Arusha Declaration

The Arusha Declaration, known in Swahili as Azimio la Arusha, was issued by Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere on February 5, 1967 in the town of Arusha, and became the country's foundational statement of African socialism and the policy of Ujamaa, meaning familyhood or brotherhood. It argued that a country's development comes from the work of its people rather than from money alone, and it set out a program of self reliance, agrarian transformation and public control of major industries and services as an alternative to both capitalism and Soviet style communism. The declaration followed a December 1966 tour by Nyerere promoting national unity around socialism and self reliance, and it comprises five parts: the creed of the ruling party TANU, and statements of policy on socialism, self reliance, party membership and the Arusha Resolution itself. It became the guiding framework for Tanzania's development policy for the following two decades.