5 the Sukuma and the Ideology of a Free Market

5 The Sukuma and the ideology of a free market By the beginning of the eighties the disillusionment with the socialist ideology and the growing difference between rhetoric and reality provided a fertile basis for change, away from ideology towards more pragmatism. People were fed up with the national government and its central planning. In 1985 the ‘Father of the Nation’ step down as president, giving way to an agreement with the International Monetary Fund which he had always prohibited as being against the ideology of ‘self-reliance’. It was followed by a rapid liberalization process, promoting a free market economy and reducing the role of the state. In 1992 this change was followed by a multi-party system and the democratization of political structures. How did these liberalization and democratization processes affect the Sukuma’s under- standing of themselves? Undoubtedly they experienced these changes as a victory over the ‘internal expatriates’, bureaucrats from Dar es Salaam. But with the open economy and a free market new outsiders came, private companies dominated by non-Sukuma and even non-Africans, new political parties, imported goods and new religions, aid workers and officials of the United Nations High Commission for the Refugees, who are based in Mwanza and who run an airline from Mwanza Airport to the camps for refugees from Ruanda, Burundi and recently from the Democratic Republic of Congo. How did these world-wide ‘others’ affect Sukumaness? How do the Sukuma deal with this? In the previous chapters we dealt with various topics, in a more or less systematic way: social structures, political institutions, means of living, cultural and religious ways of problem-solving, law and medicine. In this chapter we describe and analyse both present trends and future prospects resulting from these trends. As anthropologists we cannot foretell the long-term future. By analyzing past and present trends we can only predict how the Sukuma are likely to behave with respect to developments that will emerge in the decade to come from present events. The privatization of the cotton industry and mineral mining In 1986 the Government of Tanzania dissolved the ‘mamlaka ya pamba’ Tanzania Cotton Authority and reconstituted the co-operatives. In Usukuma the ‘Nyanza Co-operative Union’ was put in charge of all ginneries and primary marketing functions. This change clearly shows the new wind of privatization that was blowing throughout the country. Cotton production was introduced in Usukuma around 1900 by German settlers who employed Sukuma people to work on their land. It was soon taken over by the German colonial administration. Taxes were imposed on each family. Since these taxes could only 145 be paid in cash, people were forced to grow cash crops. Cotton was grown on an ever increasing scale until cotton became one of the principal export articles of Tanzania, with Usukuma as its chief producer. When Tanganyika became a British protectorate in 1919, Sukuma farmers increased their cotton production substantially. Cotton production and processing was dominated by Indians, who owned and operated the gineries. By 1952 the Sukuma felt that they were not given a fair price from the Asian cotton traders. In reaction to their exploitation they started a system of independent weighers which was organized through villages and chiefdoms. The number of co-operative societies grew rapidly. In 1956 a meeting was held to form a federation of all co- operative unions, the Victoria Federation of Co-operative Unions. It was the largest co- operative organization on the continent of Africa at that time and it expressed the Sukuma aspiration for both economic and political independence (Hyden, 1980: 59). In 1959 it obtained the monopoly for the purchase of cotton from the growers; the Asian exploitation was resisted effectively. Shortly after the independent government took over from the colonial administration, the co-operative marketing system came increasingly under the political control of TANU. Following the nation-wide policy of nationalization, the Victoria Federation of Co- operative Unions was abolished and its functions were taken over by the Tanzania Cotton Authority. In subsequent years cotton production dropped enormously. Certainly no single explanation can account for this although it has been suggested that the soil became exhausted because too much fertilizer was used. Through the villagization policy of the government many people cultivated in a small area, whereas traditionally the Sukuma lived spread-out over their country. Another reason was that the enforced villagization and central planning created widespread distrust of the authorities. Sukuma farmers simply refused to implement official directives to cultivate specific acreages of cotton. It was this slow-down action and civil disobedience of the Sukuma farmers that ultimately forced the government to privatize the Tanzania Cotton Authority and to re-install the co- operatives. This is how the Nyanza Co-operative Union came into being. Much the same could be said about the mining of gold in Geita. Gold mining was done in Geita by the Geita Gold Mining Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of the Kentan Gold Areas Ltd., which started gold digging on a large scale in 1934. Geita Gold Mine employed the largest concentration of non-official Europeans in Usukuma at that time, some 150 men. In addition it employed over 2000 local men. It had its own port at the lake shore, to which goods were transported from Mwanza, an aerodrome and a hospital. In 1965 the Kentan Gold Areas Ltd. withdrew from Geita, and the mine was closed. One reason was that its financial results were not satisfactory compared to the costs of operating; another reason was an disagreement with the government concerning the distribution of profits and the appeals for nationalization. The Buckreef Gold Mine, some 75 km. south-west from Geita, was nationalized and taken over by the National Mining Corporation. Gold mining was done in an ever growing scale on a private basis. This has attracted many people from other parts of the country, and even from outside the country, Kenya, Ruanda and Burundi. A whole system developed with agents and dealers, guards and diggers. The great numbers of people moving into the area searching for gold created serious problems. In some places the transitory population had increased rapidly and created health and 146.

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