Religion and Development in Postcolonial Tanzania: Contested and Negotiated Terrain (1961–2022)

Abstract In the 1960s, when Tanzania embarked on people-centered development initiatives under ujamaa, leaders of the newly independent government warned all religious organizations that they should not mix religion with politics to build a secular state. Accordingly, ujamaa grew into what critics described as anti-religious, and public discussion of ujamaa in religious terms was forbidden. Yet government leaders used religious meetings as integral podia to clarify policy statements and to seek Muslim and Christian support for its socialist programs. The place of religion in development gained momentum after the decline of ujamaa as people sought alternative paths to the predicaments of the economic crisis. This article weaves through Tanzania’s postcolonial experience to show the place of religion in shaping development imperatives. It attempts to show how religion became a contested and negotiated terrain in the development discourses and more especially the rise of Pentecostalism as new contested terrain. Ultimately, the article seeks to demonstrate that an understanding of religion and development ought to consider the social context shaping the country’s development path.