SOME AS PECTS OF IDEOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE POST-COLONIAL STATE IN TANZANIA H. Goulbourne+ INTRODUCTION Although the importance of politics and ideology in the much discussed 'novel experience' of Tanzania are generally recognized, they are very rarely _ and this is particularly true of ideology - the subjects of rigorous analyses. There can be little doubt, however, of the fact that the ideological question is crucial in the internal developments of the post-colonial state in African societies such as Tanzania. Such political and ideological developments require situating within a wider and more rigorous analytical framework than this paper, given its scope, is able to offer. The present effort must therefore be understood as being a preliminary analysis of the function of ideology in the specific context of the Tanzanian experience which will necessarily require greater theoretical elaboration. 1. The Problem. The ideological factor in the Tanzanian social formation derives its import- ance from its role within the specificity of the experience of the classes comprising that formation. This is not to say that this role cannot be under- stood from a general understanding of ideology, but simply to stress that the particular expression ideology assumes in Tanzania can best be appreciated if placed within the context of a specific social practice. The point may be expressed another way: ideological functions in Tanzania, as in other social formations, are derived from the fundamental contradictions characteristic of that society. It follows, therefore, that a potentially fruitful analysis of ideologytakes as its starting point the contradictions evident in the society being analysed. This has not been the general practice oj those who have considered the question of ideology in Tanzania. Studies which touch upon or deal directly withthe questions,. tend to assume that ideology can be treated as"a neutral +Lecturer, Department of Political Science, University of Dar es Salaam. 377 instrument which may be taken and used indiscriminately. For example, Benien hailed the Arusha Declaration as being "an ideology for Africa", 1 as if ideology is like a knife which can be used to cut with and therefore it is a question of finding the correct ideology for a given situation. On the 'left' the situation has not been any better: Cliffe and Saul, as representatives of early 'leftist' trends in Tanzanian academic life, reduced the question of ideology to an unspecified set of abstractions. Still for others the question would appear to be reducable to a general, and necessarily vague, question of international finance capital. There is, in short a conspicuous lack of a thorough-going analysis of ideology which takes as its starting point a material- ist perspective of the class contradiction and struggle in Tanzania. 2 This point has particular bearing on the efforts of those who take as their unit of analysis the political thought of President Nyere ....e. 3 The President is usually treated as if he lived, worked and thought in a vaccum; he is usually presented as if he is an island in himself. Such treatments, of course, ignore Nyerere's own stress on the close relationship between society, econ- omy and policy. His preoccupation with the very real socio-economic and political problems of Tanzania from which his political views derive are not perceived as part of the cognition process. 4 The general view that emerges consequently from the literature is one that further mystifies rather than clarifies the question of ideology. With respect to'the specific case of the Tanzanian social formation this question is usually presented within theoretical frameworks which are inadequate for the task of generating questions which can signal any significant advance in our under- &.tandinl:l of that formation. So far then as a general or formal definition of ideology is possible and useful, ideology is best regarded as being the reconst- itution of an imaginary relationship at a specific level of SOcial existence. This understanding of the question is, of course, derived from the works of Louis Althusser and Nicos Poulantzas5 and is adopted not without some caution because some or-the logical outcomes of this formulation are wholly misleading. It cannot be denied, however, that this perception of ideology, particularly if restricted to capitalist formations, marks a distinct advance in a materialist understanding of the complexities involved in the 'base/superstructure' problem. The limited scope of this paper does not allow for the development of these points but it is important to indicate the relevance of this understanding of the question for the purpose at hand. 378 Firstly, the formulation takes us away from a presentation of ideology as being a simple and direct representation of the 'real' and therefore rejects the crude dichotomybetween the 'real'/'unreal' as foundin the formulations articulated by Lukas and Korsch who, amongst others, have kept alive the Hegelianismof the young Marx. Ideology as a specific aspect of a social practice must be perceived ao:;being very real indeed but this does not mean that it is 'true'; the question, however, need not necessarily be related to the empirically defined 'truth' /'falsity' problem found in the historicist formulation. Whatare therefore reflected - if this is the best way to express the point - are not in fact the real relations themselves but an existing false understanding of those relations. This may be illustrated by Marx's own analysis of the first encounter betweenlabour and capital in the market whenthe former appears aff;seller (of labour power) and the latter appears as purchaser (of labour/time). In this encounter the two agents enter the market as 'equals', as 'bare individuals' andthey exchange equivalents. Yet, this encounter, with its apparent equality, 'hides' the fundamental contradiction between capital and labour whichexists prior to this isolated encounter and which is fundamentalto their wider social relations. Thus bourgeois juridicio-political ideology blurs, hides, the distinction between capital and labour so effectively that bourgeois political economy, even at its highest stage of development, was unable to fathomthis contradiction underpinning the apparent equality. The scene of transaction, therefore, appears as "in fact a very Eden of the innate rights of man". But this does not nullify the fact.that this 'phenomenalform', as Marx calls it, exists: the 'individuals' live their ideological existence. The questionof ideology in Tanzania can be fruitfully approached in this m.......... ller; certainly, it cannot be understood in terms of the 'real' /'unreal' or 'true' / 'false' dichotomous categories. The rather simplistic notion that arises from this formulation of the question that ideology is a sort of instrument which can be manipulated to more or less move people to do or not to do a particular set of social action, is not particularly analytically useful. Secondly, the formulation under consideration _ particularly as elaborated by Poulantzas - allows for a more theoretically adequate understanding of the complexitythat ideology is in capitalist socialjormations. This is perhaps the strongest point in Poulantzas' presentation of the Question. I\:leology,for him,has a specific region which exercises some autonomy, alth~gh det.er- 379 mined in the last instance by the economic; it is a "relatively coherent en- 6 samble of representations, values, beliefs" and different aspects of ideology _ the moral, political, religious, economic - may dominate the rest depending on the combination in a specific mode of production. In the feudal social for- mation, although the political was the dominant region in the formation it was religious ideology which tended to dominate the various aspects of ideology, not the political. Under capitalism, on the other hand, the dominant region within the ideological was, at a particular phase, the juridico-political, under monopolycapital economic ideology is tending, in Poulantzas' view, to dominate, It is characteristic of the dominant region of the ideological that it not only hides the fundamental contradictions in capitalist society but it also hides the fact of its dominance. This dominance may be identified by the degree of borrow. ing by other ideologies from ~ particular aspect, for example, borrowings from religious ideology under feudalism and borrowings from the juridicio- political under capitalism. An important consideration that flows from this discussion is the fact that for Poul-antzas there is no one, single ideology perceiyable at particular periods of a given mode of production. There are at anyone point in time, a number of ideologies co-existing - in capitalist formations there may be expected to be bourgeois, working-class, peasant, petit-bourgeois, etc., ideologies. In such a formation the dominant ideology need not necessarily be bourgeois ideology as it would appear in the historicist formulation of the problem. Almost invariably a mixture of feudal, bourgeois, petit-bourgeois ideologies may be expected'to form the ideological at anyone time. The dominantideology, for example bourgeois ideology in such a formation, will be 'contaminated' by the sub-ensamble of ideologies in the society and will not therefore exist in a 'pure' form. Such a presentation is invaluable in any endeavour to understand the question of ideolasy in a post-coloni,al state such as Tanzania where ideology appears to play an important role in the social formation. The formulation helps us to raise some relevant que~tions made necessary by the fact that the social formation being lq.oked at exists within a post-colonial situation. Thus, the idea that one may expect to find an impure bourgeois ideology, for example, in the metropolitan 'centres', properly handled, can help us to hyPOthesise more usefully about the mixed nature of ideology of the forma- tion under consideration. This leads to the whole question of 'petit-bourgeois ideology' but although this concept can be useful it is not wholly adequate to 380 deal with the question of ideology in the Tanzanian sOcial formation, because to characterize ideology in Tanzania merely as 'petit-bourgeois I is insufficient. For, although this supposed fragmented class is expected to project a correspondingly fragmentary and eclectic ideology these features of ideology in Tanzania necessarily leads also to a consideration of the effect of imperial_ ism on ideological construction. A third aspect of this formulation which is of importance to this paper is the view that ideology has a "specific objective level" in the social for- mationand that it therefore has identifiable functions. 7 The stress on the 'function' of ideology in Althusser and Poulantzas is such that some of their critics have correctly pointed to the high functional understanding of ideology whichmay possibly arise from their presentations of the question.8 Even so, the function of ideology cannot be ignored and what is therefore more useful is to determine the status that' function' has as a criterion for the definition of ideology, rather than to abandon it, even though it may appear to bring us close to an empirically defined functionalism. Ideology attempts to ignore, and exclude the contradictions operative at another dimension of social life. Ideology in class society thereby ~ttem'Pts to resolve these contradictions at its plane of social existence; it attempts . to get people to see themselves as parts of a harmonious whole and to such an extent ideology may be logical, consistent and coherent. Indeed, such is the integrative, cohesive function of ideology that a dominant ideology usually forces the oppressed classes to carry out their ideological struggle within the framework set by that ideology. In the specific cas e of the Tanzanian social formation the cohesive function of ideology is a necessary one due to historical developments _ of course, not all particular to that formation. The new governing faction which assumed formalpolitical powers, were forced to be creative if they were to surmount these problems and one implication of this was that the development of ideological functions in Tanzania took on an active and dynamic character- istic, so much so that to a considerable degree an occlusion of its objective functionhas been achieved. 2. Ideological Functions in Tanzania. In more specific terms some of the most important aspects of the functions of ideology in the Tanzanian social formation have been to (1) create a new unity of the SOcial formation itself, (ii) establish a new framework within 381 which the concept of work would appear acceptable to the productive classes and, (iii) foster a significantly modified concept of the state. These relate to the function of political ideology which is the dominant region of ideology in tb,e Tanzanian formation; and therefore tend to dominate the other areas of it. These do not exhaust the specific functions of ideology in this formation but they may be tentatively stated as being the more important aspects. These three specific instances of ideological factions may be treated separately for analytical purposes but in practice they are of course closely intertwined and do not enjoy the autonomyor independence the presentation would appear to attribute to them. One of the social effects of the backward state of the Tanzanian economy was that with the nationalist struggle for political independence in the 195Os, there was an almost total unity of social classes behind the banner of TAND. What little opposition there was the Party was able to surmount more easily than if' there had been a greater degree of social differentiation in the society of the kind prevalent in some former West African colonies. Indeed, in some non-African colonies the process of constitutional decolonization took as long as two or more generations to mature not merely because the colonialists were reluctant to relinguish power but more importantly because of the intra-class conflict in the colonies themselves over the very issue of independence. Tanganyika did not go through such a process as Nyerere himself recognizes - "The fact is" he wrote and has repeated in various places and forms, "historical circumstances favoured Tanganyika". 10 in this part- icular respect., But the degree of unity which was achieved during the nationalist period seemed destined to break-down at the impact of political independence after 1961. For although independence did not bring about fundamental changes in the socio-economic arrangements of the country, it did have very important effect upon them. Very quickly the undeveloped class formation both started and held back by colonialism began to develop as government institutions expanded, as localization of aspects of the civil service occurred and as education and other career-oriented fields developed and offered opportunities to hitherto blocked segments of the class that assumed political power. In short, the nationalist unity crumpled by the degree to which the 'petit- bourgeoisie', or the 'nizers' or the 'bureaucratic-bourgeoisie' 11 (how- ever described) began to develop and distinguish itself from the depressed working class in the towns and the mass of the peasantry. Contradictions 382 betweenthe classes and within the 'petit-bourgeoisie' itself began to find political expression - the very terrain on which the struggle for independence had been fought.. Being a relatively inexperienced governing faction the leadership reacted harshly _ at least initially _ to this crisis of unity, imposing drastic measures to ensure control, particularly after the army mutiny in 1964 which supplied the leadership with the opportunity to forcefully nip in the bud any alternative source of power in the society, such as the trade union movement. But the Tanzanian leadership may be distinguished from most African political leader- ships by its sense to seek for a more lasting social peace not by force but by ideological means; thus whilst political force may have been used to restore a working unity, its continuation could only be safeguarded by the ideological weaponry of the state. One of the main characteristics of the ideological level in the Tanzanian formation therefore is the notion of social and political unity; if at the more practical level of day-to-day existence the formation reveals its rifts and contradiction, at the ideological plane these do not appear. In his early and important essay, Ujamaa: The Basis of African Socialism, Nyerere, who himself articulates the tenets of this ideology clearest in Tanzania., B.rgtied that the main characteristic of traditional African society, which he wished to see having a bearing on contemporary developments in the country, was unity. This unity was expressed in the spirit of 'ujamaa', or 'familyhood' whichwould also be the source of the new unity he sought for the new Tanzania. The new social order was to be informed by "\taluesto be found in the traditional African family. Even after the Arusha Declaration the word retained this meaning for Nyerere who stressed that..'ujamaa' was specially chosen to describe the socialism that Tanzania wished to follov, it was chosen because "it brings to the mind of our people the 'idea of ,mutualinvolvement in the family as we know it". 12 For Nyerere the family ~. African traditional society was a harmonious unit within which there vas no fundamental rift reflecting particularistic interests; the interest of the individual was also the interest of the whole. For Nyerere, therefore, the individual in pre-colonial (pre-capitalist) African society enjoyed an equality with his fellows because there were no class interests "I doubt V the equivalent for the idea of 'class' exists in any indig~ous African language; for language describes the ideas of those who speak it and the idea of class or 'caste' was non-existent in African society" .13 Rather, it 383 was the 'extended family' which was the basis or the foundation of the social order that obtained and was informed by the mutual feeling members of a family are assumed to have for each other. Taking these propositions as the starting-point of his SOcial-political philosophy, Nyerere has repeatedly emphasized that in the attempt to build socialism, defined as 'ujamaa', Tanzania would be opposed to "doctrinaire socialism which seeks to build its happy society on a philosophy of inevitable conflict between man and man" ; 14 Nyerere found this conflict "intolerable" because it is fundamentally antagonistic and devisive. This position has remained a basic principle in Nyerere's social thinking even though its presentation has been sometimes modified. This basic political position has had profound effects on the development of the state ideologic6l apparatuses in Tlmzania, such as the politicd .party and the ideology of political participation has been served by it. Two illustrc,tions may serve to make the point 'clearer . The stress on unity helps to present all Tanzanians, irrespective of the determinate structural position they occupy in the society, as equals in their relations to the means of production; all are described as workers and consequently the antagonistic underlying relation between capital and labour is perceived as non-existent because all participants in a given concern are involved in a commonenterprise. This view very much resembles the marginal utility theory which held that both labour and capital receive what they brought to the enterprise OF, the post-industrial society 'theories' of sociologists such as Dahrendorff, which identify a common interest in the e.conomyby all. The situation in Tanzania has been stated more explicitly and pllrticularly in relation to the economy. For example, Job Lusinde, a Minister, told a group of NDC Managers in 1970 that public enterprises "are owned by the public who include workers of the enterpnses themselves" .15 The wod~er, generally, is presented and encouraged to see himself as 'owner' or 'partner' not merely an 'employee' of a given public enterprise. The Presidential Circular, No.1, of 1970 conceived of workers being eventually regarded as "fully respected partner s" because, presumably, nationalization entailed "communityownership". 16 The legal form which is currently utilised to express property ownership (nationalisation) plays the function of blurring the contradictory relation between labour and capital, whatever form capital may take in this specific context. Of course, this is not unique 384 to the Tanzanian case, but given the relative political positions between the classes in Tanzanian society, this may be more effective than elsewhere. Secondly, the unitary perspective that ideology provides also has serious implications at the political level. Pratt,17 among others, has correctly stressed the fact that in Nyerere's conception of the polity there is no room for conflicting groups; in the President's view of society and polity a har- monious relationship exists so that one all-embracing group - the party (TANU/CCM)- is sufficient to accommodate all possible views. The Party which claims and is seen to represent the wishes of the people as a whole also serves as the forum for the 'arguing until we agree' perception of democracy that Nyerere endorsed in his early polemical pieces. For example, in cne such paper, "The African and Democracy", 18 he postulated that democracy need not take the two-party form it'has taken in western countries and therefore the prescription of these forms for Africa was incqrrect and betrayed an insensitivity to indigenous democratic practice. Discussion, equality and freedom were African characteristics and Nyerere has always argued that these should be given institutional forms in a developing Tanzanian state. Thus, in his Guide to the commissioners who were asked to look into the mechanics of establishing a one-party state in Tanzania, the President specifically emphasized that although there would be "maximum political freedom for all" this freedom would have to be exercised "within the context of a single national movement". 19 The Commission was not asked to consider, the President pointed out, "whether Tanganyika should be a one-party state. That decision, he made clear, "has already been taken". 20 Manyliberals would see here a profound distrust by Nyerere of one of their most cherished principles, namely, the freedom of association in order to represent particularistic interests and perhaps more importantly to ensure democratic practices in a political community. The development of the ideological apparatuses of the state in T anzt!llia reflects and gives concrete forms to these idea.!'!.Perhaps the best example of this is the development of the Party as the sole actor of its kind in the political arena. The Interim Constitution in which the one- Party state is enshrined declares that: All political activity In Tanzania, other than that of the organs of state •.• shall be conducted by or under the auspices of the Party. 21 385 This was more than simply giving legal/institutional form to a de facto situation; the constitutional change effectively blocked any possibility of formal, institution..... l opposition emerging to jeopardize the unity of the social formation. Another glaring example of the institutionalization of unitary ideas is that of the trade union movementwhich was effectively brought under the control of the Governmentand Party so that consequently the two roles whichusually, if only symbolically, represent the underlying conflict betweencapital and labou~', the Minister of Labour and the Secretary- General of the trade unions movementare merged by virtue of one function- ary combiningboth contradictory roles simultaneously. It is probably here that the notion of one-ness expresses itself most clearly in an institutional form and at the same time convinces itself that these contri'dictions no longer obtain. Even after the creation of a unity at the ideological level and the obvious effect of this on the ideological apparatuses, deep rifts existed in the Tanzanian social formation because the mode of production remained predominantlycapit~list, with surbordinated features of precapitalist and SOcialistmodes. But the apparent success of the new unity at the level of the ideological led manyleaders, it would appear, to over estimate the extent to whichthis was true also at the primary dimension of social life. Realization of the fact that this was not the case by the most conscious elementof the leadership led to the enunciation of the Ar~sha Declaration in 1967: par;ticularlistic interests had to be subjected to wider interests. Some commentatorshave'viewed this as a positive sign as regards the 'good' intentions of the leadership but this is hardly the point at all: it is not a case of whether the leadership had 'good' or 'bad' intentions; rather, it was a situation in which they were taking steps to •correct' 'a situation in the direction they would have preferred to see developments taking. More recently also Nyerere, always far ahead of his colleagues, intimated that there may be internal enemies who Africans will have to fight if the economicas well as the political independence of Africa is to be realized. 22 Dependingon the degree to which the President is prepared to take this line of argument it may be possible to argue that he is seeing a crack in the unity he has stressed over the years and the stamp of which institutions in Tanzania bear. In terms of the question at hand, however, there can be 1ittle doubt that at the ideological level unity is reconstituted. The effect of this region on the primary level of contradictions, the ultimately determinant economic, is evident - the notion of unity does seem to have a very real, definite, effect on the relations existing ,at that level. Individuals are not only per- ceived to 'live' this unity, to a significant degree they do infact 'live' this unity. In a sense, then, the Hegelian perception that what exists is not necessarily real, washed off the philosophers concern over 'existence' and 'essence', may well have a meaning: in other words, to 'live' the unity is not to say that this unity negates the fundamental contradictions in 'reality'. It is in this sense too that ideology can be said to exercise a measure of relative autonomy, vis-a-vis the economic 'base' and the political' super- structure' . The fundamental problem faced by an underdeveloped class in a neo- colonial situation, is not political in the first instance but economic and becomes political precisely because this weak/underdeveloped class does not have the resources to fully assert itself predominant and thus establish its hegemony over the other classes. It therefore resorts to the political sphere to enhance and develop itself. In Tanzania this situation was compoundedby the fact that the 'petit-bourgeoisie' as a whole suffered from the fact that those with the greater share of economic power at independence were not (ethnically) Africans and therefore struggled with the African factions rather than enhanced 'petit-bourgeois' strength. This had the effect of strengthening the governing faction, politically and thrusting upon it the doubletask of subjugating the various factions and, secondly, improving on the colonial system in providing a stable political system which would ensure safe accumulation. But the problem of how to ensure the rapid generation of surplus entailed that the state should enter directly into the economy, rather than simply providing the Benthamite edifice of (legal) rights for the safe conductnecessary for such accumulation. This problem which faces many dominantclasses in post-colonial states usually express itself in terms of 'economic development' or 'growth' with economists being concerned with the 'take-off point' of such 'developments'. Presented then with the need to create appropriate factors to ensure the creation of surplus, if this class were ;to developor to even maintain itself, the more conscious elements of the cla"ss perceived correctly (in terms of class perceptions) that'there was a need not only for cohesion of the social formation but also to put this cohesion to goodeconomic use. Again, the manner in which the Tanzanian petit-bour- 387 geoi.ie tackled this question marks it off from most African so'cial formations in ...... hich the governing factions were faced with similar problems in the 1950- 60s. Whereas most of these classes broached these questions in an emphatic- ally pure/vulgar economic manner, with their social practices repeating some of the grossest excesses of early capitalist accumulation in the West combinedwith a political barbarity the barbarians would have shivered at, the Tanzanian petit-bourgeoisie has laid a great deal of stress on the ideological functions of the state. Thus, in terms of the specific question of accumulation the petit- bc;>urgeoisietackled it by attempting to build a social ethic within which the concept of work was to take pride of place. Whether or not it was meant to cohfront historical materialism (which aS8erts the primacy of matter, ultimately, over ideas) Weber's Protestant .Ethic and the Spirit of the Capitalism, does point to an important factor within the development of capitalism. The calvinist ethic that God rewards each individual in this world according,to the measure of his work, gave the acc~t to hard work in an ideology appropriate to the capitalist mode of production. In other words, the ideological presentation of work in capitalism AS a rewarding activity was and remains a necessary factor if. surplus is to be achieved and discipline enforced. Under pre-capitalist modes of productior. the attitude to work was not perceived as being so important to the individual largely because he was not individualized ~or was he removed from the means of production in the manner that he is under capitalism. In the specific case of Tanzania, it remains a question for investigation as to the degree to which capitalist values penetrated what is usually poorly described as 'traditional' vluues. This question is not made ~y more easy by the fact that pre-capitalist modes developed and maintained values which are not inimical to capitalism. However, with regard to the work ethic there would appear to be a great need. still to create one more favouraple to the capitalist mode of production that eurrentlyobtains. The very fact, of course, that the productive forces are' backward means that the relations of workers to work is likely to remain backward in a llUIilberof important ways. Briefly then, the problem of how to speed-up the process of accumulation has led the dominant class in Tanzania to tackle the task of creating a work ethic appropriate to the ends in view. At the ideological level, therefore, work in Tanzania is presented as being 8. moral viz:tuewhilst lack of work evidences moral shortcomings. The tnan' who does not work is portrayed as an 'exploiter', as 'lazy', as a 388 'loiterer'. In TJjamaa Nyerere stressed that 'loitering' in traditional African society was "an unthinkable disgrace; everybody", he emphasized, "was a worker". The 'worker', in his view, cannot be simply contrasted with the 'employer', he must also be contrasted with the 'loiterer' or the 'idler'. In traditional African society, therefore, the security men enjoyed derived from the fact that "it was taken for granted that every member of society - barring only the children and the infirm - contributed his fair share of effort towards the production of its wealth". In the Arusha Declaration itself these points received greater refinements; Nyerere argued that: In our country work should be something to be proud of, and laziness, drunkenness and idleness should be things to be ashamed of. 25 He went on, talking about 'good policies' for the country to stress that no one should be allowed to sponge off others because this was exploitation of friends and relatives and at the wider social dimension: Likewise, nobody should be allowed to loiter in towns or villages without doing work which would enable him to be self-reliant without exploiting his relatives. 26 These statements elaborate the unitary perception the President has of society in what he understands as 'traditional' Africa and they are also his prescription* for the new Tanzania under socialist construction. But in his view the society also has a duty towards the individual - it is duty bound to provide work for him. In his speeches and writings Nyerere has remained very aware of the importance of the question of an appropriate work ethic to what he conceives of Tanzania as doing and repeatedly he has stated that work constitutes one of the three elements necessary in the production of wealth. Two points may serve to both illustrate the general argument here and Nyerere's own attitude over the years. To achieve a modern socialist society, as conceived by the leadership, it is seen as necessary to discipline the work force. In the Arusha Declaration, Nyerere recognized that the "biggest requirement is hard work" and reasoned that urban workers working for forty-five (45) hours per week and between forty eight to fifty weeks in the year were insufficient - "For a country like ours these are really quite short working-hours", he concluded. In his view, the "normal (my emphasis) thing is to begin with long working hours and decrease them as the country becomes more and more prosperous" for to start with such short working hours is really to imitate developed societies which 389 th~mselves begun with much longer hours when they started to develop. 27 Undoubtedlythe underlying basis of the argument is correct because labour is the creator of wealth and if the need is to generate surplus then the labour - time of the worker must be reconsidered by the participants in this particular context of primitive accumulation. In the Declaration the stress is placed on rural, not urban, development because it is the peasantry which produced the surplus - a point which calls for examinationof the peasantry as a more productive class than the urban working class which produced industrial substitutes and a reconsideration of the political potentials- of the two classes as a result. Yet, in terms of work, Nyerere felt that even in the villages people were not working as much as they could - apart from the women. He pointed out that: The energies of tht;!m{Uionsof men in the villages and the thousands of womenm the towns which are at present wasted in gossip, dancing-and drinking could contribute more towards the developmentof our cmmtry than anything we could ~et from ri.'chnations. 28 The discipline, however, that Nyerere calls for is encouraged, in the first instance, to come from workers themselves, rather than be imposed. This necessitates and entails that the worker internalizes and 'lives' this discipline himself. In Fr~edom and Development, Nyerere writes that - "all have to work together, and all of us have to accept the discipline we impose ~n ourselves. It must be joint discipline ..•. But in accepting this discipline we must remain free men, .unplementin~our own decisions". 29 Moreover, the President has come to believe that the best way to ensure that workers achieve high productivity, particularly in the public sector is to encourage workers' participation. In his own view "true industrial discipline does not exclude the workers in an industry from participation in the enterprise, or from a responsibility for its improvement". 30 Indeed, "the true discipline ~ a workplace should be easier when the workers understand what they are doing... ,,31 Means should therefore be institUted to ensure that workers do participate in decision-making regarding planning, marketing, etc.,- in particular, the work~r should be acquainted with the 'work targets' of the enterprise and he should know how his division of labour fits into a greater whole. But this did not mean that workers had interests which were different from those of management, indeed, the Workers' Councils which were set up to effect these aims reflected in their composition Nyerere' s unitary view of 390 worker and management in an enterpri se. As with the unity of the social formation, labour cannot be allowed to go unsubjected to discipline should the individual fail to respond p,?sitively to self-discipline. Consequently, failure to be engaged in work, in production, in one way or another, has not been viewed without displeasure by the institutions of state. In opening the Chinese-aided Friendship Textile Mill in 1968, Nyerere remarked: It seems that some people in this country have taken the emphasis on people in the Arusha Declaration to mean that there can be slackness in work, and that people in supervisory position can do nothing about it. Nothing can be further from the truth. The Arusha Declaration demands more discipline, not less.(My emphasis) 32 Thus the President made it clear that although maximumoutput cannot be achieved without workers imposing their own discipline on themselves should they fail to do so, "then there must be hard industrial discipline imposed by management". 33 Although at one time Nyerere commentedthat unemployment is no problem for Tanzanian, in recent years youth have repeatedly flocked to the towns from the rural areas in search of urban employmentbecause the regimehas not been able to convince youth that its proper place of vorl<;is in the countryside. Failure to gain employmentin urban areas has been met with a ready response from the state, so that from time to time the coercive arms of the state, the police and militia, are called out by the Party to round- up the unemployed and return them to the villages where their labour is needed. In this situation the ideological and the coercive arms of the state, combin~to achieve a desired result. This could also be said of the policy of setting up ujamaavillages for which Tanzania earned an international reputation: again, whenpersuasion failed then force was, reportedly, applied to get people to moveinto such villages. It is important to note also that the setting-up of ujamaavillages represents perhaps the most important methods used in Tanzania to discipline the work force in the countryside. Djamaa, therefore, was partly geared also at bringing elements of the peasantry together in closer units which made them more united as a work force and more accessible as a producing stratum of the peasantry. This was particularly important in a country which did not experience the plantation system to any significant extent. The proclaimed 'ideology' of Tanzania is 'SOcialism' but the obvious variance between this and the predominant mode of production that exists 391 has led to a great deal of debate in some quarters over the question whether Tanzania is indeed a socialist country, but this is not at issue here for it leads to questions which go beyond the stated aims of this paper. Nyerere himself has never claimed that Tanzania is a socialist country but rather that there is a commitmentto build socialism and to foster a sOcialist out- look in the country. It is however, useful to consider briefly what the leader- ship means by 'socialism' and how this understanding - often referred to as 'ideology' - has its own ideological function. Nyerere's Ujamaa opens polemically with the statement that "Socialism - like democracy - is an attitude of mind,,34 and in defending this thesis he pointed out that it is "feasible to have socialists who are millionaires and poor men who are, in attitude, capitalists. There is a strong condenmation running through the tract of what are considered to be capitalist values such as hoarding, acquisitiveness and lack of care for the poor. In Nyerere's view "society itself should look after "those without" and this was "exactly what traditional African society succeeded in doing". 35 Both 'rich' and 'poor' were secured in that society and therefore ujamaa, or Tanzanian socialism is aimed at achieving such ends. Nyerere has not departed from this view of socialism although in the Arusha Declaration this received the elaboration that socialism is also" a way of life" but only because it is first' an attitude of mind'. What was 'new' in this regard with the Declaration is that Nyerere now took deliberate steps to give organizational form to this 'attitude of mind'. The socialism Nyerere sees Tanzania striving towards has utter disregard for "doctrinaire marxism" and for capitalism; this socialism is characterized essentially by its eclectic nature - there are elements which can be traced effortlessly to the early socialists, the British fabians and more recent social-democratic trends in West Europe and there is also a strong sense of christian values interspersed. Nyerere's intense conviction of these values and his attempt to provide them with an African foundation gives a distinct political colour to what would appear to be a contradictory set of values. The 'ideology of socialism' succeeds to a significant degree in transform- ing the (ideological) presentation the state received under colonialism. Whereas the liberal democratic state presented itself as representing the 'general interest' but infact through its institutions mediated between the various antagonistic interests of the dominant class(es) the colonial state ~92 madeno pretence, initially, to be 'representing' the people/nation but accorded preferential treatment, much like the state under f~udalism, to the various factions depending on economic as well as racial status. With political independence, however, the 'bare individual' of bourgeois juridico- political ideology was able to better make his appearance - each individual nowhad 'equal rights' before the law and the principle of 'one man, one vote' bec~e an actuality. But the changing situation which expressed itself first at the political_level also involved changes at the level of the ideological; but such ideological changes, since they came ~the political, had to be superimposed. Consequently, the individual is not only a 'bourgeois individual' but also a 'social' ,?r 'socialist' individual: in the crucial areas of work and political participation the individual is partly 'transformed' from being the rather selfish, Benthamite atom into one which has a social responsibility. At,the level of the state itself, representation is not particularistic but general, or, more precisely, the state is presented as comingclose to repre- sentingRousseau's 'general will'; interests become universalized. Where factions seek representation therefore justification must be understood to be derived from socialist norms if they are to be considered legitimate. Perhaps an equally important aspect of the'ideology of SOcialism'in the formationuhder discussion is that it functions so as to eradicate all evidenceof class domination. Poulantzas has correctly pointed out that one ofthe most important features of hour-geois ideology is that it excludes all evidenceof domination either by the dominant region of that ideology or by the pre-dominant class or faction. 36 This situayon is in sharp contrast with pre-capitalist formations - for example, in-the feudal formation the dominance ofthe aristocracy is not hidden, but on the contrary, proclaimed in the pre- vailingideology and defended and 'explained' by reference to the 'sacred' the 'divine' or the 'natural' in a socialist formation, also, the fact of domination is madeexplicit, that is to say the state is declared to be the instrument of a specifiedclass; it is described as a 'dictatorship' and it derives its legitimacy fromthe fact that it is the 'dictatorship of the proletariat'. Bourgeois ideology is distinct in the respect therefore that it conceals/concludes, the fact of class domination and people are not presented li.smembers of.particular classes butas individuals which, although correct and necessary for the mode of productionthat predominates, nonetheless slides over the equally important fact of the socialization process. 393 Similarly, in the Tanzanian social formation the 'ideology of socialism' denies the existence of any domination and inserts 'individuals' into a unitary whole; they are perceived as being parts of a harmonious solidaristic whole, Nyerere himself finds "doctrinaire socialism" as indicated earlier, "intolerable" because it posits a condition of antagonism in the social order. The prevalence of populist political language and behaviour largely arising out of the nationalist struggle, further helps to exclude all traces of domination in the dominant ideology of the social formation. Consequently, political ideology stresses the importance of 'the people' or the 'masses' and the state is projected as one of 'workers and peasants' but, crucially not as one of the' dictatorship of the proletariat'. For the state to declare itself as such would be to cut across the unitary presentation the social formation receives in the 'ideology of socialism' which has its own consistency and coherence. The ideological presentation of the role of the state is therefore similar to the Hegelian presentation in which the state is the realization of freedom. CONCLUSION The conditions prevalent in the post-colonial state impels the political to dominateover the economyand society and although this is not peculiar in the era of monopolycapital the specific turns developments into particular post-colonial state take, may show significant divergence from a dominant trend. In Tanzania the dominant class has established to a considerable degree its hegemonyover the dominated"classes by using the apparatuses of state but its success has been due largely to that class' use of political ideology. 1:hus, there appears to be an 'over-politicization' of social and economic factors, as well as an 'over-ideologicalization' of both the sodo-economic and politicaLlevels. Unfortunately, the narrow scope of the paper and the constraints under which it has been written do not make possible an analysis of some of the important implications these comments raise, the presentation must therefore be regarded merely as preliminary points for a discussion. FOOTNOTES: 1H. Bienen, "An Ideology for Africa", in Cliffe & Saul (eds.) Socialism in Tanzania: lu1Interdisciplina~ Reader, vol. I, (Nairobi: East African Publishing House, 1972), pp. 1 -9. 2 This argument is more elaborately treated in H. Goulbourne, "Politics and Ideology: The Tanzania Case", paper presented at the 12th Annual Social Science Conference of East African Universities, Dar es Salaam 1976. ' 394 3 For a fair treatment of Nyerere conceived and presented in this vein see H. Glickman, "Dilemmas of Political Theory in an African Context: The Ideology of Julius Nyerere", in J. Butler & A. A. Castagno, (eds.) Boston University Papers on Africa; Transition in Afriean Politics, (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1957), pp. 195 if. 4 For an extensive and very sympathetic treatment of Nyerere1 s political thought see, Cranford Pratt, The Critical Phase in Tanzania, 194-5-1968: Nyerere and the Emergence of a Socialist Strategy, (Cambridge University Press, 197b), ch. 4. 5 L. Althusser, For Marx, (New York: Vintage Books, 1970); Althusser & E. Balibar, Reading Capital, (London: New Left Books, 1970); also , Althusser, "Ideology & Ideological State Apparatus: Notes Towards an Investigation", in Lenin & Philosophy and Other Essays, (New York & London: Monthly Review Press, 19/1); N. Poulantzas, Political Power & Social Classes, (London: New Left Books, 1975); there are some very useful essays on Althusser and Poulantzas, in Working Papers in Cultural Studies 10: On Ideology, (Birmingham: Centre for Contemporary Culturel Studies, University of Birmingham, 1977). 6 Poulantzas, op. cit. , p. 206. 7 Ibid., pp. 206 ff. 8 See, for example, Stuart Hall, "Rethinking the 'Base-and-Superstructure' Metaphor", in, Jon Bloomfield, (ed.), The Communist University of London Papers on Class, Hegemony and Party, (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 19/7) also, J. Clarke, I. Connell, R. McDonough, "Misrecognizing Ideology; Ideology in Political Power and Social Classes", in Cultural Studies 10. 9 On this question the criticism of Clarke, et al, should be well taken, namely, that the cohesive function of ideology is a contingent, not a necessary, function. 10 J.K. Nyerere, Freedom & Unity/Uhuru na Umoja, (Dar es Salaam: Oxford University Press, 1966), p. i. 11 For a consideration of these descriptions in the literature see, M. von Freyhold, "The Post-Colonial State and its Tanzanian Version - Contribution to a Debate", Mimeo, Sociology Department, University of Dar es Salaam, 1976; also, H. Goulbourne, "TANU Since the Arusha Declaration", unpublished ms. , 1977. 12 Nyerere, Freedom and Socialism/Uhuru naUjamaa, (Dar es Salaam: OUP, 1968), p. 2. 13 Nyerere, Ujamaa: Essays on Socialism, (Dar es Salaam: OUP, 1968), p. 11. 14 Ibid., p. 12. 15 J. Lusinde, "Workers Participation in Industrial Management in Tanzania", in H. Mapolu, (ed.) Workers and Management, (Dar es Salaam: Tanzania Publishing House, 1976), p. 160. 16 Nyerere, "Presidential Circular No. 1 of 1970: The Establishment of Workers' Councils, Executive Boards and Boards of Directors", Ibid., pp. 153 ff. 17 Pratt, op. cit. 395 18 Nyerere, Freedom and Unity, pp. 103 ff. 19 Nyerere, "Guide to the One- Party State Commission: 1964", Ibid., p.262. 20 Ibid. 21 Interim Constitution of Tanzania, 1965, (Dar es Salaam: Government Publications Agency, 1976 ed.), p. 7, this was amended in 1975 so that TANUwas recognized as being supreme over state organs also; the new CCM Constitution (1977) makes the Party "the sole political party exercising supreme authority over all state organs", p. 4. 22 Perhaps the best example of this departure is the President's speech at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, "The Process of Libe~ation", reprinted in, Daily News, 18 November, 1976, p. 4. 23 Nyerere, Ujamaa, p. 4. 24 Ibid., p. 5. 25 Nyerere, Freedom and SOcialism, p. 247. 26 Ibid. 27 The quotations in this paragraph are to be found, Ibid. , p. 244. 28 Ibid., p. 245. 29 Nyerere, "Freedom and Development", in, Freedom and Development, (Oar es Salaam: aup; 1973), p. 70. ' 30 Nyerere, Presidential Circular No I 1970, op. cit. p. 154. 31 Ibid., p. 155. 32 Nyerere, Freedom & Development, op. cit. p. 49. 33 Ibid. 34 'Nyerere, Ujamaa, p. 1. 35 Ibid. 36 Poulantzas, op. cit. 3~6