The Ideal Citizen? The State, Rural Women and Nation-Building in 1960s and 1970s Tanzania

The Tanzanian state frequently portrayed rural women as hardworking, selfless citizens who, in addition to performing their roles as mothers and wives, also played a critical role in developing the nation according to the ideals of ujamaa (African Socialism). In the state’s eyes, rural women embodied ujamaa and served as examples for other Tanzanians to follow. In contrast, state discourses depicted urban (male and female) citizens and rural men in villages as wayward individuals who exhibited “un-socialist” behavior. Using state newspapers, correspondences between government leaders, and government reports on various nation-building policies and initiatives, the first part of this paper examines the ways in which the state differentially categorized its citizens according to gender and space. By prioritizing development in the rural countryside, the state overlooked and, consequently, reified women’s position in the nation based on the existing sexual division of labor organizing rural households and communities. Moreover, government leaders shaped development projects aimed to “empower” citizens based on their gendered constructions of citizenship. In so doing, the Tanzanian state inadvertently compromised its goal to achieve ujamaa and exacerbated existing gender hierarchies. The second part of this paper uses oral narratives from rural women in Lindi district to point out that women resourcefully engaged in government and devised development projects in ways that benefitted them. Women’s approaches to adult education and women’s income-generating projects often did not match the state’s ujamaa development goals. Furthermore, women’s actions countered the state’s version of the ideal citizen.