Julius Nyerere
Ujamaa is a political theory out of the intellectual construct of Tanzania’s first president, Julius Nyerere. The communitarian concept formed the grounds of Nyerere’s thought and governance.
Nyere emphasized humanism and community and was particularly focused on institutionalizing his philosophy through his publications which became bestsellers. It is important to note that Ujamaa was not conceived as a Marxist or Leninist philosophy.
The word, which is Swahili for “familyhood” was the name Nyerere called a a political thought that encouraged self-reliance as the prerequisite for participating and contributing to communal progress.
Through state-sanctioned policies in education and economics, Nyerere pushed the idea that Tanzanians needed to find fulfillment in their ability and willingness to be called upon to work in the interest of their immediate neighbors.
