Operation Vijiji (Operation Villagisation) was an exercise in social engineering carried out in post-colonial Tanzania in 1973. The operation involved the relocation, sometimes forced, of many thousands of rural Tanzanians to Ujamaa villages in order to facilitate communal farming and common services.^[1] The intention was that the whole rural population would move by 1976.^[2] The project was, and still is, controversial and was abandoned in the 1980s. Many people then attempted to return to their former homes, leading to widespread land disputes.