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Comparing the Role of Education in Serving Socioeconomic and Political Development in Tanzania and Cuba. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission.
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MTONGA Comparing the Role of Education in Tanzania and Cuba.pdf
Comparing the Role of Education in Serving Socioeconomic and Political Development in Tanzania and Cuba. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission.
Comparing the Role of Education in Serving Socioeconomic and Political Development in Tanzania and Cuba. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission.
Comparing the Role of Education in Serving Socioeconomic and Political Development in
Tanzania and Cuba
Author(s): Harry L. Mtonga Source: Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 23, No. 3 (Mar., 1993), pp. 382-402 Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2784575 . Accessed: 09/05/2011 16:58 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=sage. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Sage Publications, Inc. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Black Studies. http://www.jstor.org COMPARING THE ROLE OF EDUCATION IN SERVING SOCIOECONOMIC AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT IN TANZANIA AND CUBA HARRY L. MTONGA University of Zambia On March 9, 1967, President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania issued a dramatic manifesto that he called "Education for Self-Reliance." In this document, he stated that education has definite purposes: to prepare young people to live and serve society and to transmit the knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes of society (Nyerere, 1968, p. 44). Meanwhile, a Cuban educator had said that, when he was in Italy for an education conference, someone asked him whether or not the school in Cuba was an instrument of the state. He answered, "Yes, of course, just as it was before the triumph of the Revolution and as it is in the present day Italy" (Carnoy & Wertheim, 1977, p. 573). The educator could not have been more accurate, for everywhere education is, no doubt, a state instrument in the process of political and socioeconomic development. Consequently, Mbilinyi (1979, p. 218) does not hesitate to point out that "formal education is one of the fundamental forms of means of production and transmission of knowledge and therefore, must be considered both as an ideo- logical instrument and as one aspect of productive forces." School- ing, she continues, cuts across the ideological and economic levels. At the same time, schooling is increasingly becoming an instrument of state and must also be posed as an element of political level. JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES, Vol. 23 No. 3, March 1993 382402 ? 1993 Sage Publications, Inc. 382 Mtonga / EDUCATION IN TANZANIA AND CUBA 383 Tanzania and Cuba are two Third World countries that have overtly stated their wish to rely heavily on education to bring about a sound economic base in the hope of achieving socialist societies. But, as Paulston (1971) and Freire (1976) say, education often maintains existing the social order and rarely supports or promotes changes. Tanzania and Cuba are reconstructing education to per- form the function in which it rarely succeeds. How well education can be expected to perform this function will be the focus of this article. There will be a comparative analysis of Tanzania and Cuba in which I will attempt to show how, in each case, the state has used education in political and socioeconomic development as a means of achieving socialism. In the conclusion, I will consider possible limitations and possibilities in facilitating the envisaged transition. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE Since independence (December 9, 1961), Tanzania has achieved a considerable measure of success in linking educational planning with economic planning (Barrance, 1981). The first day Nyerere took office, he inherited a lot of colonial problems. These were the components of the nation's infrastructure, the form and style of government, the two-party system (which he considered a luxury for a poor African country), the separation of civil service and political party, the pattern of bureaucracy, and the form of local government (Cameron & Dodd, 1970, p. 158). The more intractable of these problems, which were a legacy of colonial rule, were a tendency to look for models in Europe rather than Africa; inequal- ities in society; the prevalence of ignorance, poverty, and disease; and a chronic shortage of skilled manpower, which was badly needed to build a new nation. Given a chance, perhaps Nyerere would have opted for a gradual remedy of the situation. But, as things turned out, he had no choice. In January 1962, Nyerere felt compelled to resign the premier- ship to reorganize the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) party in an effort to close the widening gap between the rulers and 384 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES / MARCH 1993 the ruled. Unfortunately, this action was followed by successive droughts and floods that hamstrung plans for economic and social development. As if this were not enough, in January 1964 the army mutinied, demanding among other things, an increase in salary scales. This incident temporarily shattered an apparent growth in national confidence. It was followed by a spell of recovery, only to be struck down again by growing evidence of elitism in society manifested by the strike in 1966 of university students and school dropouts who opposed the principles and legislation of the National Service (Cameron & Dodd, 1970, p. 159). Worse still, foreign investment required for development was not forthcoming. There was, at this time, a general decline in aid from abroad that was exacerbated by the freezing of a British loan when, in December 1965, Tanzania severed diplomatic relations with Britain over Britain's equivocal handling of Rhodesia's unilateral declaration of independence (Lonsdale, 1982). Evidence from the above is that both internal and external pressures were instrumental in pushing TANU in a direction to which Nyerere was philosophically inclined-a socialist strategy of development. If anything, it was the impact of this pressure that prompted the famous Arusha Declaration (a declaration of intent to follow a socialist mode of development), which was to support the policy of "Education for Self-Reliance." Almost 3 years before Tanzania achieved her independence, Fidel Castro had already forced a U.S.-supported capitalist, Batista, out of Cuba in one of the shortest revolutionary wars of the time. It took exactly 2 years (Blackburn, 1963, p. 81). The 1950s were a period of increased individual stress in Cuba. Urban culture, espe- cially in Havana, underwent an intensification of U.S. influence, with growing U.S. consumer orientation, gambling, prostitution, and a heavy increase in tourism. This situation resulted in an intensification of internal cultural conflict-so much so that, by the close of the decade, Cuba had reached a period of cultural distor- tion. It was to this situation that Castro had to respond. His individ- ual stress was evident in his famous speech of October 16, 1953, which crystallized his vision for cultural change. It was a call for Mtonga / EDUCATION IN TANZANIA AND CUBA 385 action to change the collective muddle and the existing social reality (Paulston, 1972). The period also saw a decline in educational provisions. The irony, however, is that it is during the 1950s that Cuba was experi- encing an economic boom. What should be noted is that attempts to create new beliefs and discard old ones and carry out rapid cultural reconstruction do have their roots in human frustration. This human frustration, resulting from U.S. dominance of the Cuban economy and culture, had matured by the late 1950s. Cuba had at that time satisfied both criteria necessary for a successful revolution. She had undergone a period of rising expectations, as when the country was experiencing economic boom, and a period when expectations were generally frustrated. This partly explains why Castro's tiny army easily succeeded in taking over power in January 1959, at the speed that it did (Blackburn, 1963; Paulston, 1972). In his famous "History Will Absolve Me" speech at his trial, following the unsuccessful attempt of the revolutionaries to capture Fort Moncada on July 26, 1953, Castro spoke of six problems that the revolutionary government would immediately take steps to re- solve. Among these, he named the problems of land, industrializa- tion, housing, unemployment, education, and health (Huberman & Sweezy, 1969). This was not just a rhetorical statement, because it is said that, by the summer of 1958, the rebel army administered an area of 5,000 square miles, had carried out an agrarian reform that included the distribution of 6,000 heads of cattle, and had estab- lished 25 schools. By the end of the war, significant sections of the Sierra Maestra peasantry had been radically politicized. The rationale for a systematic historical background is that, if we are objectively going to compare the role of education in serving political, social, and economic development in Tanzania and Cuba, an analysis of issues that prompted the desire for a socialist ideology as a mode of development is indispensable. Therefore, the two accounts not only clarify what was at stake shortly before Tanzania and Cuba took on a socialist line, but they also give us the basis for rational comparison in terms of time, space, and the weight of 386 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES / MARCH 1993 pressing issues. This is important, because the success of educa- tion in serving the state in any development strategy depends heavily on the significance of historical incidents. The humiliating defeat of Germany coupled with the demand for reparation became the cornerstone for Hitler's subsequent indoctrinating education. German society was, through education, responding to a particular historical situation; so did Tanzania and Cuba. COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS Considering the above, one would therefore say that the first area needing comparison between Tanzania and Cuba would be the time when circumstances in each country compelled the adoption and clarification of the socialist mode of development. For instance, in Cuba, not only had Castro talked about his six problems in 1953, but the revolutionary government had actually put into practice some of the socialist principles long before the final victory in 1958. It had carried out agrarian and land reforms and established 25 new schools that reflected the revolutionary spirit. An important incident was the launching in 1961 of a successful literacy campaign only 2 years after the revolutionary government took over. There is some evidence proving that the campaign owed its success to the emphasis on education before the victory of rev- olutionary government. "It is also true," writes Kozol (1978, pp. 342- 343), "that the promise was generally accepted by a Cuban popu- lation that already had been led by Dr. Castro to consider education, along with land reforms and health care, as one of the three most serious struggles the revolution had to undertake." So that even though it is true to say that Cuba had not emerged as a Marxist state by spring of 1961, there is every reason to belief that socialist principles had been applied long before 1958 and that majority of people had begun to accept them shortly after 1961 (Kozol, 1978). The implication here is that, in Cuba, not only did contradiction and cultural distortions take place in the prerevolutionary period but that some socialist solution was also provided long before the success of the revolutionary army. On the contrary, Tanzania's Mtonga / EDUCATION IN TANZANIA AND CUBA 387 major compelling circumstances took place 3 to 6 years after independence; and, unlike the case of Cuba, they were a conse- quence of the new government's effort to change the situation. The Tanzanian army's mutiny of 1964, the university students' strike of 1966, and the alarming problem of primary school dropouts were all born out of the country's independent status. The spark of the circumstances was Nyerere's attempt to correct the colonial situa- tion. In Cuba, however, people were not reacting against the cor- rective efforts of the revolutionary government; instead, they sup- ported it in rooting out the vestiges of colonial rule. What did this mean? First, although Nyerere had his people's support in fighting against colonial rule, it would appear he had not the same support in fighting against the same evils that colonial government was overthrown for. Second, Nyerere's policies and leadership credibil- ity were attacked long before the pronouncement of the adoption of a socialist mode of production, although in the case of Castro it was the credibility of the socialist philosophy that had helped to in- crease his charismatic leadership quality. Therefore, unlike Tanzania's government, the Cuban revolutionary government was the brain child of revolutionary education right from the start. This becomes more obvious when one considers the argument that the 1961 Cuban literacy campaign did not succeed as the result of the systematic implementation of Marxism but as a spontaneous response to the experience of teaching and learning by those hundreds of thousand of young and old and the 1,032,849 illiterates, respectively. The campaign, it is argued, is one major incident that transformed Cubans into Communists (Kozol, 1978). This implies that education turned the state and Cuban people into Communists and not vice versa, as in Tanzania. In no way, however, does this assertion ignore that it was the Cuban revolutionary government that initiated the campaign and called for the literates to engage in teaching and the illiterates to do the learning, with a possible implicit objective of turning the participants into Communists. If this were so, then, there cannot be much difference with Tanzania besides that of methodology, difference in degree, and leadership structure. What is important, however, is the outcome of the cam- paign. It is evident that the campaign, supplemented by the Bay of 388 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES / MARCH 1993 Pigs incident in April 1961, played a major role in both fostering and legitimizing socialism in Cuba. Among several consequences, Morales (1981) argues that the campaign gave the masses of illiterates and the unschooled the opportunity not only to become literate but also to learn about the role of work- ers and peasants in [a] developing country.... The hundred thousand ... brigadistas who participated in this task not only taught the peasant but learned the lesson of nature, felt the reality of our inherited misery, and lived in a country-side empty of culture but full of fanaticism and exploitation. (p. 38) The other factor that is a source of difference in which education serves the state in Tanzania and Cuba can be traced through the method by which power was acquired in each of these countries. Tanzania, unlike Cuba, moved into independence through what is called democratic constitutional means. This transition from colo- nial rule to independence was a kind of evolution that suggests a gradual cumulative change of political, social, and other institutional structures. On the contrary, Castro ascended to power through a revolution. Second, whereas TANU consisted of an elite vanguard leadership with the top leading the lower masses, the Cuban revo- lution was an underdog mass movement, in which the young, especially, rejected the old life. Revolutions and major upheavals, unlike evolutions, lead to the creation of new institutions and cultural reconstruction. At the same time, underdog mass move- ments tend to accomplish structural changes, including the building of new institutions (Paulston, 1972, p. 480). This explains why Cuba can effectively transform the educational system to march with the political, economic, and social aspirations of a socialist society, whereas Tanzania can only manage piecemeal reforms at a slower pace. Whatever the pace of transformation of institutions, it is evident that both Tanzania and Cuba heavily utilize education in the devel- opment of politics and the economy. Castro has argued that revo- lution and education are the same thing (Bowles, 1972, p. 272). Nyerere (1982, p. 41) stated that education is a highly political activity of which politicians are more aware than educators. It is for Mtonga / EDUCATION IN TANZANIA AND CUBA 389 this reason that one of the three basic policy statements during the Arusha Declaration period of 1967, "Education and Self-Reliance," called for reform in the form and content of schooling (Mbilinyi, 1979). In the statement on "Education for Self-Reliance," it was suggested that education provided in the primary and secondary schools should not merely be a preparation for entry into higher learning institutions, because this would not be economically pos- sible. Education was, therefore, meant to be complete. It was "to provide knowledge and attitudes that would enable a student to live profitably in a developing socialist state and not to focus almost entirely on entry to higher levels" (TANU, 1974). It was also stated that the education provided would benefit the masses or there would be no justification for taxing them; that educational institutions should produce goods that would, in turn, be used by the same institutions; that all pupils in school should participate in communal productive activities; and that the method of examinations should be restructured to bring about a combined assessment that should cover both the students' performance in theoretical work and their performance in practical work (TANU, 1974). At the same TANU meeting (at Musoma), the need for specialized technical education was reemphasized: The 16th National Conference of the party held in September 1973 directed that in order to accelerate our economic development . . . there is a need of continually modifying our education system to place greater emphasis on scientific and technical education. (TANU, 1974, paragraph 25) This policy statement was no doubt a directive for the educational system to transform the political and socioeconomic life of Tanza- nia. It was hoped that socialism would be realized if schools worked to change the attitudes of the pupils and that this attitude change would come about if there was emphasis on manual productive work through communal activities and by providing education to the masses. Besides, emphasis on science and technology and other productive work in agriculture would be instrumental to economic and social advancement of the country. Above all, by government 390 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES / MARCH 1993 and educators it was agreed that plans to develop Tanzania's supply of manpower should be the first priority in the development of education. As one spokesman for the Ministry of Education reaf- firmed in February 1966, whatever may be said of the importance of cultural and social aspects of education, it would hardly perform its functions if it did not serve economic development efforts to the fullest possible extent (Rodney, 1968). Among TANU's suggestions was the outright nationalization of all voluntary agency schools, closure of all private institutions, and immediate universal primary education (Morrison, 1976, p. 269). What we need to be reminded about, however, is that having a policy statement is one thing, and the implementation of a policy is another. What, then, was the outcome of education for self-reliance? To what extent has it served as a guideline for an educational system charged with the respon- sibility of developing the political, social, and economic life of the country? Perhaps it would be appropriate to begin with Morrison's (1976, p. 266) description of the immediate reaction of the people to Nyerere's statement: "Surprise and confusion were the initial reac- tion among most people concerned with education to the publica- tion of 'Education for Self-Reliance.' " The immediate response in terms of action was that, by 1968, all primary, secondary, and teacher-training institutions embarked on farming and other self-reliance activities, and a new agriculturally biased science syllabus was incorporated into the primary school curriculum. An explicitly socialist program of "political education" replaced "civics" at all levels of the educational system, with a heavy emphasis in teachers' colleges. TANU youth league branches were established in primary schools and revitalized in secondary schools and teachers' colleges. The University of Dar-es-salaam followed suit in 1969 by establishing a compulsory course in development studies that focused on the problems of underdevel- opment in East Africa and was rooted in the principles of Tanzanian socialism (Morrison, 1976, p. 270). In short, the implementation phase of the policy was an impressive attempt for the party and government in Tanzania. These attempts were not to yield the expected results. Mtonga / EDUCATION IN TANZANIA AND CUBA 391 Although it is possible to show systematically how the state endeavored to use education for political and socioeconomic devel- opment in Tanzania by following the development of the policy up to the level of implementation, it would not be the same with Cuba. For instance, I have noted that politicization of education in Cuba had started long before the final success of the revolutionary army. This constitutes a major difference between a government born out of a revolution, on one hand, and one that is a creation of evolution- ary political process. In a revolutionary government, there is usu- ally a less clear-cut boundary between a period of policy formation and application. It is not uncommon to see implementation of the revolutionary government's policy as the revolutionary army gains success and proceeds to its final victory. In contrast, evolutionary parties wait for the day when they are declared a government; only then do they begin to implement their policies. This is the case with Cuba and Tanzania, respectively. And it is this aspect that makes it easy to compare Tanzania with Cuba. It makes it easy because the differences are so obvious that one can conveniently advance a variety of contrastive comparisons; after all, a good comparison is one that shows the possibility of divergence as well as similarities. However, there were instances when Cuban leadership, like TANU, sat to formulate an educational policy and applied it in the interest of socialist principles. The campaign against illiteracy in Cuba was just the opening gun in the long battle (Huberman & Sweezy, 1969). The first declaration of Havana, in September 1960, declared the right of every child to a free education. Mass education was in the forefront of the government's program. Castro often repeated his intentions to reform and expand education. His first reason for demanding reform and expansion in education was that the prerevolution educational system embodied extreme inequali- ties and tended to intensify class division. Second, a year and a half after the revolution, several expatriate technicians and administra- tors left the country as a result of a nationalization policy (Jolly, 1964). The shortage of skilled manpower was aggravated by the departure of thousands of Cubans, many of whom possessed tech- nical and professional qualifications. There was, therefore, need to increase technical education. The third reason has increasingly 392 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES / MARCH 1993 turned out to be a political and doctrinaire reform of education as an integral and essential part of Marxism-Leninism. In terms of economic effects, this third aim has been directed in support of the new economic system, to strengtnen incentives for work and saving, to spread awareness of national needs and inten- tions, and to fire the people's enthusiasm for the task of developing the country and building its people into a socialist nation (Jolly, 1964, p. 178). Education was seen as a means of investment as well as consumption. "Thus the revolutionary strategy required both an expansion of the forces of production and a radical transformation of the social relations of production" (Bowles, 1972). Castro as- serted that an advance in the consciousness of the people must accompany every step forward in the development of the forces of production. Education was to play a central role in both processes. And, according to Che Guevara, the revolution's most important aspiration was to see man liberated from alienation. "Thus the revolutionary movement sought to stimulate economic growth, to escape national dependency on the United States, to achieve equal- ity where inequality had been and to create the new socialist man in place of alienated labour" (Bowles, 1972, p. 276). The creation of a new man has been the central issue in the Cuban revolutionary education system. Among other ideological apparatuses, moral incentives were to be a fundamental appliance in the creation of new man. Consequently, by 1965, there was what Read (1970, p. 133) has called "real revolutionary education," when the July 26th move- ment was converted into an organized Communist party of Cuba. It was then asserted that the new phase in educational development would be marked by an aggressive effort to secure an ideological transformation in the moral and social consciousness of every citizen. Since then, genuine coeducation has been established on all levels and in all types of schools. Tuition fees were abolished; textbooks and other school requirements were provided freely; scholarships and economic aid were made available for thousands of young people, peasants, and workers who otherwise would never have had the opportunity to secure an education (Read, 1970). Primary, secondary, adult, and technical education were expanded, Mtonga / EDUCATION IN TANZANIA AND CUBA 393 with more emphasis on science and technology. For instance, during 1965, the (escuelas de instruccio'n revolucionaria-EIR) schools of revolutionary instruction moved openly into technolog- ical education in the service of agricultural development. By 1967, education costs amounted to 18.8%. Primary schools increased from 7,567 in 1958 to 14,726 in 1969; and there was also an increase of public schools from 171 to 416. In the same period, vocational schools increased from 73 to 127, and preschool, special education, and health all increased. Cuba is one country where no child lacks a place in school. Work and study have been combined; university education was reorganized to accommodate the shift of emphasis from arts to sciences and to obliterate the traditional university autonomy, thereby permitting the government more direct control of universities. School hours have since been increased, all private schools were nationalized, and the criteria for entry into a university were considerably altered (Fagen, 1969; Paulston, 1971, p. 111; Valdes, 1972). From this analysis, it can be noted that, although the goal is the same, there are as many differences as there are similarities between Tanzania and Cuba, not only in the methodology but also in the degree of the success in the application of the educational policy. Cuba has had more variety in methodology and application tech- niques than Tanzania because, first, Cuba seems to have had a broader and stronger socioeconomic base. Second, the historical and contemporary political, economic, geographical, and social limitations seem to have hit Tanzania more than Cuba. It is these factors that have made all the difference between the two countries in the possibility of educational reconstruction's facilitating a smooth transition to socialism. And it is to this that I will turn in the next few paragraphs. LIMITATIONS The success of an educational policy depends more on the availability of resources than just a political climate. Both Tanzania and Cuba are poor Third World countries; naturally lack of re- 394 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES / MARCH 1993 sources has been a major prohibitive factor in reconstructing edu- cation in such a way that it would be instrumental in achieving a socialist society. Admittedly, there are differences in the degree of poverty between the two countries. Carroll (1982) has, for instance, conceded that "Tanzania is one of the world's 25 least developed countries," whereas Blackburn (1963, p. 53) has noted that the Cuban revolution marked the first socialist revolution that "oc- curred in a relatively developed country." And according to Jolly (1964), a government embarking on educational reform in Cuba had quite a lot to draw upon-thereby providing a partial explana- tion of why Cuba has had more chances of success than Tanzania. The second factor is that the ideology (socialism) is itself prohibi- tive when it comes to securing foreign aid. Most rich nations are in the Western capitalist block. The international bank and other lending institutions are controlled by the capitalist world, which will not be happy to finance projects in socialist or communist countries (Weissman, 1975). Third, socialism or communism, un- like capitalism, lacks historical roots. It is basically a 20th-century phenomenon, as its first practical experience was in Russia only after 1917. Lack of historical roots on the part of the ideology would entail lack of experience in sustaining itself in the face of ideolog- ical warfare. The other limitation is the lack of human resources. To transform an educational system one needs teachers; yet to effect a new mode of development one requires skilled personnel. Both teachers and other personnel ought to have a positive attitude toward the ideol- ogy. On the contrary, neither Tanzania nor Cuba had enough per- sonnel of that type. Cuba's shortage was accentuated by the depar- ture of the technicians and professionals mentioned above. The total number of the teaching force in Cuba after Batista fled the country was only 35,000. However, considering that, in Cuba, primary and secondary education started as early as 1857 and 1880, respectively, and that about one third of the population was already literate by 1898, whereas, in Tanzania, it was only after 1890 that an elemen- tary school appeared at all, one would probably be right to suppose that Cuba would still be better off in terms of the availability of edu- Mtonga / EDUCATION IN TANZANIA AND CUBA 395 cated manpower (Cameron & Dodd, 1970; Kozol, 1978; Paulston, 1971). This is not to say that the manpower available would be appro- priate for the task of fostering socialism. Fagen (1969, p. 122) argues that, although the practice of privilege was under control, there was evidence of an emerging elite through the EIR. Elitism in both countries has continued to be a factor limiting goal realiza- tion. This should not be surprising, considering that most of the peo- ple in power, including Nyerere and Castro, were products of a capi- talist society. Mbilinyi (1979) notes that "under non-revolutionary conditions, class struggles still exist at all levels" (p. 217), whereas Hall (1975) is of the opinion that "within the socialist state the problem may be greatly exacerbated by the residue capitalism and its implications for the degree of congruency that will be possible between the aims of the leadership and the wishes of the people" (p. 52). Castro confirmed this when in 1971 he said: We have found that man exists in the midst of a system of production that fosters a struggle between men, that fosters selfishness; it is a system of production that introduces many vices. Now, when a social change is going to be effected, you find that many of the old ways of thinking; many of the old habits continue. (cited in Hall, 1975) For the sake of comparison, perhaps it would be right to say that the degree of residue capitalism in Tanzania was probably fairly low because there seemed to have been no significant indigenous property-owning class prior to independence to block socialist reconstruction (Morrison, 1976, p. 19). Moreover, there is a factor connected with the quality of leader- ship and manpower, which is that a large proportion of Tanzania's university students receive their training outside the country (Malima, 1968, p. 225). A good number of these go to capitalist countries where they are exposed to hostile ideological views. In Cuba, however, fellowships granted by the ministry of education to study abroad are for study in socialist countries-in the past, mainly the USSR, although Russia may not necessarily have been conducive 396 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES / MARCH 1993 to socialist values. Although this may seem to be a positive way of fostering and sustaining socialist values, Paulston (1971) has con- tended that the absence of challenge may have a weakening effect on the development of a strong socialist society. Perhaps the prob- lem is about the possibility of striking a balance between an absolute brainwashing exposure and a rational objective academic pursuit. Further, it would be necessary to mention that, unlike Cuba, Tanzania lacked an ideological rationale that could be communi- cated to the people and had no means of stimulating a sense of mass involvement (Morrison, 1976). Consequently, there seems to have been far less success in the implementation of "Education for Self-Reliance." For example, Mbilinyi (1979) states that standard seven examinations continue to be purely academic, classroom teaching is bureaucratic with methods incompatible with socialist principles, teachers teach a curriculum imposed on them from the top over which they have no say, and, in most schools, teachers merely supervise pupils and do not engage in productive manual work themselves. She further argues that university students and their professors, unlike their Cuban counterparts, do not engage in any manual or agricultural work at all. Meanwhile, private second- ary schools have flourished at the rate of 14%. Because only the rich can afford to send their children to private schools, education in Tanzania, will continue to be the privilege of the rich few. Although Cuba has almost succeeded in taking schools into rural areas, Mbilinyi has expressed fear that universal primary education in Tanzania is likely to create yet another uneven regional develop- ment, because, after all, increased enrollment will follow existing structures commonly found in urban areas. What should not be ignored is that geographical and demo- graphic factors usually play a very significant role in a country's economy, and this can contribute to success or failure in the implementation of a policy. Tanzania is 364,898 square miles, whereas Cuba is a small island of only 44,218 square miles. In 1977 and 1970, the estimated populations of Tanzania and Cuba were 15,755,000 and 8,553,395, respectively (The International Geo- graphic Encyclopedia andAtlas, 1979, pp. 189-190,755-757). This Mtonga / EDUCATION IN TANZANIA AND CUBA 397 means that Tanzania with her poorer economy and a larger but scattered population would have more problems of infrastructure and those resulting from its inability to spread educational services throughout the country. Apart from fostering cooperative and col- lective attitudes, Ujaama villages were partly an attempt to solve this problem (Coulson, 1977). Until 1971, when the illiteracy rate is said to have been reduced to about 25%, very few people in Tanzania could read and write, and very few had radios; therefore, only a few Tanzanians could be reached for political education through written materials and radio talks (Malima, 1968). In con- trast, as early as 1961, the literacy campaign of that year reduced the illiteracy rate in Cuba from 23.6% to a bare 3.9% (Huberman & Sweezy, 1969). There is no doubt that efficient infrastructure was as much responsible for the success of the campaign as was the morale of the brigadistas. Blackburn (1963, p. 90) points out that the communications network in Cuba-transport, telecommunica- tions, and newsprint-was highly developed (in some sectors, it had effectively reached "saturation point") and that it was this efficient communication system that provided one condition for the mobilization of the people during the revolutionary war. The other geographical factor is that both Tanzania and Cuba have hostile neighbors. The major Cuban ideological enemy is the United States of America, which is less than 100 miles away. Hardly 3 years after Castro took over the government, on April 15, 1961, U.S.-supported rebels attacked Cuba in an attempt to destroy the revolution. In Tanzania, only 3 years after the Arusha Declaration in 1967, Idi Amin took over the government of Uganda. The relationship between Tanzania and Uganda deteriorated and re- sulted in the breaking up of the East African Economic Community and, later, in a war that was costing Tanzania $1 million (U.S.) per day-"no small burden for one of Africa's poorest countries" (Lonsdale, 1982). Burundi in the northwest, the conservative cap- italist Malawi in the southwest, and Kenya in the north have all along given Tanzania an uneasy ideological challenge. Two years before the Arusha Declaration (in 1965), Ian Smith unilaterally declared independence in Rhodesia. As a result, Tanzania became the headquarters of Rhodesian (Zimbabwean) freedom fighters, as 398 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES / MARCH 1993 well as of those from Mozambique. The overthrow of Obote in Uganda left Tanzania the only socialist country in East Africa. Like Cuba, Tanzania became an ideological island. These factors evi- dently contributed greatly in hindering economic and morale -de- velopment of socialism in the two countries. It is not, therefore, surprising that the Ujaama program in Tanzania seems to have received a bodily blow from which it is unlikely to recover, al- though at the same time it has become almost impossible to base the Cuban economy on moral incentives (Coulson, 1977; Hall, 1975, p. 50). Among the major problems that constrain the reconstruction of education in Tanzania and Cuba are 1. the unavailability of the necessary teaching material, 2. the overemphasis on a political ideology, as a major criterion in the selection of students for further education, 3. the contradictions arising from the emphasis on technology, and 4. foreign aid. Both Cuba and Tanzania have relied heavily on foreign aid from the USSR and Scandinavian countries, respectively. Aid donors play a very important role in influencing the social and economic policy of a receiving country (Mbilinyi, 1979, p. 224), although there is no evidence to prove that foreign aid has had much impact on the morale of the socialist drive in Tanzania. Besides, emphasis on science and technology could result in the creation of a new scientific elite, as in Russia. Also, an emphasis on ideology as a main selection criterion for students' entry into higher education in- stitutions may work against scientifically and academically strong students who may not necessarily be ideologically inclined. Mean- while, it is further asserted that overemphasis on ideology could result in negative effects, one of which would be the creation of dog- matism, which may constrain objective scientific enquiry (Paulston, 1971). Perhaps all these arguments are justifiable. But it is also true that, once an ideology has become a way of life, it can be hoped that the emphasis on the ideology as a major criterion would perhaps find itself fading away. Besides, one might argue that it all Mtonga / EDUCATION IN TANZANIA AND CUBA 399 depends on how the country's leadership chooses to utilize an ideology in reconstructing the education system. If capitalism is thought not to have these side effects, why should we be tempted to believe that socialism will? In the final analysis, lack of relevant teaching materials both in Cuba and Tanzania has had a negative effect on the socialist development drive. For example, most of the literature available in Cuba on Marxism-Leninism was in Russian. The problem of the limited supply of material, coupled with the problem of language and the low level of students, posed quite a constraint on socialist innovation. As a result, by February 1968, the EIR were perma- nently closed (Fagen, 1969, p. 136). The magnitude of limitations in the case of Tanzania naturally dictate against the chances of genuine education reconstruction. The opportunities available and the possibilities of educational reconstruction are far more limited in scope in Tanzania than they are in Cuba. POSSIBILITIES That there will be less to be said on the possibilities than on limiting factors, should not be interpreted to mean that it is impos- sible to reconstruct education for a socialist state. Less will be said here because, as Third World underdeveloped countries, Tanzania and Cuba naturally have more problems than opportunities avail- able. Second, a lot more has already been said about possibilities each time a comparison was made between the two countries throughout this article. Therefore, it can be concluded not only that Cuba has more opportunities than Tanzania but that she has already demonstrated greater successes in reconstructing education in tran- sition to socialism. The possibility of educational reconstruction in Cuba actualized at the start of the 1961 literacy campaign. The campaign reconstructed education for the first time from being a privilege of the few to being a mass commodity. By the end of the campaign, Cuba was declared an illiteracy-free country, perhaps the only one in the Third World (Kozol, 1978). 400 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES / MARCH 1993 For both countries, the problematic language issue, peculiar to many Third World countries, is almost nonexistent. In Cuba, Span- ish is spoken throughout the island, whereas in Tanzania, Swahili is the country's main language. It is needless to overemphasize the significance of language in the process of educational and cultural reconstruction. One difference, however, is that, although Spanish is the first language for most Cubans, neither Swahili nor English is for all Tanzanians. In Cuba, unlike Tanzania, school hours have been increased from 36 to 40 hours a week to facilitate the combination of study and work (Valdes, 1972). More encouragement is resulting from in- creased expenditure on education and expansion in technical and agricultural education that may contribute to bringing a positive attitude toward manual work. From 1961 to 1966, primary school enrollment increased in Tanzania by 54%, whereas that of sec- ondary schools went up to 100% (Morrison, 1976). In Cuba, expenditure on education in 1958 was $74 million, but, by 1962, it grew to $237 million (Jolly, 1964). Besides, Blackburn (1963) argues that Cuba is in a favorable position in restructuring her education with the possibility of achieving socialism, because the revolutionary army comprised a large number of peasants, and also that the low level of antirevolutionaries within the country provides an opportunity to reorient the educational system toward socialist aspirations. As far as Tanzania is concerned, Idi Amin in Uganda was overthrown in 1979, and Obote came back, to be overthrown in turn by Museveni. In addition, Mozambique, Angola, and Zimbabwe achieved their independence in 1975 and 1980, respectively. Al- though other hostile neighbors continue to pose problems, the country has a chance to recover and concentrate a little more on local policy. Perhaps the most important aspect that gives a ray of hope for the possibility of the reconstruction of the educational systems of both countries is the leadership quality of now Mwinyi and Castro. The desire of these leaders to reshape education and, through it, to realize ideal socialist states has remained almost unshaken. Mtonga / EDUCATION IN TANZANIA AND CUBA 401 CONCLUSION The discussion in this article reveals that the school system has contributed to the creation of a new socialist society in Cuba that, to date, is one of the major accomplishments of the revolution (Paulston, 1972). This is no less an indication that the process of reconstruction of the educational system is taking appreciable shape. In spite of contradictions and myriad socioeconomic and geopolitical limiting factors, coupled with internal and external pressure, Tanzania continues with piecemeal reconstruction of its educational system. However, Tanzania's emphasis on self-reliance has been considerably reduced as the country's economic realities unfold. The indications are that reliance on foreign aid may have an adverse effect on future application of the policy of "Education for Self-Reliance," because the practice and theory may run parallel. REFERENCES Barrance, M. C. (1981). The ritual of education: Perspective in developing Tanzania. Unpublished master's thesis, University of New England, Biddeford, ME. Blackburn, R. (1963, October). Prologue to Cuban revolution. New Left View, No. 21. Bowles, S. (1972). Cuban education and the revolutionary ideology. In M. Carnoy (Ed.), Schooling in a comparate society (pp. 272-303). New York: David McKay. Cameron, J., & Dodd, W. A. (1970). Society, schools and progress in Tanzania. Oxford: Pergamon. Carnoy, M., & Wertheim, J. (1977). Socialist ideology and the transformation of Cuban education. In J. Karabeland & A. H. Halsey (Eds.), Power and ideology in education. New York: Oxford University Press. Coulson, A. (1977, February). What happened to Ujaama? New Internationalist, No. 48, pp. 16-19. Fagen, R. (Ed.). (1969). The schools of revolutionary instruction. In R. Fagen (Ed.), The transformation of political culture in Cuba. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Freire, P. (1976). Are adult literacy programmes neutral? In L. Bataille (Ed.),A turning point for literacy (pp. 195-199). New York: Pergamon. Hall, B. (1975). Moral incentives and socialist development: The case of Cuba. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Sociology, 2(3), 47-52. Huberman, L., & Sweezy, P. M. (1969). Socialism in Cuba. New York: Modem Reader Paperbacks. The International Geographic Encyclopedia and Atlas. (1979). London: Macmillan. 402 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES / MARCH 1993 Jolly, R. (1964). The educational aims and programs of revolutionary government. In D. Seers (Ed.), Cuba: The Economic and Social Revolution. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Kozol, J. (1978). A new look at the literacy campaign in Cuba. Harvard Educational Re- view, 48(3), 341-359. Lonsdale, J. (1982). Tanzania: Recent history. In Africa south of the Sahara (12th ed). London: Europa. Malima, K. A. (1968). Political education in Tanzania. In I. N. Resnick (Ed.), Tanzania: Revolution by education. Arusha: Longmans of Tanzania. Mbilinyi, M. (1979). Contradictions in Tanzanian education reform. In A. Coulson (Ed.), African socialism in practice; The Tanzania experience. Nottingham: Spokesman. Morales, A. P. (1981). The literacy campaign in Cuba. Harvard Educational Review, 51(1), 31-39. Morrison, D. R. (1976). Education and politics in Africa: The Tanzanian case. London: Heinemann. Nyerere, J. K. (1968). Ujamma: Essays on socialism. Dar-es-salaam: Oxford University Press. Nyerere, J. K. (1982, September). Adult education and development. Adult Education and Development Journal, 19, 37-46. Paulston, R. G. (1971). Education. In I. Carmelo (Ed.), Revolutionary change in Cuba. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. Paulston, R. G. (1972). Cultural revitalization and educational change in Cuba. Comparative Educational Review, 16, 474-485. Read, G. H. (1970). The Cuban revolutionary offensive in education. Comparative Educa- tion Review, 14, 131-143. Rodney, W. (1968). Education and Tanzanian socialism. In I. N. Resnick (Ed.), Revolution by education. Arusha: Longmans of Tanzania. TANU. (1974, November). Proceedings of the National Executive Committee Meeting held at Musoma. Musoma, Tanzania: Author. Valdes, N. P. (1972). Radical transformation of Cuban education. In N. P. Valdes & R. E. Vonachea (Eds.), Cuba in revolution. New York: Anchor. Weissman, S. (1975). The Trojan horse: A radical look at foreign aid. Palo Alto, CA: Ramparts. Harry L. Mtonga is a lecturer in the Department of Extension Studies and Confer- ences at the University of Zambia, Lusaka. Some of his published works include "Getting Down to Grass-Roots and Need Assessment-A Case for Zambia, " "The Concept and the Development of Participatory Research in Adult Education, " and "The Conflict of Values and the Dilemma of the Zambian Teacher. "