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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.
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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
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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.
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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. "

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