African Socialism

African socialism refers to the socialist ideas adopted by several African leaders around the time of independence in the 1950s and 1960s. Its supporters argued that precolonial African societies were already communal and egalitarian, so socialism in Africa could grow from local traditions rather than from European class struggle. African socialists generally rejected both Western capitalism and Soviet communism. They called for state-led development, public or cooperative ownership of key resources, national unity across ethnic lines and economic independence from former colonial powers. In practice, African socialism took very different forms in different countries.

Léopold Senghor of Senegal is often credited as one of the first to use the term African socialism, linking it to Negritude, the celebration of Black culture. Other proponents included Mamadou Dia of Senegal, Sékou Touré of Guinea, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Tom Mboya of Kenya and Julius Nyerere of Tanzania. In Kenya, a 1965 government paper drafted under Mboya set out a version compatible with private enterprise. In Tanzania, Nyerere's Arusha Declaration of 1967 launched ujamaa, meaning familyhood, which stressed self-reliance, nationalization of major enterprises and cooperative villages. In the 1970s millions of rural Tanzanians were moved into planned villages, often under pressure or by force. Kenneth Kaunda promoted a related doctrine called Zambian humanism. From the 1980s, economic crises and pressure from international lenders led most of these governments to abandon or reform their socialist policies.

Senghor's version was moderate and humanist, drawing on Negritude and Catholic social thought. Nyerere's ujamaa emphasized rural cooperatives and self-reliance. Kenya's version, sometimes called African socialism in name only by critics, kept a largely market economy. Nkrumah and Touré moved toward a more Marxist, state-centered model. Afro-Marxist regimes of the 1970s, such as those in Ethiopia and Mozambique, adopted Marxism-Leninism and are usually treated as distinct.

Economists and historians argue that state control of agriculture and industry led to shortages, debt and slow growth in several countries. The forced villagization in Tanzania was unpopular and is widely judged an economic failure. Liberal critics argue that one-party rule suppressed opposition; in Guinea, Touré's government imprisoned and killed many opponents. Marxist critics argued that African socialism ignored real class divisions, and some historians argue that it romanticized precolonial societies.

African socialism shaped the first decades of independence in Tanzania, Senegal, Ghana, Guinea, Zambia and elsewhere. Supporters point to gains in literacy, national unity and access to basic services, especially in Tanzania. Tanzania reformed its economy in the mid 1980s and adopted multiparty politics in 1992, but ideas of self-reliance and national unity remain part of its political culture.