The Tanzanian Villagisation Programme

Its Impract on Household Production in Dodoma

Bibliographic Data

ID18957046
AuthorsG Thiele (0000-0002-3739-0431, corresponding author)
Year1986
Volume20
Issue2
Pages243-258
Publication date1986-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCanadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0008-3968 • E-ISSN: 1923-3051
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00083968.1986.10804156
OpenAlexW1556119593
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited9

During the 1970s the Tanzanian state changed the pace of its intervention in civil society with the compulsory villagisation programme. Until recently the predominant pattern of settlement in rural Tanzania was of dispersed clusters of dwellings. The creation of villages both as nucleated settlements and as cooperative bodies controlling at least part of the means of production has been central to Tanzanian development planning for two decades. During this period, however, the way in which villages were established changed substantially. In the I96os the Tanzanian state encouraged an essentially voluntary movement of previously dispersed households into Ujamaa villages. This was intended to facilitate the utilisation of modern agricultural techniques in collective production as well as to make possible the provision of drinking water, clinics, and other services. In the early 1970s official development strategy changed, and the state intervened directly to nucleate some rural populations. Finally, in 1973 the Party (TANU) decreed that all rural inhabitants should move to designated settlements. This was accomplished through regionally organised operations and was followed by attempts to establish corporate Village Governments and new kinds of labour process. Accounts of the implementation of the new strategy, of changes in settlement pattern which it led to, and of the rationale that lay behind it are available.' In addition, a number of hypotheses have been proposed about its probable impact. The likelihood that nucleation would lead to problems of soil exhaustion and a decline in the viability of agriculture because of increased time spent reaching distant fields has been frequently pointed out (Coulson 1977, 94; Hyden 1981, 148). Others have claimed that villagisation should have favourable effects on equity because Village Governments ought to allocate households plots of uniform size (Ghai and Green 1979

Economics · Geography · Production (economics) · Socioeconomics · Tanzania · Land Rights and Reforms · Urban and Rural Development Challenges