The Differences between the African Countries
The differences between the African countries that are usually classified as progressive and those that are classified as reactionary are more apparent than real. That is not to say that there are no differences. The conspicuous difference is that the progressive countries prefer to take a socialist stance. . . . In the economic exploitation of the masses . . . the differences are marginal . . . Though the term national security does not appear in this summary of ideology in Africa, many of its components — common sacrifice for the common good, discipline and order, national unity, and, of course, "the end of ideology" or at least of political and ideological conflict — are emphasized. In the state that was long regarded internationally as the most radical "socialist" state of Africa, Tanzania, its undisputed leader and president, Julius Nyerere, commemorated the tenth anniversary of the Arusha Declaration of 1967 in which he had proclaimed the goal of Ujamaa or self-reliant socialism with this observation:
Tanzania is certainly neither socialist nor self-reliant. The nature of exploitation has changed but it has not been altogether eliminated. There are still great inequalities between citizens. Our democracy is imperfect. A life of poverty is still the experience of the majority of our citizens. . . . Our nation is still economically dependent upon the vagaries of the weather and upon economic and political decisions taken by other peoples without our participation and consent . . . the goal of socialism is not even in sight.
While President Nyerere claims that "we in Tanzania have stopped and reversed a national drift towards the growth of a class society," other Tanzanians who are a bit more critical than the President, like Issa Shivji, argue that "the silent class struggle" has grown and that the bureaucratic capitalist class is so far winning it, and in the process making more and more concessions to international capital.
