Government-directed concentration of dispersed rural people into planned villages, to deliver services or reorganise production. Tanzania's 1973-76 programme is a leading example; its costs and results are debated.
In more detail
In Tanzania, village-building began as a voluntary ujamaa programme and was made compulsory in 1973 with a three-year deadline; officials used force or its threat, and the numbers moved are disputed (the government claimed 13 million by 1976). Supporters point to easier provision of schools, clinics and water; critics point to coercion and disrupted farming. James C. Scott discusses Tanzanian villagisation in Seeing Like a State.