Rediscovering Tanzania’s Ujamaa –
Tribute to the Great Ntimbanjayo Millinga and the Ruvuma Development Association

Sunday 8 February 1.30-5.30pm, VENUE: Bolivar Hall Venezuelan Embassy

You may remember that we held an event in June 2007 with Madaraka Nyerere.  That occasion relaunched the Arusha Declaration by President Julius Nyerere and publicised his enormous contribution to peace, justice and recognition of women’s unwaged work as basic to survival and to development.

Since then the Global Women’s Strike has continued researching and publicising the achievements of the Ruvuma Development Association (RDA), which successfully built the ujamaa movement, President Nyerere’s central strategy for building African socialism.  Ntimbanjayo Millinga, the founder and inspirational leader of the RDA, tragically died last year.  On 8 February we are holding a memorial, celebrating his life and work: Rediscovering Tanzania’s Ujamaa – Tribute to the Great Ntimbanjayo Millinga and the Ruvuma Development Association – see details below.  Few know about what rural people in Tanzania in the 1960s collectively created despite lack of material resources.  They built an extraordinary rural society based on equity between women and men, young and old, with and without disabilities, achieving a harmony most of us have never known and which, we’re always told, ‘human nature’ prevents us from achieving. 

We are very fortunate that we will have the participation and first-hand experiences of Conrada Millinga, Ntimbanjayo Millinga’s wife; Suleman Toroka, headmaster of the RDA’s remarkable school from which young people and all concerned with education can learn a great deal; Noreen and Ralph Ibbott who, at invitation, lived with their children in his village – Noreen working with the women, and Ralph as a dedicated and skilled technical adviser.  We are planning to publish his unique account of what RDA achieved and how, and its destruction.

This event is part of an International Gathering, The Struggle Against Poverty, War and Occupation, 31 January to 8 February, in which women and men from our international network are participating – please see details below.  

We hope that you will be able to attend the tribute and any of the other events.  Bring your friends and relatives, and please circulate this invitation widely, through your workplace, email, facebook, religious institutions and networks, etc.

Also much needed are donations towards the costs of organising the event including air fares – it is entirely unfunded and organised by volunteers.  Cheques of any amounts payable to the Global Women’s Strike can be sent to the address below.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Rediscovering Tanzania’s Ujamaa – Tribute to the Great Ntimbanjayo Millinga and the Ruvuma Development Association In the 1960s, a great anti-imperialist movement swept the world. President Julius Nyerere urged Tanzanians to reject capitalist exploitation, and build a society based on African communalism. Ntimbanjayo Millinga with a few others and hardly any funding put these views into practice and built an extraordinary rural society based on equity between women and men, young and old. By 1969, 17 ujamaa villages had formed the Ruvuma Development Association (RDA). But the governing party was so hostile to grassroots power that, against Nyerere’s will, they closed it down. Tragically, Millinga died in 2008. But the RDA he led is a beacon in our struggle today. SPEAKERS: ¨ Conrada Millinga, colleague and widow of Ntimbanjayo Millinga ¨ Suleman Toroka, Head-teacher of RDA ¨ Ralph & Noreen Ibbott, British colleagues who helped build RDA ¨ Selma James, who reclaimed RDA for the movement today.

DATE: Sunday 8 February 1.30-5.30pm VENUE: Bolivar Hall Venezuelan Embassy