economic history of tanzania by nicolaus shombe

8/10/2019 Economic History of Tanzania by Nicolaus Shombe

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Nicolaus Shombe

PHD14407

23rd December, 2014

TANZANIA IN PERSPECTIVES OF GLOBAL

ECONOMY


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OutlinePart I: Pre-colonial era

The social forms of pre-colonial Tanzania Society and economic activities

Trading with outside traders

Part II: Colonia era

German Rule (1890 1914)

British Rule (1919)

Part III: Post colonialism

Independence

State formation

Socialism and Arusha declaration

Colonial legacy and colonial path dependency


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Tanzania Overview

Population 47.4 million

(2014 estimates)

Total area - 947,303 km2

GDP (PPP) - $86.4 billion

(2013)

Per capita - $1,813 (2013)

GDP (nominal) - $36.6

billion

Per capita - $768


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PART I: Pre-colonial Era The social forms of pre-colonial Tanzania

Tanzania is ethnically varied and fractionalized, withoutdominant groups.

A variety of political organizations ranging from completestatelessness to chiefdoms

Society and economic activities The economy was predominantly subsistence, with wide

variation in rainfall and land productivity. Characterized by small scale production using family labor and

simple technology.

Clothes were widely made from bark and local cotton (there isarcheological evidence of weaving before 15th C)

There were crafts (often with tribal specialties), providing abasis for specialization and regional trade, iron smelting.

Pastoral peoples who ranged across the territory and hunters

Trading salt, pots, animals, weapons and crops among societye.g. tobacco and food .

l l d h d d


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Part I: pre-colonial era Trading with outside traders According to the literature Arab Mercantile traded in Indian

Ocean from 1000 A.D, Tanganyika Coast became commercially

important around 1200 but before that early center of gravity

was in Zanzibar, Mombasa Kenya and Somalia (Iliffe J, 1979)

1505 Portuguese traders arrived

1698 Portuguese expelled by locals and Arabs

Slave trade transported slaves to the Gulf, Oman and French

plantation colonies (in 1770s about 6,500 per year)

Long-distance trade from Inland to Costal through trade caravan

grew in (18th C) i.e. salt, ivory, rhino horns, copper, food

exchange with cloths etc

Coastal society traded with Asians, Arabs and Europeans i.e.

Exported - wax, gum, ivory, tortoise shell, coconut oil, palm oil

and slaves.

Imported - ceramics, clothes, ammunition, arms, hardware and

dates from Asia and Middle East


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PART II: Colonial era

Tanganyika Economic history under German Rule (1890

1914) following the Berlin conference of 1884.

Constructed railway in early 1900s

German East African Company (Chartered Colonial

Organization) opened plantations, i.e. coffee, sisal

Abolished ivory trade and introduced rubber, whichbenefited commoners at the expense of rulers

Monetization and taxation

Introduced forced labor system (kipande, piece work,taxation, killing live stocks)

Majimaji Rebellion 1905 - 1917


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PART II: Colonial era British Rule (1919)

British ruled Tanganyika as mandated territory Used indirect rule

After WWII

The WWI transformed Tanganyika's relationship with

Britain. With an exhausted economy, colossal debts, and a

disintegrating Asian empire, Britain at last needed evenTanganyika's meagre resources, if they could beextracted.

The post-war decade therefore saw a 'second colonialoccupation, embodied in development planning andsecondary industry, cash-crop expansion and agriculturalimprovement schemes, educational advance,

constitutional progress, and local government reform


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Part III: Post colonialism Independence

Julius Nyerere was a charismatic leader of the nationalist

movement, and was the major philosopher and architectof independent Tanzanias development policy.

Introduced idea of the peasantry and Ujamaa (socialism)

Declared war against three enemies (i) poverty, (ii)ignorance and (iii) Diseases

State formation

Independence - 9 December 1961

Zanzibar Revolution - 10 December 1963

Merger 26 April 1964 (Formation of UR of Tanzania) Ideology of socialism lay a great foundation to ensure that

people are equal before the law and everyone isresponsible for the development of the country.

Kiswahili greatly helped integrate national and exposed

called 'national identity


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Socialism and Arusha declaration Nyerere frequently commented on the centrality of hard

work in traditional life, and placed a high value on it.

Communal land ownership implies egalitarian communityrelations

Arusha Declaration in 1967, launched a socialistdevelopment agenda. It was characterized by policiesbased on extensive state control of the economy.

Government control was greater than in any other countryin sub-Saharan Africa.

A state monopoly characterized Tanzania's economicmanagement.

Production by small farmers was strictly under communal

rural groupings called ujamaa villages. Produce by these small farmers was marketed either by

'top-down-created' co-operatives or state owned cropauthorities.

state owned Regional Trading Companies


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Collapse of Socialism in TanzaniaNyereres departure in 1985 signaled a break from socialistpolicies and gradually allowed the market economy.

Tanzania experienced steady economic decline in thelate 1970s partly contributed by Uganda War and afinancial crisis in the early 1980s, Oil Crisis, Droughts,and collapse of commodity prices,

Economy was in bad shape, food shortage, lower foreignreserves, balance of trade deficit, rate, high inflation,heavy External Debt and high unemployment,

Nyerere retired in 1985 and went to his Village becausehe was not ready to implement IMF conditionalitieswhich he had resisted for many years,

Tanzania formally adopted an economic recoveryprogram in 1986,


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Tanzania after Nyerere

Structural Adjustment program.

Privatization of former state-owned enterprises

Institutionalization of fiscal and financial reforms andtrade liberation

Change political system multiparty

The emergence of the private sector.

President Mwinyis liberalization efforts post -1985 andinitiation of institutional and structural reforms

President Mkapa reinforced the importance ofmacroeconomic stability

and ensured consolidation of a free market economy, after1996.

President Kikwete strengthened macroeconomic stability andeconomic infrastructure development

C i i t


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Co onia egacy an co onia pat epen encyTanzania like most of Africas economic performance sinceindependence has been poor. This poor performance iscaused, among other factors, by two events: the slave

trade and colonial rule:- Tanzania was a non-settler colony, the colonizers

focus was on exploitation, weak institutions ofprivate property were established and these poor

institutions persist today. effects of assassinations of indigenous leaders by

Germans during colonialism,

Colonial rule created dependence syndromepolitically and economically which still persist.

Slave trade still has a significant and sustainedimpact on political and social institutions in Africa


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Conclusion

Tanzania is most stable countries in Africa

Economy has been growing at average of 7% forthe past decade with stable macro economicindicators

Still agrarian economy with 75% of population Still depending on the export raw material

including crops and minerals and importmanufacturing goods

Series of events (Slave trade, colonialism,socialism and market economy) disturbed growthpath of Tanzania


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Austin G, (2008), the ReversalOf FortuneThesis And The Compression Of

History: Perspectives From African And Comparative Economic History

Herbst . J, (2002). States and Power in Africa

Iliffe J, (1979), A Modern history of Tanganyika. Cambridge university press

Nunn. N, (2007). Historical legacies: A model linking Africas past to its currentunderdevelopment

REFERENCES


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Nyerere in Action


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2011

economic history of tanzania by nicolaus shombe

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