on the contrary, mutually reinforcing in increasing the responsiveness of the people at the local level to the demands made by the centre? ~. What is the relationship between Government parastatals and the decentralisation measure? I t is known, for example, that by 1975 only about J.4 per cent of the Government Development budget and 30 per cent of the Recurrent budget had been decentralised to the regional authorities, and that a large part of it was spent in activities of building the social infrastructure, while leaving the directly productive activities, in the hands of para statal bodies. This question therefore is of the utmost importance. Eleven. What are the manpower implications of the decentralisation measures? 1t has been suggested that decentralisation has been accompanied with a very rapid growth of expenditure of funds on personal emoluments (mainly salaries and wages which account for almost 80 per cent of the re- current expenditure). Twelve. A preliminary investigation of the impact of decentralisation in Mafia (1975) pointed to the possibility of class consolida tion in rural areas. What impact has decentralisation had on the developmE!nt of class stratification in the se areas? If the Decentralisation Project is able to yield material that will answer the above questions, it would become one of the major sources of data for an analysis of contemporary Tanzania, and of the development of its policies towards socialism. REPORTS OF OTHER ACTl VITlES We wrote to various Departments to present reports to us on their various activities, and we reproduce below a sample of what we received. 106 From the Department of Geography we received a paper presented at the Geography subject meeting in Nairobi in April, 1976, which observed that "a fierce debate is currently ranging in the faculty at large over the shift of emphc!sis from structural patterns to social relations of production". In line with this the Department of Geography has progressively moved "from examination of development surrogates to analysis of the economic and sOcial relationships which have created and sustained underdevelopment". Further- more, "reliance on statistical techniques is substantially replaced by the quest for historical verification, and conceptually the formulation shifts to an holistic viewpoint from which even the remotest, 'most tradition bound' areas a re seen to be part of a single unified society integrated, in greater or lesser degreee, into the international capitalist system". This is all a progres- sive depa rture from the past towards a more scientific approach to the study of Geography. The Department ran two parallel seminar series, one on Geographic Methodology for M.A. students and staff, and another on Regional Planning. The following semina rs were organised by the Department some of them in conjuction with BRALUP. L. Berry (Professor of Geography, Clark University): Applied Research and Development. B. Kayser (Director of Institute of Geography, Toulouse University): Town- Country Relationships in the Mediterranian. l.D. Thomas (Lecturer in Geography, East AngUa University): Evalua tion of Land Resources for Development Villages in I ringa Region. J. Moore (Senior Lecturer in Geography, North Stratfordshire polytechnic): Problems of Regional Development Planning in Mwanza Region. A. Sandberg (Senior Research Fellow, BRALUP): Rukwa Rural Integrated Development Programme. G. Tschannerl (Senior Research Fellow, BRALUP): Further comments on Integrated Planning: Village Services for Rukwa Region. In the Education Department, the Seminars during the period covered were a combination of reports from conferences, indi vidua I research papers from Education staff ,and group efforts by staff and students. The following semina rs were given: - Conference Report on Enje- Yuga, Ghana: Problems of children and youth in inter-tropical zones. (Shedu Chamugwana). - Maadili ya Jamii na Malezi ya Taifa: Jitihada ya Tanzania katika Kujenga Vijana Wenye Moyo wa Ki-ujamaa. (Shedu Cha mugwana). - French students in Struggle (Gerard Phillipson). - Towards Improving Teaching and learning in small groups - students' 107 attitudes at Ike University of Dar es Salaam Department of Education (A.S. Meena). - RegionalInequalities in access to Education in Tanzania. Q.K. Amri). - Selection in Education. (Roger Anderson), - On Punishment ,(J. Amri, Joseph All* N..M..J. Kamuhalwa, W.R. Mweteni). In addition $o these seminars the Department staff also held subject meetings to discuss the content of all the courses taught in the Department. All these will aow appear in a handbook edited byM. S. Muze« As is evident from the titles thetopics ranged widely, and there was considerable participa- tion both in the presentation and organization of seminars by students. One consequence was the emphasis on topics of central importance to them, such as the question of intelligence tests used in. selection and discrimination in schools; such as the use of corporal and other punitive measures in schools and their underlying reasons. The question of intelligence testing was vigorously discussed: the debate centred around the thesis that in intelligence tests and other such selection procedures are used as instruments of class domination to discriminate systematically and "objectively" against students from peasant and working: class backgrounds who by the nature of the tests theniselves would do poorly. Such a discussion was specially relevant since there is now some consideration af this use in Tanzania. The discussion on Punishment was also hotly debated. It took on special significance since some twenty students from Azania , Forodhani and Jang- wani Secondary Schools participated. It was reported both in the presentations and by the school students that corporal punishment is widely practisedj that it was very common to also use digging and other manual activities connected with the self-reliance programme. It was farther noted that the reason of punishment was rarely explained or discussed. What then is the reason for punishment? 1 s it not because relations are dominant and places where obedience and individual accountability are instilled in the young? The reason for this being that education is central to the reproduction of the social relations of production in class societies. There was also discussion on the general attitude of teachers toward students, parents 'responsibility and the concept that corporal punishment is necessary for learning . The Economic Research Bureau's activities were reported on more fully in the first issue of "Utafiti and a sample given of the kinds of issues raised in their seminars, and the different positions held on these issues. Here we merely give a list of seminars held during the period covered, reminding our readers that they may purchase ERB Papers, directly by writing to the Bureau. 1. Population Growth and Agricultural Development: The African Contin- 108 ent with emphasis on Tanzania. By G.C. Francispillai. 2. Lidep's Vegetable Case Study. By R. R. Matango. 3. Decision-making in Tanzania's National Bank of Commerce (NBC) Controls and Participation Dichotomy. By Ngila Mwase. 4. Inflation: Tanzania's Dilemma. By P. Masette Kuuya. 5. Causes of"Excess Capacity in Selected Industries in Tanzania. By S.M. Wangwe. 6. Export-Import Policy and ints 1mpact on the General Economics of Tanzania. By N. A. Pillai. 7. Nyarubanja System and Both Development and Ujamaa Villages in West Lake Region. By. J. Bugengo. 8. A General Model of Planning Techniques. By B. Adams. 9. The Tanzanian Price Control System: Theory and Practice, and some Possible Improvements. By C. Rice. 10. Housing and Construction in the Tanzanian Economy - an Inter-Industry Approach. By Tore W. Kiosterud. 11. Import Substitution as a Development Strategy: A Case Study of Cement Production in Tanzania. By P. Masette Kuuya. 12. Labour Development and Related Labour Policies with emphasis on Government Ministries and P arasta ta Is in Tanzania. By 1. A. Khamis. 13. An Appraisal of the East African Economic I ntegration Scheme - Critica I 1ssues and Possibilities. By Kwan S. Kim. 14. Engel Curve Estimation of Four Major Consumption I terns from the 1969 Tanzanian Household Budget Survey. By Roger Adikins. 15. On the Nature of Underdevelopment: An Analysis of Two Views on Underdevelopment. By Marc E. Wuyts. In addition to the above Seminar papers two seminars were organised by the Bureau where no papers were presented. The spea kers were visiting Tanzania at the time: 1. Petroleum Crisis and the LDC's: Effects and Energy Policy Alternati ves. By Professor R. Dunn. 2. The Multinational Corporations and Income Distribution. By Professor Powelson. The Department of Kiswahili in conjuction with the I nstitute of Swahili Research conducted workshops on Oral Literature in Tanzania and compiled several booklets for teaching purposes in all secondary schools. Oral Litera- ture is now taught to all form one students with effect from this year and will be pa rt of the Na tional Swahili Exam in form I V with effect from 1978. The Department of Kiswahili in conjuction with the I nstitute of Swahili Research conducts seminars on new approaches to Swa hili Grammar and 109 Syntax to secondary school teachers. I t is thought tha t this will raise the standard of Swahili Language Teaching in the country. The Department of Literature organised a series of seminars wi th the general theme of Marxism and Literature. The two visiting lecturers who ga ve the following ta lks were the English Ma rxist, Stanley Mitchell, and the South African writer, Alex Laguma. The talks were well attended by staff and students from other Departments besides Literature and opened up a number of issues on proletarian literature and the socio-economic roots of contem- porary African literature. The Marxist Theory of Litera ture - S. Mitchell African Literature and the Marxist conception of the Arts - Alex Laguma The Development of Literature Under capitalism - S. Mitchell Literature and the Anti-I mI'erialist Struggle - Alex Laguma Socialism and the writer: The Case of Bertold Brecht - S. Mitchell "Socialist Realism" and its Relevance to Africa - Alex Laguma George Lukacs as a Marxist Critic - S. Mitchell We shall have more to say about the activities of other Departments in the future issues of Utafiti. 110