About The Late Edward Moringe Sokoine
The Late Edward Moringe Sokoine was born on 1st August 1938 in Monduli, Tanzania. He was the Prime Minister of Tanzania twice from 13th February 1977 to 7th November 1980 and from 24th February 1983 to 12 April 1984. He passed away in a car accident on 12th April 1984 at Dakawa in Morogoro, Tanzania, while he was travelling from Dodoma to Dar es Salaam.
The Late Edward Moringe Sokoine represented a unique breed of leadership that espoused a clear political vision while at the same time grappling with the operational problems of development. He was the leader who embodied the virtues of integrity, simplicity and dedication to thedevelopment of Tanzanians. The people of Tanzania know him as a firm believer in human equality and dignity. He was also a man committed to justice. Therefore, the people always believed that with him around, their dignity as men and women would be protected and their rights upheld. His attributes were best described by the Third President of Tanzania (1995 – 2005), Mr. Benjamin William Mkapa, in his Sokoine Memorial Lecture at Sokoine University of Agriculture on 12th April, 2005 described him as follows: “He was a non-nonsense man; a leader whose love and commitment to his country was unquestionable. Patriotism and loyalty was his mantle. Sokoine was a man committed to getting things done, not tomorrow but yesterday.”
Ideas and Development Interventions by the Late Edward Moringe Sokoine
The Late Edward Moringe Sokoine contributed a lot to the development of Tanzania, particularly through his commitment to, and initiatives for, the development of the nation when he was Prime Minister. The initiatives have been explained by various prominent people in Tanzania, including the Third President of Tanzania Mr. Benjamin William Mkapa for the years 1995-2005 and Issa Shivji, a renowned former Professor of Laws at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Edward Moringe’s contributions to the development of Tanzania are explained briefly in this book according to the prominent people who have explained them.
The Late Edward Moringe Sokoine encouraged freedom of speech. In a rare speech by a national leader to intellectuals on intellectuals, he said: “According to development theories, a country cannot develop without generating debates on how that country can pave the way for its development…”
The Late Edward Moringe Sokoine was very committed to national independence. He reserved some strong words for those who would sell their independence so as to exist but exist in slavery. For example, he once sad: “… the worse are those who dare to sell their country’s independence so as to survive but survive in slavery.” He emphasised on at least the following four different sub-elements of national independence: culture and custom, patriotism, national self-reliance, and national expertise.
Moreover, the Late Edward Moringe had high commitment to food self-sufficiency. He constantly emphasised on food self-sufficiency, and this was linked with modernisation and development of agriculture and pastoralism. His vision of food self-sufficiency was national; he argued that, if necessary, a number of regions with suitable climates and soil could be focussed on for food production for Tanzania to be able to produce sufficient food to feed itself.
Promotion of the national market was another thing which the Late Sokoine emphasised on. He regarded as inappropriate the ‘export-to-earn-foreign-exchange’ syndrome that comes naturally into the minds of most politicians, planners, economists and most other people. He emphasized on food production for domestic demands and needs, and on exporting surplus food. To promote such markets, he abolished irrational regional road blocks with regard to transportation of food products and reprimanded Government officials who would harass peasants taking food from one region to another. He emphasised on building of integrated infrastructure that linked regions within the country rather than all leading to ports, which was a heritage of the colonial economy.
The Late Edward Moringe Sokoine also promoted investment in agriculture and pastoralism for the issue of accumulation. He emphasized on such things as modernising agriculture and pastoralism; creating market for pastoral products; sending technology and experts to villages and even encouraging people with money to invest in agriculture.
The Late Edward Moringe Sokoine was highly commitment to socio-economic development of Tanzania. Due to the reality that in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when he was Prime Minister, Tanzania had more than 80% of the population living in rural areas, Mr. Sokoine initiated the concept of Rural Revolution [Mapinduzi Vijijini]. Just after Tanzania gained political independence in 1961, the village was seen simply as a human settlement. After the Arusha Declaration in 1967 there was villagisation through the policy of socialism whereby people were required to live and produce communally, but these requirements were hardly realised. Sokoine’s conception of living in villages was rather revolutionary—a holistic conception of the village as the focus of a revolutionary life and living conditions, with experts living there providing villagers with knowledge and skills about main economic activities and services including education, health and water.
By being commited to socio-economic development of Tanzania, the Late Sokoine was committed to fighting against national poverty. Some of the people who worked with him attest to the commitment. For example, Hon. Edward N. Lowassa (MP), during the 5th Sokoine Memorial Lecture that he delivered at Sokoine University of Agriculture in Morogoro, attested to that fact by saying: “I would like to begin by saying that current efforts by the Government towards poverty eradication are in line with the ideals cherished by the late Edward Moringe Sokoine for our nation.”
The Late Sokoine was committed to fighting against corruption and creating a just society. On this, the former Prime Minister of Tanzania (2008 – 2015) said: “He [The Late Edward Moronge Sokoine] will always be remembered for his heroic and tireless efforts in creating a just society by fighting corruption, economic saboteurs and racketeers.
The Late Edward Moringe Sokoine was also committed to democratic political processes and social services. About this, the former Vice-President of Tanzania, Mohamed Gharib Bilal, in his Sokoine Memorial Lecture at Sokoine University of Agriculture on 12th November 2012, said: “Despite the fact that our country was a single party state at the time of his leadership, various decisions and actions taken by him had enormous contribution towards political and democratic processes in our country.”
The Late Hon. Sokoine was practical at solving annoying problems. For example, during his time, there was Usafiri Dar es Salaam (UDA) a Corporation which was owned by the Governmnet. UDA could not cope with the growing population of Dar es Salaam City. Hon. Edward Moringe Sokoine, being Prime Minister, allowed private minibuses (daladala) to operate legally to mitigate the annoyance in the city. Another annoying problem which the Late Hon. Sokoine solved was a historical extreme shortage of basic consumer goods in the early 1980s. Tanzania was experienced an acute shortage of basic necessities, with a few greedy individuals deliberately hoarding goods in order to create artificial shortages. Mr. Sokoine led a national operation against economic saboteurs and racketeers with intention to provide basic goods and services to more citizens at more affordable prices than they were being offered by those who were otherwise accumulating goods and selling them at inflated prices.
Rationale for Commemorating the Late Edward Moringe Sokoine
Shortly before his death, the Late Hon. Sokoine had chaired a parliamentary session in Dodoma where, among other things, he passed a bill into a law to establish Morogoro University of Agriculture from the Faculty of Agriculture, Veterinary Science and Forestry of the University of Dar es Salaam. It was after his death that the name of Morogoro University of Agriculture, which was established in April 1984, was renamed Sokoine University of Agriculture, with effect from 1st July 1984, in his honour. The University has been named after him because of his strong commitment to the development of Tanzanians in general, and in partuclar to the development of the ordinary people, most of whom are the poor farmers.
In view of the reasons for naming Sokoine University of Agriculture after the Late Sokoine, the Unversity has to take forward good interventions that he made and some of the ideas he had. The roles of the University were well clarified by the First President of Tanzania, Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere in his inaugural address of the University on 26th September, 1984; among other things, he said: “The major purpose of this University is the development and transmission of skills and practical expertise at the highest level. And the skills and expertise required are all those necessary and useful for the transformation of our rural areas—transformation which can only take place on a firm base of agricultural development and increased production.”
In the light of the purpose stated above, Sokoine University of Agriculture has all the reasons to honour this committed and patriotic leader of our country in order to apply his good ideas and keep up what he did for the development of Tanzania. Therefore, the Sokoine Memorial Lectures are aimed at giving intellectuals and the public opportunities to debate topical development issues in view of the Late Edward Moringe Sokoine with a view to informing various policies about more realistic development pathways. The lectures are also meant to keep alive ideas of the Later Edward Moringe Sokoine in line with the following words by the former Primer Minister of Tanzania Mizengo Kayanza Peter Pinda (2008 – 2015) when he was delivering a Sokoine Memorial Lecturer at Sokoine University of Agriculture on 17th October 2008: “Mzee Sokoine is no longer with us physically, but mentally and through his good work he is still with us… He will always be remembered for his heroic and tireless efforts in creating a just society by fighting corruption, economic saboteurs and racketeers.” He will be remembered for these efforts and for the other things he did as explained above.
The following chapters, except the last one, each of which is a scpeeach delivered by a prominent leader, give information on development in Tanzania on varous issues during different years linking the information with what the Late Sokoine did on the same issues and on ideas he had on the same. The last chapter presents in brief lessons learnt from the speeches and ways forward. We are still grappling with problems of corruption, negligence, lack of accountability and, most importantly, problems of poverty of our people, particularly those living in the rural areas. What our nation is striving to achieve today reflects some of what our great patriotic leader, the late Hon. Edward Moringe Sokoine desired to achieve. There are elements in Sokoine’s thought which can be developed further to devise alternative paths of development. SUA Management hopes that, after reading all the chapters, readers will get more insights on what the Late Edward Moringe Sokoine did and his ideas for Tanzania’s development, relationships between what he did and what is being done currently, and how they inform future development interventions in Tanzania towards attaining the economic status of a middle income country.
In applying Edward Moringe Sokoine’s ideas and emulating what he did for the development of Tanzania, it is understood that some of his ideas were embryonic and that because he was Prime Minister for a relatively short time, some global issues like International Structural Development Programs (SAPs) since 1986, Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiatives since 1996 and many others had not yet unfoldd. Therefore, his ideas and deeds for development of Tanzania are applied to the current and future development inerventions with adaptation of the same to the current global and national issues.
Since 1999, Tanzania has a development vision, the Tanzania Development Vision 2025, whereby, by 2025, it is anticipated that the country will have high quality livelihood, peace, stability and unity, good governance, a well-educated and learned society, and a competitive economy capable of producing sustainable growth and shared benefits. In terms of income, by that year, it is anticipated that Tanzania will have a gross national income (GNI) per capita that is consistent with that of a middle income country, which is US $1,045 to 4,124 for low middle income countries and US $ 4,125 to 12,734 for high middle income countries in 2016 prices, as specified in the World Bank’s Policy Research Working Paper Number 7528 of January 2016. Building on what Edward Moringe did, development interventions that have been adopted and prectised since independence in 1961, strategies which have been implemented like the National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (MKUKUTA I & II) during the years 2005-2016 and implementation of Five-Year Development Plans since 2011/12, there is very high optism among Tanzanians and their well wishers that Tanzania becoming a middle income is imminent. In 2014, Tanzania was at the brink of attaining that level of income; the GNI was US $ 1,039 per capita, but it declined to US $ 1,021 per capita in 2017, according to the United Republic of Tanzania Economic Survey 2017.