Tanzania

Did you know that the action in China, known as 'The Great Leap Forward', also pushed Tanzania into a famine. Mao Zedong wanted to make a world power of China at a fast pace. That is why a doubling or a tripling of agricultural production should be realized. Because nobody in the bureaucratic system wanted to disappoint the leader, or risk their job, the bookkeeping of the relaised production was very creative. In 1958, twice as much of the food was produced on paper in China as in reality. When Julius Nyerere, the then president of Tanzania heard these official and impressive results, he wanted to transform agriculture in Tanzania in the same way. Traditional villages and agricultural structures were forcibly transformed into collective farms. Many of those farms literally only existed on paper. Here too, official officials falsely published 'beautiful' results on paper. In 10 years time Tanzania changed from the top exporter of food in Africa to a net food importer that could no longer feed itself. In 1979 90% of farmers in Tanzania lived on collective farms. This 90% produced only 5% of Tanzania's agricultural output.

Dromos