What it is
The Arusha Declaration Museum stands on Kaloleni Street in Arusha, beside the Uhuru Torch monument, and it is one of the eight centres run by the National Museum of Tanzania. Arusha City Council names it first among the city’s historical sites.
The museum opened on 5 February 1977, marking ten years since the Arusha Declaration — the policy of socialism and self-reliance — was proclaimed in the city. That anniversary is the museum’s founding fact and it explains the shape of the place: it was built to commemorate a political document rather than to house a collection that already existed.
What is inside
The National Museum of Tanzania describes the displays as covering the country’s social, economic and political history across a long span: the period before colonial rule, the German administration, the British administration, the independence struggle, the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar, the policies of the Arusha Declaration itself, Tanzania’s contribution to the liberation of southern Africa, and more recent development.
Two holdings are worth knowing about before you go, because they are the kind of thing that is easy to walk past.
The first is the original Uhuru Torch — the union torch carried around the country from 1964 to 1979. The National Museum of Tanzania records that it was handed to the Arusha Declaration Museum on 9 December 1979. This is the object itself, not a replica.
The second is the set of chairs used by the members who sat through the Arusha Declaration meeting. Furniture is an odd thing to travel for, and it is also the most direct physical connection to the event the building exists for.
Whether it is worth your morning
This is a national political history museum with a strong point of view, in a country where that history is still argued about. If you want to understand why Tanzania developed differently from its neighbours after independence, it is the single best hour available in the north. If you are looking for objects and craft, the city’s natural history museum and its craft outlets are the better use of the time.
The museum tours guide covers what Tanzanian museums are generally like to visit, and the historical walking tours guide covers seeing the surrounding streets on foot, which is how the Kaloleni area is best taken in.
Common questions
When did the museum open?
5 February 1977, on the tenth anniversary of the Arusha Declaration, according to the National Museum of Tanzania.
Is the original Uhuru Torch really there?
The National Museum of Tanzania records that the original union torch, carried from 1964 to 1979, was handed to the Arusha Declaration Museum on 9 December 1979.
Is this the same as the natural history museum?
No. They are two separate centres of the National Museum of Tanzania in the same city. This one is on Kaloleni Street; the natural history museum is in the old German fort behind the regional commissioner’s office.