RE: Africa

Hi Jeffrey!
My reaction to reading this piece of Nyerere is: What a romantic! Indeed, he
seems to belong to the club that idealises traditional Africa and demonises
Europeans. That 'all were equal in traditional Africa' reminds me of
Orwell's animal farm, some are more equal than others, especially slave
owning peoples as opposed to the enslaved peoples.

Greetings!
Arno
http://daastol.com



-----Original Message-----
From:	owner-wsn@csf.colorado.edu [mailto:owner-wsn@csf.colorado.edu] On
Behalf Of Jeffrey L. Beatty
Sent:	10. februar 1999 11:30
To:	WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK
Subject:	Re: Africa

My post concerning Julius Nyerere's comments on traditional life in Africa
appears to have caused some controversy on this list.  I regret that I was
unable to supply citations when I wrote my original post, and relied upon
my memory of a conversation.  In the interests of verifying my
recollections and preventing any misunderstanding on the list, let me
mention some passages from Nyerere's _Ujamaa:  Essays on Socialism_
(Nairobi, London, and New York:  Oxford University Press, 1968).  The book
itself is a collection of speeches and policy papers written between 1962
and 1968.

On page 171 of the book, Nyerere writes, "In traditional African life the
people were equal, they co-operated together, and they participated in all
the decision which affected their lives.  But the equality was an equality
of poverty; the co-operation was on small things; and their government was
only the government of their own family unit, and of their clan, or at most
of their tribe."  The extended family, then, was the basis of traditional
African society (pp. 11-12--and yes, Nyerere _does_ usually generalize
about "African" society, not "Tanzanian," or "West African" or any other
sort of society on the continent).  These comments support my original
statement that Nyerere believed that the
nation-state based upon territory is an idea foreign to African culture.