London group re-launches Arusha Declaration

MBONEKO MUNYAGA
Sunday News; Sunday, June 17, 2007 @00:04
Tanzania Standard Newspapers

A LONDON group of publishers yesterday re-launched the Arusha Declaration as one of the key documents for the emancipation of man in the 20th century.

Mwalimu’s son, Madaraka is in London for the event and has been invited by the publisher, Mrs Selma James, who, with her husband, CLR James, was active in the movement for independence and federation in the Caribbean, which drew many lessons from the struggle in Africa.

Madaraka was expected to deliver a keynote speech about growing up as Mwalimu’s son and about the practical benefits of living in an Ujamaa village. Since the death of Mwalimu on October 14, 1999, Madaraka has stayed at Butiama, Mwalimu’s birth village largely taking care of the family estate.

The Arusha Declaration focuses on Ujamaa or ‘African brotherhood’, self-reliance and co-operation. It also strongly fights corruption by government or ruling party officials. The London event will also mark 50 years of the independence of Ghana and 60 years of Indian independence, landmarks in human liberation, the organisers said.
“Though it was written 40 years ago, it has not been surpassed as a perspective for development in the whole Third World,” said a dispatch from the organisers.
June 16 is African Child Day as well as Soweto Day when children in South Africa expressed their collective opposition to apartheid and the Boer regime responded by shooting tens of them down.

The Arusha Declaration guided Tanzania’s political thought and philosophy for nearly 20 years before the ruling CCM set it aside at a meeting in Zanzibar in early 1986 in favour of market policies.

However, many economic transformation programmes have gone back to massive social spending on education, health and water supply as Mwalimu had argued under his “The Purpose is Man” philosophy for the development of societies.

Mwalimu said he had read and re-read the document several times after it was set aside and still saw nothing to change, although, he said, if given a second chance, he would have done certain things differently.