Gaidon Lilimba is the head of a 'development village'. He is visionary, charismatic, incorruptible and courageous. He leads his people from poverty to prosperity during the times of 'villagization' in Tanzania, a programme introduced in the late 1960s as a development strategy, and which entailed the resettlement of some 75% of the population into villages. This story imaginatively and critically addresses the politics of villagization, considering its successes and failures.