ABSTRACT
Entrepreneurship education and training programs implemented by international agencies encounter governing practices that are situated in a local political economy and social life, both of which have changed over time and place in Tanzania. These local practices are rooted in the idea(l)s of Nyerere’s Ujamaa that brought together philosophy and policies of African socialism and self-reliance. These ways of governing were an alternative to the illiberal colonial rule, as well as to liberalism’s individualism and the encroaching neoliberalism of the global economy. The ideals and practices of Ujamaa and self-reliance arose during Nyerere’s governing, and they continue to be important today; additionally, they have taken on new meanings. In this chapter, I first describe the historical emergence of Ujamaa and its meanings for development in Tanzania. In addition, the idea and policies of education for self-reliance were critical to development during Nyerere’s governing, and I briefly illustrate Education for Self-Reliance’s (ESR’s) achievements, failures and the challenges that persist today. Following Nyerere’s governing, the goals, policies, and practices for development shifted, and in the last section I summarize some of the main changes in policy, as well as the current status of education and employment in Tanzania. I then discuss the emergence of entrepreneurship education and training in policies and how they articulate with both global discourses and local practices of self-reliance and a moral economy. My aim is to provide a transversal analysis of sub-Saharan African and local discourses related to education, development, and the economy. By detailing these local discourses and their shifting meanings, it allows me to examine in subsequent chapters how the NGO entrepreneurship education and training programs encounter these rationalities and ideas, and the new meanings that emerge in the various communities and schools.
