An interesting evening…and random ‘discourse’ on #Ujamaa and #Capitalism by #Ilala Mayor, Mr. Jerry Silaa

So I left Serena after a productive and an eye-opening meeting with a Professor and a surprise meeting with Peter Bofin, to join my sister at a launch of Windsor Distributors Company Limited somewhere along Samora Avenue.  On my way there my mind was immersed with the details of my conversation with the Professor. A challenge.

 Well, I was late for the launch. When I arrived, Jerry Silaa, Ilala Municipal Mayor, was giving a speech as the Guest of Honour. He is young, smart, and vibrant. He was praising the owners of the company for their hard work and commented how impressed he was that it was a local initiative- i.e. a company owned by Tanzanians. I seconded him on this because the owners are also young and definitely hard working guys.  Nonetheless, what really stroke my attention hard, while standing back near the door with half of my mind still on the prior conversation at Serena and the work ahead, was when Mr. Silaa mentioned #Ujamaa and how it has (paraphrasing here) contributed to slow development and slow thinking (If I got him right). I think he was praising the guys for not being trapped in #Ujamaa kind of thinking.

Then he spoke about how many big companies started small and they are now multinationals. He gave examples of City Bank and also Vodacom.  Another stripe passed on mind when he again mentioned #Capitalism. There was a guy present who runs a famous blog in town known as Le Mutuz. So Mr. Silaa acknowledged his presence and praised his blog…he then mentioned that Le Mutuz blog does so well probably because he lived in America and so he has capitalist ideas that help me to look for money and not wait for money to follow him!  Wow…here #Ujamaa and #Capitalism was defined!…

 Mmmh, so without saying much, It is very interesting how ‘clear’ Mr. Silaa is with his ideological beliefs. I think what I admire most…is his way of distinguishing these ideologies ‘clearly’ in his mind and interpretation. Can I be so clear with these grand ‘ism’?? I wish

I think I’ve had a debate with Mr. Silaa on twitter about this…although it must have been last year or in 2012. He is def. a believer of capitalism…which, can probably be reflected in Ilala…(people help me, I don’t even know the geography of Ilala…) but according to Mr. Silaa, Ilala is Tanzania… as he concluded his speech by saying:

“Hii ndo Ilala na Ilala ndo Dar-Es- Salaam, na Dar- Es- Salaam ndio Tanzania, na mimi ndo Meya wa Ilala…”

 All in all, his speech was inspiring and that conclusion was most interesting. Do you agree?

Ok, my evening was excellent …and now I’ll go back to concentrating on things that brought me to Dar this week…

3 thoughts on “An interesting evening…and random ‘discourse’ on #Ujamaa and #Capitalism by #Ilala Mayor, Mr. Jerry Silaa

  1. Shirumisha

    There some people who are born in capital era and still slow in thinking, we can not blame Ujamaa as a sole contributor of thinking. Its significant if the mayor will check whether modes of production correlate with thinking capacity. He has pointed few who are successful and deliberately decided to be blind on majority of people who suffer. Every one knows that there is market failure, that’s why there is social welfare. And social welfare is ‘Ujamaa’. We shouldn’t blame Ujamaa rather we should learn how it failed and see the alternative way of practicing Ujamaa.

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