Julius Nyerere's Ujama
Julius Nyerere Courtesy of The New York Public Library
We have been talking about Food Rebels. Today we look at the ideological origins of food rebels in the 1960s and 1970s like Jitu Weusi and members of the Brooklyn based organization The East. The East patterned its economic development programs philosophy after example in Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, and Guyana. After the 1966 coup d’état that drove Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah from power, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania became the hope of pan- Africanist. His example of African socialism, Ujama called for cooperative economics and self-determination. Ujama served as one of the influences on the East’s Jitu Weusi and what became the framework for the East’s food system. The Kiswahili term Uhuru Sasa (freedom now) emerged as one the guiding philosophy of the East’s food system and the corresponding institutions of the organization economic development program. The other important influence for the East had been developments in Guyana.