Leadership and Institutions for Rural Development: A Case Study of Nzega District

This paper starts from the premise that ‘decolonization’ in this sense lies at the centre of the Tanzanian socialist development strategy put forward between 1967–1969; the essence of which is to be found in its concept of self-reliance.2 A major argument of this kind of strategy is that economic independence cannot be achieved by a former colony which continues to rely on foreign investments, foreign-based business institutions, and the export of primary products in exchange for imported manufactured goods.