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For a long time Tanzania, under its charismatic President Nyerere, was considered to be a model. The concept of an African form of socialism and also the co-operation between church and state seemed to be exemplary. But in the early 1990s, in a time of political re-orientation, conflicts began to emerge. This volume examines the different periods in the relationship between church and state from Independence to 1994. New tendencies, such as the impact of the charismatic movement, and the increasing tensions between Christians and Muslims, are also analyzed. The research is based on interviews and archival material collected in Tanzania and Europe. ... Read more

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This animated and entertaining account of the varied and often colourful aspects of district administration in rural Tanganyika (Tanzania) during the last years of Britain's trusteeship will dispel many misconceptions about colonial life. The reader is presented with a kaleidoscope of events and images, and will be drawn into the author's enthusiasms and concerns, all against a background of rapid political change. There are descriptions of foot safaris, poaching, murder, anti-famine measures, smuggling, witchcraft, a school riot, a locust invasion, and the threat of civil unrest; also of domestic matters, friendships made, and the sadness of leaving. Although the style is understated, the reader will be aware of the writer's affection for Africa and for the people amongst whom he lived and worked. This book will appeal to the serious and casual student of African affairs and history, and to anyone who takes pleasure in reading of unfamiliar events in distant places. ... Read more

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History in real terms
An astonishing insight into the lives of an English couple making their way in rural africa! ... Read more

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Shattered Dreams at Kilimanjaro covers the period from theestablishment of the former colony of German East Africa in the late 19th century untilthe formation of the independent State of Tanganyika in 1961. The book focuses on asmall group of German settlers who ventured into a new world - German East Africa - toestablish farms and businesses in the Mt Kilimanjaro region.

Thisventure was ultimately not successful due, in part, to the tropical diseases contractedby some of the settlers, whilst others were disillusioned with the poor economicreturns. The main reason for its failure, however, was the outbreak of World War I andthe devastating effects this had on the settlers, culminating in dispossession anddeportation. Before the war the settlers had achieved a great deal by clearing virginland and cultivating it with coffee and an array of vegetables and fruits. Others hadstarted businesses such as building and flour milling.

AfterWorld War I the former German colony became the British Mandate Territory of Tanganyika.Some former settlers returned only to lose everything again when World War II broke outand all Germans were interned and their properties confiscated. Many of the settlerswere deported to Germany in 1940; others were interned in Africa for the duration of thewar before being repatriated to Germany.

It is fitting to recordthe history of these adventurous and hard working people. They overcame severe personalhardships and disappointments and, in the end, earned little reward for their toils.Nevertheless, they left a lasting legacy because agriculture was brought to a region intropical East Africa from which crops are still grown and food produced. Similarly,their businesses gave rise to ongoing enterprises in that region.
The book isillustrated with many historical photographs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A WHITE MAN'S TALE....
It is very disappointing that the only publication available on the 'Zanzibari Revolution' is inaccurate and extremely bias. I belive i am accurate to say that the author's insights and intepretation mocks the manywho lived and experienced the revolution in 1964.

A glance through thetext would reveal the need for further research. The author made repeatedmistakes on the presidents year of assasination. It is common knowledgethat Sheik Abeid Amani Karume was assassinated in 1972 and not 1971.

iawait a publication which is non bias and insightful to the ZanzibariRevolution. ... Read more

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This book is the first comprehensive contribution to understanding thecharacter of important societal transitions in Tanzania duringBenjamin Mkapa's presidency (1995 2005). The analyses of thetrajectory of these transitions are conducted against the backgroundof the development model of Tanzanian's first president, JuliusNyerere (1961 1985), a model with lasting influence on the country. This approach enables an understanding of continuities anddiscontinuities in Tanzania over time in areas such as developmentstrategy an ideology, agrarian-land, gender and forestry issues,economic liberalization, development assistance, corruption andpolitical change. The period of Mkapa's presidency is particularly important because it represents the first phase of Tanzania's multi-party political system. Mkapa's government initially faced a gloomyeconomic situation. Although Mkapa's crusade against corruption lostdirection, his presidency was characterised by relatively high growthrates and a stable macro-economy. Rural and agrarian transitions weredominated by diversification rather than productivity growth andtransformation. Rural attitudes in favour of land markets emerged onlyslowly but formal land disputes showed more respect for women'srights. Some space emerged for widening local participation in forestmanagement, but rural dynamics was mainly found in trading settlementsfeeding on economic liberalization and artisanal mining. Thetransitions documented and analysed of Mkapa's presidency, however,indicate only limited transformational change. Rural poverty istherefore likely to remain deep and the sustainability of economicdevelopment to be at risk in the future. Mkapa was, however, able toprotect the legacy of peace and political stability of Nyerere, butthere were nevertheless important challenges to the first multipartyelections and governance, and particularly in Zanzibar. The post-script (covering 2005 2010), indicates that the incumbent president,Jakaya Kikwete, has yet to prove that he can change this legacy ofMkapa. The contributions to the eleven chapters of this book areevenly shared between Tanzanian, Nordic and other European researcherswith a long-term commitment to Tanzanian development research. The book is dedicated to the youth of Tanzania. ... Read more

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This is a general introduction to Tanzania. It's also a look at Tanzania from a contemporary and historical perspective. The focus is on Tanzania today. Some of the major political, economic and social developments which have taken place in the country especially since the seventies also constitute a significant part of the book.The book is intended for those who are going to Tanzania for the first time and for anybody else who wants to learn some basic facts about the largest country in East Africa.Readers are also going to learn quite a few things about the people of Tanzania and theirtribes or ethnic groups and where these groups traditionally live. Also covered in the book are the towns and cities in all the provinces of this large country.The purpose is to provide a comprehensive picture of the country by focusing on a number of areas including a general background of Tanzania; the geography of the country; life in Tanzania today and how life was in the seventies and eighties under socialism known as ujamaa which means familyhood in Kiswahili; the country's transition from socialism to a free market economy; ethnic groups or tribes and their home districts and regions; racial minorities who constitute a significant part of Tanzania's population; the Swahili people and their culture; towns and cities; the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar and its prospects and challenges; and life in Tanzania - in what was then Tanganyika - in the fifties just before independence.There are also chapters on Dar es Salaam, the nation's largest city and commercial centre and former capital, and on the former island nation of Zanzibar.Tanzania also is unique in one fundamental respect. It's the only union of two independent countries ever formed on the African continent. And it's the only one that exists today almost half a century after it was formed.The union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar is one of the subjects covered in the book, and readers are going to learn about one of the most important events in thehistory ofpost-colonial Africa on a continent where the quest for unity has remained an elusive dream since independence in the fifties and sixties.The book also includes a lot of information on Tanganyika just before independence and how it became one of the first countries in Africa to emerge from colonial rule.Also included is some material on one of the most interesting ethnic groups in African history and how it came into being.It'sthe Swahili whose language is also known as Swahili especially among many people around the world who are not native speakers of the language. Among the native speakers, the language is called Kiswahili.It's the main language spoken in Tanzania and Kenya. It's also spoken in several other countries in east-central Africa. And we are going to learn something about this language which transcends ethnicity. Kiswahili is not identified with any African tribe, making it a truly Pan-African language building bridges across ethnicity, cultures and nations especially in the eastern part of the continent.And as you learn about Tanzania, you are also going to learn a few things about an area bigger than Tanzania because of the country's connection to other parts of East Africa and beyond. ... Read more

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Tanzania: The Land, Its People and Contemporary Life
I regret buying this book. Short paragraphs, small facts, less or no context. It kind of reminds me of school text books. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a general introduction to Tanzania in contemporary times covering a wide range of subjects . It's intended for those who are going to Tanzania for the first time and for anybody else who wants to learn some basic facts about the largest country in East Africa.Subjects covered include the country's ethnic and racial groups includingthe Swahili people who as a cultural entity constitute an ethnic group; the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar and the problems it faces; life in Tanzania and much more.Also covered in the book are towns and cities in all the provinces of this large country. The work includes an entire chapter on Zanzibar and another one on Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's commercial centre and largest city.One of the most important aspects of this work is its focus on the country's different ethnic groups. Every tribe - or ethnic group - in Tanzania is covered in the book including the areas where they live. Racial minorities are equally represented in the book.It is a comprehensive picture ofTanzania in terms of basic facts including general history and may be a first step for some readers towards a better understanding of a country which to many people is known for its wild life, national parksand Mount Kilimanjaro more than anything else. Tanzania has a lot more than that as you will learn from this book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Poorly written, would not recommend
This book was poorly written.I did not find it particularly helpful.Don't waste your money. ... Read more

Product Description
Thisis an introduction to Tanzania. The focus is on the land and its people and how they live. The work also looks at Tanzania's demographic composition and the ethnic identities of the people who constitute the largest and most populous country in East Africa.The book is intended for members of the general public including tourists. It's also good for students who want to learn about Tanzania from a contemporary and historical perspective. The work provides basic information for those who are going to Tanzania and who intend to spend some time in a country that's one of the prime destinations for people from all parts of the world visiting the African continent. ... Read more

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This work is about life in Tanzania today. It's also a general survey of life in Tanzania since the sixties. Subjects covered include major political and socioeconomic changes which have taken place in the country since independence. The author also looks at life under ujamaa - the African version of socialism -in the seventies and eighties when the government tried to transform Tanzania into a socialist nation; life under capitalism after socialism was abandoned in the early 1990s; how multiparty democracy has worked and how it has not worked in Tanzania after the country abandoned one-party rule in 1992; the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar and the problems and challenges it faces and has faced since it was formed in 1964, and other subjects.The book is also a general introduction to Tanzania - its geography and its people. The author has looked at all the administrative regions or provinces and the ethnic groups in every region. Tanzania has one of the largest numbers of ethnic groups in Africa. The author also explains why Tanzania's demographic composition is unique on the continent.The work is intended for members of the general public including those who are going to Tanzania for the first time. ... Read more

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Zanzibar has had the most turbulent postcolonial history of any part of Tanzania, yet few sources explain the reasons why. The political impasse in the islands stems from the Zanzibari Revolution of 1964, in which thousands of islanders, mostly Arab, lost their lives.It is also about whether Zanzibar's union with the Tanzanian mainland--cemented only a few months after the revolution--should be strengthened, reformed, or dissolved. Defenders of the revolution claim it was necessary to right a century of wrongs.They speak the language of African nationalism, and seek to unify Zanzibaris through the politics of race. Their opponents deplore the revolution, and espouse the language of human rights. They reject the politics of race, and instead regard Islam a source of national unity.

From a series of interviews, G. Thomas Burgess has recorded and composedtwo highly readable first-person narratives in which two nationalists in Africa describe their conflicts, achievements, failures, and tragedies.Their life stories represent two opposing arguments, for and against the revolution.Ali Sultan Issa helped introduce socialism into the islands and as a minister in the first revolutionary government he was responsible for some of the government's most radical policies. After years of imprisonment, he reemerged in the 1990s as one of Zanzibar's most successful hotel entrepreneurs. Seif Sharif Hamad came of age during the revolution, and became disenchanted with itsexcesses. As a Chief Minister in the 1980s he sought to roll back authoritarian rule. After his imprisonment he has become a leading figure in Tanzania's largest opposition party.

Both memoirs trace Zanzibar's post-independence trajectory, and engage our most basic assumptions about social justice and human rights. They shed light on a host of themes that are of universal relevance: the legacies of slavery and colonialism, and the origins of racial violence, poverty, and underdevelopment. They also show how a cosmopolitan island society negotiates influences from Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Europe. ... Read more

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The double-sided nature of African nationalism - its capacity to inspire expressions of unity, and its tendency to narrow political debate - are explored by sixteen historians. The narrative of the nation of Tanzania, which was created by the anti-colonial nationalist movement, expanded by the Union after the Zanzibar Revolution, and fused by the ideology of Ujamaa by Julius Nyerere, has shaped Tanzanian political discourse for decades, but has not obliterated the great wealth of political discourses and identities which exist within the nation. North America: Ohio U Press; Tanzania: Kapsel ... Read more

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Though the genocide of 1994 catapulted Rwanda onto the international stage, English-language historical accounts of the Great Lakes region of Eastern Africa—which encompasses Burundi, eastern Congo, Rwanda, western Tanzania, and Uganda—are scarce. Drawing on colonial archives, oral tradition, archeological discoveries, anthropologic and linguistic studies, and his thirty years of scholarship, Jean-Pierre Chrétien offers a major synthesis of the history of the region, one still plagued by extremely violent wars. This translation brings the work of a leading French historian to an English-speaking audience for the first time.

Chrétien retraces the human settlement and the formation of kingdoms around the sources of the Nile, which were "discovered" by European explorers around 1860. He describes these kingdoms' complex social and political organization and analyzes how German, British, and Belgian colonizers not only transformed and exploited the existing power structures, but also projected their own racial categories onto them. Finally, he shows how the independent states of the postcolonial era, in particular Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda, have been trapped by their colonial and precolonial legacies, especially by the racial rewriting of the latter by the former.

Today, argues Chrétien, the Great Lakes of Africa is a crucial region for historical research—not only because its history is fascinating but also because the tragedies of its present are very much a function of the political manipulations of its past. ... Read more

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"[A] masterful tale of the political and social formation of Tanzanian national identity." -- Gregory Barz, Vanderbilt University

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Scholars often equate a Swahili presence with the moment history began on the Tanzanian central coast. In this book, Rhonda M. Gonzales proposes an altogether different and more comprehensive narrative.

Societies, Religion, and History is the first study to apply historical linguistic methods to the Bantu-speaking peoples of the coastal and interior regions of central east Tanzania, individuals and communities who later became part of the Swahili world. The Seuta and Ruvu Bantu societies were entrenched along the coast and interior of Tanzania for centuries before Swahili-speaking populations expanded their towns and settlements southward along the East African coastline.

Making use of historical linguistics, the findings of cutting-edge archaeologists, ethnographic sources, and her own extensive field research, Gonzales unfolds a historical panorama of thriving societies engaged in vibrant cross-cultural exchange and prosperous regional and transoceanic networks. According to Gonzales, scholars need to integrate these communities into their stories if they are to compose a full and satisfying history of central eastern Tanzania. Recovering this history requires close attention to the happenings of the interior, often misleadingly referred to& mdash;and treated& mdash;as hinterland. Toward that end, Gonzales combines a challenging range of historical resources to build a long-term history of the social, cultural, and religious beliefs and practices of the region as they have developed over the past 2,000 years.

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The East African country of Tanganyika in 1960 was something of a backwater of the British Empire in which the traditional character of wild Africa still held pride of place. Concurrently however, the winds of political change were, not least in the country's urban centres, promoting an ever-accelerating headlong rush towards a state of national independence or uhuru. It was against a backdrop of transition between the "old" and the new "Africa" that a nation-wide campaign of exploration aimed at discovering deposits of diamonds was carried out in Tanganyika under the auspices of the country's fabled diamond producer, Williamson Diamonds Limited. The campaign involved the mobilisation of thousands of African workers and a few hundred specially engaged white supervisors into a nation-wide network of field camps, many of them set up in remote regions of trackless bush where the only rules were subject to vagaries of climate, the incidence of tsetse flies and the rights of passage of prolific numbers of big game. The white supervisors were as raw in matters pertaining to bush craft as they were wet behind the ears. Their complement contained more than its fair share of misfits, cowboys, adventurers, opportunists and gung-ho celebrants. This book tells their story as it was seen through the eyes of one among them who wouldn't have missed a minute of the experience. The like of such a campaign will never be seen again. ... Read more