The quotation above summarizes the vision of the country which Julius Nyerere, the first president of Tanzania (1961-1984) wanted to implement. To realise this vision, Nyerere used various strategies and methods. One among the strategies, in 1967 Tanzania adopted the African version of socialism-Ujamaa as a roadmap to socio-political, economic and cultural development. The government of Tanzania nationalized the major means of production and the Ujamaa policy became the roadmap. Under the Ujamaa policy all sectors including the media were structured to serve Tanzanian national interests and socialist ideology. In the media sector, the government of Julius Nyerere “abrogated private media in country.”6 This was consistent with the socialist policies of Ujamaa which “refused to accord the privately-owned press the right to claim absolute freedom of expression since this right could be used against the majority who were voiceless and who could easily be confused and exploited as a result.”7 The refusal was extended to the establishment and ownership of private/religious media by religious organizations and groups. The government of Tanzania under Ujamaa policy believed that private/religious ownership of media would cause segregation and divisions among Tanzanians based on religious affiliations. Under Ujamaa policy, private media and religion were considered having a potentiality of inciting violence in a community (Mitchell 2012). In order to prevent the potential violence, matters of religion were left to
5 Nyerere in Kaniki 1974:17.
6 Westerlund 1980:10.
7 Sturmer 1998:167.
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believers. The government assumed a neutral position on matters of religion. In fact, “the trend was to excise religion from the public domain.”8 On private media, as it has been shown above, the government monopolized media. Private ownership of media was considered to serve personal and private interests which could harm the government’s Ujamaa policy. The policy framed media to emphasis on unity and the priorities of national interests which were centred on the war against three enemies of development of Tanzania namely ignorance, poverty and disease.9 Consequently, before 1993, “RTD (Radio Tanzania Dar-es-Salaam) was the only radio station in Tanzania.”10
Like religion, ethnicity was generally viewed under Ujamaa policy as not among the identifiers of a Tanzanian because it was constructed as divisive and dangerous not only to the ideology of Ujamaa policy but also to national unity. According to Omari while other “leaders used the ethnicity base for the development of political power, Julius Nyerere used the ethnicity base for the development of the nation…”11 Nyerere used ethnicity to create nationalism through the use of Kiswahili as lingua franca in Tanzania. Excluding religious and ethnic identifiers left citizens to construct themselves as “Tanzanians.” Nyerere found
“nationalism” as the weapon for achievement and well-being of the people and the country in general.12
However, the Ujamaa ideology did not withstand the wind of change in the world of political and economic systems that happened in Africa especially after the collapse of Communist East Europe. In the 1990s Tanzania changed to “political liberalization and commercialization… [systems which] run parallel to the decline of the state’s power to
8 Ndaluka 2012:225.
9 Nyerere 1973:263.
10 Sturmer 1998:186.
11 Omari 1995:25.
12 Omari 1995: 24-25.
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dominate the media, to assign a place for religion in the sphere of private media...”13 Consequently, major players in the media sphere emerged championing the cause of private media ownership, for example, the Business Time Limited was formed in 1993 to own newspapers and the Industry Production Promotion (IPP) Limited formed in 1994 which now owns newspapers, radio and television stations (Sturmer 1998). Religious organizations were not left behind in the struggle for the airwaves. They responded to the emerging political economy by launching newspapers, television and radio stations. As of July 2011, there were 75 radio stations in Tanzania, 26 (35%) of these were owned by religious organisations and groups. In 1994 there was only one religious radio station in Tanzania, Radio Tumaini which is owned by the Catholic Archdiocese of Dar-es-Salaam.14 This is a substantial change compared to the pre-liberalization era when the ideology of Ujamaa suffused every sector of Tanzanian politics and policy. About this change and its consequences, Ihejirika observes that “the dismantling of the state monopolies of the broadcast media and the commercialization of airtime and ownership has radically altered the media landscape with significant consequences for religious communication and practice.”15
The phenomenon opened doors not only to media investments by religious organisations and groups, and therefore to a new form of ownership of media in Tanzania but also took religion to the public. As shall be detailed in the course of this study, the changes made in the way religion is performed and consumed created a forum for the public to discuss and ask questions in the media. The changes in religious communication which were made possible by media technologies have brought about new religious practices, modes of religious consumption as well as innovative forms of religious identity construction and exclusion.
13 Meyer and Moors: 2006: 6.
14 Sturmer 1998: 186-191.
15 Ihejirika 2009: 21.
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To respond to challenges of political liberalisation and commercialisation of the media the Parliament of Tanzania restructured the communication sector. The Parliament passed the Tanzania Broadcasting Service Act in 1993 for the management and regulation of broadcasting activities and other matters related to it.16 The Act formed the Tanzania Communications Commission (TCC) under Act No.18 which became operational in 1994.
Among other responsibilities, the Commission was charged with the regulation of the activities of the postal and telecommunications sub-sectors. Furthermore, the Tanzania Broadcasting Service Act established the Tanzania Broadcasting Commission (TBC) which was responsible for the allocation and monitoring of radio frequencies, issuing of broadcasting licenses (Sturmer 1998). Through this Act “Tanzania was among the first African countries that laid down the legal groundwork for licensing both private radio and television stations.”17
To accommodate the current challenges of communications technology, in 2003 the Parliament of Tanzania merged the TCC and the TBC and established the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) as a statutory body responsible for regulating the communications and broadcasting sectors in Tanzania. In the TCRA there is a department responsible for broadcasting affairs.18 An important function of the department is to monitor all matters relating to broadcasting services including programs run by various broadcasting stations. Also the department enforces the broadcasting standards and ethics as well as controls unauthorized broadcasting activities and content. Despite these Acts and media regulating bodies, one factor is obvious; there is a point of departure from state-monopolized media to liberal media industry. There has been a proliferation of private radio stations
16 See: United Republic of Tanzania. The Broadcasting Services Act, 1993, (Act No 6/93). Available at:
http://www.parliament.go.tz/index.php/documents/acts/year/1993/15. Accessed on 17July 2013.
17 Maja-Pearce and Adewale 1995: 298.
18 See: TCRA: Department: Broadcasting Affairs. Available at: http://www.tcra.go.tz/index.php/about-tcra/departments/2-tcra/79-department-broadcasting-affairs. Accessed on 17 July 2013.
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including religious radio stations which take religion to public. Advancement in electronic media has profoundly shaped and conditioned the ways through which religion is communicated. This study infers that the use of media technology has breached and bridged boundaries of religious practices particularly on the African continent. This is so particularly with the innovative usage of the media championed by Pentecostal and Charismatic movements. In this line of reasoning perhaps influenced by Pentecostal and charismatic movements the mainstream religions in Tanzania such as Islam and Catholic-Christianity have followed suit. Emissaries within Christianity and Islam claim to use the radio stations in religious activities. This is an added aspect since the introduction of Islam and Christianity in Tanzania.