Photos from: Rediscovering Tanzania’s Ujamaa

Conrada Millinga, colleague and widow of Ntimbanjayo Millinga

Ralph Ibbott, British colleague who with his wife Noreen Ibbott helped build RDA. A statement from Mrs Ibbott was read at the event.

Ntimbanjayo Millinga

Conrada Millinga, Ralph Ibbott, Suleman Toroka with others including representatives from the Tanzanian High Commission

Suleman Toroka, Head-teacher of RDA

Selma James, who reclaimed RDA for the movement today.

David Edwards, researcher on sustainable development who has written about the RDA

The struggle against poverty, war & occupation - Rediscovering Tanzania’s Ujamaa

Tribute to the Great Ntimbanjayo Millinga and the Ruvuma Development Association

Click on a picture to see a slideshow of all the pictures

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.