Tanzania in the 1980s: The experimental year

What you need to know:

The 1980s were a split screen in the country’s history as the political leadership continued to claim the country was pursuing the economic goals of Ujamaa na Kujitegemea, even as the country took concrete steps away from a command economy.

The 1980s were ushered with a speech from Mwalimu Julius Nyerere on New Year’s Day, 1980 in which he addressed a range of issues from the adverse economic situation to liberation struggles in southern Africa and the country’s involvement in Uganda where its soldiers had stayed after toppling Idd Amin. Pointing to difficult negotiations between Tanzania and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) regarding Tanzania’s economic struggles, an analyst put it thus: “Tanzania is caught between the Scylla of continuing decline and the risk of increasing political instability and the Charybdis of conformity to the Fund’s conditions, with all the serious risks that they entail.” In other words, it was about choosing between equally dangerous situations. The country had no option but to experiment, both with its politics and the economy.

Tanzania in the 1980s: The experimental year

What you need to know:

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