Julius Nyerere's Four Ingredients for Development and Africa's

Post-independence Performance

Festo Mkenda
Jesuit Historical Institute in Africa, Nairobi Kenya
[email protected]

Abstract

This article reflects on Julius K. Nyerere's four necessary ingredients for development:
people, land, good policies and good leadership. The concepts of land and policies are
understood broadly: ,":hereas land includes all natural resources, policies embrace
constitutions, party manifestos, acts ofparliament, government white papers and blue
prints, and other similar legal and guiding documents. Defining development as the net
value that humans add to life, the article argues that in the past half-century, Africa has
hadplenty ofpeople and land, but little ofgood policies and good leadership. The needfor
Africa to stand on its ownfeet andproduce real development is emphasized and proposed
as something within reach by 2050, if Africa provides for itselfgood policies and good
leaders. The article concludes with an appreciation of the confidence with which
generations of Africans in the 1950s, 19605 and 1970s leapt into the uncertainties of
political independence, something that is compared to a boy who, at initiation in
traditional Africa, assumed manhood and embraced its rights and duties. Current
generations ofAfricans need a similar confidence, the conclusion says, in order to assume
responsibility for the continent's development. All that is needed are policies and leaders
that can help turn Africa's abundant human and natural wealth into real value that is
added to life.

Introduction

I think of development as the net value that human beings add to life. Here I mean life
generally, not just human life. If we extinguished entire species in order to build
highways we would not have developed at all, not least because ofthe negative impact
such extinction would have on human life. Moreover, development is a net value
because it has to be considered after all the negative consequences ofhuman pursuit for
progress have been assessed and, as it were, deducted from perceived gross values.

The suggested meaning ofdevelopment cannot be a natural given. It excludes values to

life that are not a result ofhuman invention. The question "Why are the rich so poor?"

4 Chiedza, Journal ofArrupe Col/ege, Vol. 18. No.1. December 2015

 Festo Mkenda

is familiar to many. It implies that those endowed with resources wallow in poverty,
suggesting a disconnection between wealth on the one hand and poverty or, properly
speaking, the absence of development on the other. It is a curious situation which has
forced many-from John Paul II to Tom Burgis and several others in between-to
attempt an answer. They suggest an array ofexplanations, all ofthem helpful in varying
degrees: endemic corruption, undemocratic institutions, dysfunctional justice
systems, greedy multinational corporations, incompetent elites, ineffective
international aid, resource wars, continued forms of colonialism, unplanned
urbanization, international debt, the arms trade, the problem of refugees, unplanned
population growth, breakdown of family structures, HIV/AIDS and other diseases,
continued existence of forms of slavery, ethno-centrism and tribal conflict... and the
1
list goes on. However, this list tells of symptoms and largely appeals for pity, not of
actual causes ofthe African underdevelopment malady and how to get out ofit.

In this paper, I suggest a more helpful question that might seek to identify the right
ingredients for development, in order to determine whether or not Africa actually
possesses them. Does Africa have what it takes to develop? In 1967, Julius K. Nyerere
(1922-1999), former president of Tanzania, argued for only four foundational
elements and described everything else-money, roads and industries included-as
merely consequential and not foundational to development. In order to develop, he
said, we need four things: people, land, good policies and good leadership (Nyerere,
Freedom and SocialismlUhuru na Ujamaa 243, 246-48). I shall briefly elaborate on
Nyerere's four ingredients before interrogating the situation in Africa.

Nyerere's Four Ingredients

We never talk of development in a jungle that is uninhabited by humans, no matter

how fertile and richly endowed with natural resources that jungle might be. There can
only be development ifthere are human beings. Moreover, for Nyerere, people are not
only a necessary cpndition for (or agents of) development, but also the target of that
same development. As Reginald Herbold Green put it, Nyerere understood human
beings "as the ends as well as the chief means; as the justification for, as well as the
judges of, development" (Green 80). He actually argued that human beings reject their
treatment as objects ofcharitable development. "People cannot be developed; they can

'These and other issues are discussed by John Paul II, Burgis and Arieff.

Chiedza, Journal ofArrupe College, Vol. 18. No.1. December 2015 5

Julius Nyerere's Four Ingredients for Development...

only develop themselves;' 'and "[a] country, or a village, or a community cannot be

developed; it can only develop itself" (Nyerere, Man and Development 8,27). Ifnot for
any other reason, charity aid fails to bring development because of its ｬ｡ｩｴｮ･ｾｰ for
abuse by both the philanthropists and the recipients of philanthropy. Recent authors
examining the impact of foreign aid on Africa would seem to prove Nyerere right on
2
this analysis. Nyerere also argued that the only criterion for judging any development
agenda is whether it serves the very purpose of development, and "the purpose of
development is the people" (Nyerere, Man and Development 28). A new road upon
which people do not travel, a school building that does not serve the minds ofpeople,
or increased maize production that does not improve people's nutrition is not
development at all. With our sensitivity towards nature and the environment, today we
might tamper Nyerere's accent on development for human beings by emphasizing
necessary care for life in general, including the non-human. Even then, such an
emphasis would still leave human beings at the center, for they eventually suffer the
consequences ofdiminished life on earth that results largely from their reckless pursuit
offalse development.

Like his perception of humans, Nyerere's understanding of land as a foundational

factor of development can be expanded from the mere fact of land. It includes what
nature places on and underneath the land: rivers, lakes and oceans; forests and
climates; soils, rocks and minerals; coal, petroleum and gas-indeed anything that we
might consider as a natural resource. "Good policies", which is the third necessary
ingredient, is similarly perceived in broad terms. It includes such things as
constitutions that give people grounding, focus and direction. It includes party
manifestos that compete for the approval of the populace. It also includes government
white papers and blueprints for development. The fourth ingredient is good
leadership. Good leaders are those who empower their people to bring the best out of
themselves, not those who herd them as ifthey were unthinking cattle.

Following Nyerere's logic, human beings should be able to add real value to life as long
as they have land, can formulate good policies and provide for themselves good
leadership, no matter where they find themselves. The question confronting us is that,
ifin the last fifty-or-so years Africa has not added as much value to life as it would have
loved to see, what has it been lacking?
'See, for example, Moyo 2010 and 2011 and Graham Hancock.

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 Festa Mkenda

What Africa Has

As was indicated above, one ofthe regularly mentioned "causes" ofpoverty in Africa is
the continent's population. Expanding at a rate that is higher than local economies can
sustain, population in Africa is viewed as a curse rather than a blessing. An often
recommended strategy for development is planning-basically meaning
"curbing"-population growth. Even without disputing the logic, these concerns with
population growth help to prove that Africa has an abundance ofthat which should be
the end as well as the chief means; the justification for, as well as the judge of
development.

Some 'concrete figures should put us into perspective. The United Nations' 2015
population report indicates that 16% of global population currently lives in Africa,
which translates to a whopping 1.2 billion agents of development. It further projects
thatthe figure will reach about 2.5 billion in 2050 and 4.4 billion in 2100. The following
statement from the report is informative:

More than halfofglobal population growth between now and 2050 is expected to
occur in Africa. Africa has the highest rate of population growth among major
areas, growing at a pace of2.55 per cent annually in 2010-2015 .... Consequently,
ofthe additional 2.4 billion people projected to be added to the global population
between 2015 and 2050, 1.3 billion will be added in Africa. Asia is projected to be
the second largest contributor to future global population growth, adding 0.9
billion people between 2015 and 2050, followed by Northern America, Latin
America and the Caribbean and Oceania, which are projected to have much
smaller increments. In the medium variant, Europe is projected to have a smaller
population in 2050 than in 2015 (United Nations 3).

There is one more detail that makes the picture in Africa even rosier. Africa's
population is young-41 %below 15 years ofage and 19% between 15 and 24 years. On
average, the United Nations report says, African countries have a Potential Support
Ratio (PSR) of 12.9, meaning there are 12.9 people aged between 20 and 64 for every
person aged 65 or above. Although the PSR figure is projected to decrease, it will still
remain impressively high in Africa in this century. Consequently, the continent is
unlikely to experience, in a significant way, what the report calls "the fiscal and political

Chiedza, Journal ofArrupe College, Vol. 18. No.1. December 2015 7

Julius Nyerere's Four Ingredients for Development...

pressures that the health care systems as well as the old-age and social protection
systems of many countries are likely to face in the not-too-distant future" (United
Nations 7). It is these facts that made the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund
(UNICEF) declare: "The future ofhumanity is increasingly African" (The Economist).

Another factor that Africa enjoys in abundance is what is generally called land. Once
again this is viewed in the negative, often described as a resource curse. Some concrete
figures will put us in some context again, and this tiine we use just one example. "The
Democratic Republic ofCongo (DRC) has been called a 'geological scandal,''' declares
Professor Rusembuka, who further paints a picture of pure wealth in a country that is
shockingly poor. The DRC, he says:

... covers an area of2.3 million km' and holds more than 1,100 different kinds of
minerals. Its forest resources cover 145 hectares or 56% of Africa's forests, the
world's second largest reserve after the Amazon. There are vast energy resources:
the Inga Dam alone has a production potential of 100,000 MW; representing
approximately 10% of world capacity. There are oil resources (with a reserve of
3
180 million barrels) and gas (with a reserve of 55 billion m of methane gas in
Lake Kivu)....the DRC ranks first in the world in terms ofreserves ofcobalt, with
three-quarters of global reserves; it comes third in holdings of iron (5.83
percent), second for copper (10.77 percent ofthe world reserves); it ranks first for
industrial diamonds (80 percent), third for pyrochlore (with 6.63 percent of
world reserves), fifth for coltan, and eighth for cassiterite. In Africa, the DRC
holds the second rank for coal, fifth for methane and sixth for petroleum
(Rusembuka 16).

Rich as Professor Rusembuka's description of the DRC's natural endowment already

is, it leaves out the all-important area of agricultural potential, which, if fully realized,
could see the country feeding the entire African continent. However, the description
suffices to show that Africa's richest country is, actually, Africa's poorest country
(Rusembuka 16). This is an extreme case, which makes the reality stark; most of the
other countries are neither as rich nor as poor as the DRC is, suggesting that, in Africa,
the level of poverty is directly proportional to the amount of natural resources
available. So, why are the rich so poor?

8 Chiedza, Journal ofArrupe College, Vol. 18. No.1. December 2015

 Festa Mkenda

What Africa Does Not Have

In the past, Africans blamed European colonialism for Africa's ills and confidently
hoped that with the liberty to plan for themselves. and manage their own resources,
they only needed time to showcase impressive strides in development. This was the
confidence that exuded in Nyerere's famous statement, which quickly inspired a book
3
title: "We must run while they walk" (Smith). Fifty years after independence, the how-
Europe-underdeveloped-Africa sort of argument' has long lost currency, not least
because countries like South Korea and Singapore have proved to the world that, with
one's actions or agency in order, one does not need a whole halfofa century in order to
bid farewell to poverty. While partially true, the neo-colonialism argument that
foreign governments and multinational companies still lock Africa's potential as they
syphon the continent's wealth is itself dangerous, perpetuating as it does a certain
conception of innate African gullibility and inspiring a sense of powerlessness that
puts the fate of Africans entirely in the hands of profit-hungry, blood-sucking
foreigners. Yet, ifAfrica is to develop, then Africa must develop itself.

It is sufficiently obvious that Africa has an abundance ofpeople and land. What Africa
does not have are good policies and good leadership. In the remaining part of this
article, I will focus on these two ingredients and propose them as areas of focus as
Africa pursues development in the 21 century.
$I

Good Policies

In an economic analysis of the inaugural speech of Tanzania's new president to the

parliament, Professor Honest Ngowi says "[e]conomic theory and practical realities
have shown that resource endowment indicates the potential that a country has:' but
warns that what is more meaningful "is the way and extent to which this potential is
actualized for the country's development" (Ngowi 24). The poor who sleep on natural
wealth are in need of clear policies that will guide them in a process of turning that
wealth into desired value to life. In fact, scholars have suggested that, "by failing to raise
growth and reduce income inequality, public policies of past decades are responsible

'A recent author has gone further and proposed that "Africa must not only run, but jump while others
walk" (See Adejumobi).
'See Rodney.

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Julius Nyerere's Four Ingredients for Development...

for the bleakwelfare indicators observed in Africa in the 1990s" (Fosu et al. 4); 5

I have already proposed a fairly broad understanding ofpolicies, which should include
constitutions, manifestos, white papers and blueprints for development. These things
are woefully inadequate in Africa. Often haphazardly put together, they are mere
imitations or impositions from elsewhere, hardly products oflocal research, and rarely
binding on those who are supposed to implement them. Moreover, they often channel
resources to things rather than to the people who are supposed to be the ends as well as
the chiefmeans; the justification for, as well as the judges of, development.

Bad constitutions, and good constitutions that are not supported by appropriate
constitutionalism, are largely responsible for systemic loopholes that have seen
unqualified men-usually they are men-get to office and underperforming leaders
hang on to power until death do them part. In Africa, if a particular constitutional
clause proves irksome to an individual office bearer, that clause goes, no matter how
meritorious and sacred. The disastrous hanging on to .power by President Pierre
Nkurunziza of Burundi, which has seen hundreds of civilians die on the streets of
Bujumbura as they expressed their outrage, and the shameless change of constitutions
in Uganda, Rwanda and elsewhere in order to allow incumbents to stay in power longer
than originally envisaged by law, are just examples ofhow little value is given to the very
documents by which the same individuals held office and which they promised under
oath to protect. Whereas studies have established a direct link between gender equality
and economic development,6 the Government of Kenya has recently invested more
energy in changing a constitutional clause that demands gender parity in public offices
than in actualizing it, once again showing little regard for legal and policy
commitments within a defined timeframe.

In Africa, party manifestos are even more ephemeral. They are often put together in a
rush in a moment of electioneering, and they expire with every conclusion of an
election. Most party manifestos are drafted by armchair academics for a fee. For that
very reason, they tend to lack enduring ideological backbone that is associated with a
party. Manifestos from different parties within the same country bear a close
resemblance to one another because they are drafted by the same people, leaving voters
5 Also see Ali and Thorbecke.
'See Appleton, Collier and Mackinnon.

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 Festa Mkenda

with only the personalities of party candidates to compare and choose from. Few
people treat manifestos as election pacts; even fewer hold their elected leaders to their
promises after elections or when they come back to seek re-election. In fact, as I
imagine, hardly anyone keeps copies of party manifestos for even a month after an
election.

A good policy statement is like radar that is used to monitor and guide citizens together .
with their leaders. Such radar would have to be based on sound research, called "the
backbone ofeffective economic policy" by some authors, which "equips policy-makers
with the knowledge about the contents of planned reforms, and their likely welfare
impacts" (Fosu et al. 6). The reference to welfare is significant. It points to another
important aspect of a good policy, which is its focus on people. In 2005, the
Commission for Africa declared human development to be "the area in which the
greatest resources will be needed to effect change" (Commission for Africa 73).
Investing in people means investing in education and health; it means empowering the
abundance of humanity that Africa has so that it becomes a population of producers
and, even more importantly, of creators of value and innovators of technology.
Arguing that development in Africa should be midwifed by democratic
developmental states, Professor Said Adejumobi emphasizes the need not only to fast-
track and promote sustained economic growth and industrialization, but also to
"improve human capital and reform social policy towards enhanced citizen welfare in
society" (50). Ultimately, any policy, whether on mining the earth or exploring the
space, which does not indicate clearly and in measurable terms what its net additional
value to life will be is good only for the wastepaper basket.

Good Leadership

Investing in people is like killing two birds with one stone, for in the same process a
critical citizenry and alternative leaders are formed. In Africa, poorly performing
leaders have preyed on their uncritical followers to hang on to office by presenting
themselves as the best or the only possible options, which amounts to the holed-shoe-
is-better-than-none sort of argument. It is an argument that makes people prefer the
warmth ofa bed shared with mediocrity, to excellence pursued in cold air.

Although specific cases warrant exceptions, generally Africa has espoused a style of

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Julius Nyerere's Four Ingredients for Development...

leadership and government that neither empowers people nor encourages

development. As Horace Campbell put it, "[t]he notion ofleadership and government
has been constructed as a patriarchal concept at the ideological level as well as a sign of
a male conquest of power" (Campbell 69). With such a concept in mind, those with
power become more concerned with keeping it than with providing leadership to their
people. They celebrate dominance rather than empowerment, and the mere thought of
losing power becomes for them as frightening as emasculation is for a man in a macho
society. The result has been a crop of so-called strong men who rule by force and
patronage rather than lead by example and persuasion.

Undoubtedly, more than anything else, poor leadership has spoilt Africa's chances of
developing in the last half century. To move forward, the agency ofleadership will be
decisive and indispensable, not least because good leaders will influence policies and
form the minds oftheir people in the right developmental direction. Good leaders will
view their authority over the management ofnatural resources as something they hold
in trust for current and future generations, not opportunities for unbridled self-
enrichment (Adejumobi 51).

Good leaders for Africa will not come from Europe or America, nor even from heaven.
Moreover, since they have not been forthcoming, Africa desperately needs
mechanisms that will motivate her leaders to be good and scare bad ones into toeing
established legal and policy lines. Such mechanisms would have to privilege national
interests over those of specific regimes, facilitate recruitment of credible men and
women into positions of leadership, ensure citizen representation and participation
beyond elections, make transparency and accountability mandatory, and empower
people to own and deliver development (Adejumobi 51).

Conclusion

Specifically because development is a human invention, money cannot be the starting

point for its pursuit. Nyerere's four ingredients point to the most basic requirements
for human beings to add real value to life if they want to. Indeed if what I broadly
described as land were to be identified in Mars, a group ofcreative and foresighted men
and women could be blindfolded and parachuted there with nothing but their brains
and they could begin inventing development as soon as they could see again. To begin,

12 Chiedza, Journal ofArrupe College, Vol. 18. No.1. December 2015

 Festa Mkenda

they would only need to agree on what needed to be done (policies) and organize
themselves for action (leadership). Within a season they could even export to earth a
technology that converts excessive carbon into clean energy or simply sucks it out of
existence. Africa has what it takes to develop, and has most of it in abundance. The
bone that was the-colonialist-ate-my-notes argument has long lost its meat and
marrow, and cautiously successful cases like Botswana, Mauritius, Cape Verde and
Seychelles are proving to Africans that development is possible in their own soil.

The venerable Nelson Mandela narrated the story of his circumcision moment. The
cutting was done entirely without anaesthetics, yet he was not supposed to shed a tear
or flinch. Instead, as the hurried operation ended, he was expected to leap to his feet
and proudly announce: "I am a man!" Instantaneously, that declaration brought
boyhood to an end and ushered in manhood together with all the rights and duties
entailed in it.

Like Mandela's circumcision experience, Africans ofthe 1950s, 1960s and 1970s were
just as daring. They questioned almost everything, from ancient native monarchical
prerogatives to contemporary colonial claims. They had come to discover their
potential, and they were not about to sit back and watch someone else trample on their
chances. The leap into the uncertain future that was Africa's political independence,
together with all the rights and duties it entailed, was nothing short ofan "I am a man!"
moment for that generation of men and women. One looks in vain for a similar
moment in the so-called lost decades of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s (Commission for
Africa 16-27). However, all but the most afro-pessimistic will appreciate Africa's real
potential for an "I am a man!" moment in development within the 2050 timeframe.
The people and the land are there; the potential can be actualized with good policies
and good leadership.

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Julius Nyerere's Four Ingredients for Development...

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