Tanzania · Hondogo / 1976 · photograph
Ujamaa village Hondogo
The village as a plan
A 1976 Tropenmuseum photograph of Hondogo, an Ujamaa village. It is a state-framed image, not a neutral survey of village life.
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Ujamaa, Nyerere’s programme of African socialism, proposed that rural life be organised around collective villages. Hondogo was one of them. The 1976 photograph shows a planned settlement; its framing comes from an institutional archive, and it tells us what the programme wanted to show. Ujamaa promised schools, clinics and shared work; it also involved resettlement and pressure on people who did not want to move. The object records a political plan, not a verdict on every villager’s experience.
- Date
- 1976 · photograph
- Maker / designer
- Tanzanian state and villagers; photograph by Tropenmuseum
- Material
- Land, housing, collective work
- Context
- A state-framed photograph of an Ujamaa village; not a neutral survey of rural life.
Evidence: Date established · Place recorded at country level
Historical record
- Ujamaa was Nyerere’s socialist village policy.
- Hondogo was photographed in 1976; the image is held by the Tropenmuseum.
- The photograph is a state-framed record, not a neutral survey.
