Who are the indigenous Tanzanians? Competing conceptions of Tanzanian citizenship in the business community

Africa Today

Volumn 45, Issue 3-4, 1998, Pages 369-388

  Heilman, Bruce ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0032275649     PISSN: 00019887     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (75)

1. Citizenship defines a person's relationship to an autonomous political entity.
2. Friedrich A. Hayek and other liberal thinkers used the term "property rights" to express the rights of individuals to control and dispose of productive resources without state interference. For the purposes of this article, Hayek's notion of property rights is expanded to include economic rights that encompass not only the notion of property (land, technology, profits) but also the right to engage in income-generating activities, including entrepreneurial endeavors and wage employment. Friedrich A. Hayek, "The Origins of Liberty, Property and Justice," in William Warren Bartley III, ed., The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek, vol. 1 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988), pp. 29-37.
3. For an analysis of the tension between liberal and group citizenship in Africa see Peter Ekeh, "Colonialism and the Two Publics in Africa: A Theoretical Statement," Comparative Studies in Society and History 17, no. 1 (January 1975): 91-112.
4. Ronald Beiner, "Why Citizenship Constitutes a Theoretical Problem in the Last Decade of the Twentieth Century," in Beiner, ed., Theorizing Citizenship (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995), pp. 12-13.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid., p. 6.
7. Mahmood Mamdani, Citizenship and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1996).
8. The United States and India, in trying to redress historic imbalances in community development, have attempted to redress economic injustices (once maintained by law) by redefining the economic rights of oppressed groups. The United States has attempted to counteract the effects of slavery, segregation, and embedded societal discrimination against groups such as blacks and women through affirmative action programs in education and hiring and in the allocation of state contracts. After independence, India attempted to compensate for its legacy of past discrimination by giving lower caste citizens preferences in education and civil service employment. See, for example, Thomas Sowell, Preferential Policies (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1990) and "A Question of Colour," The Economist 335, no. 7910 (15 April 1995): 13-14. Similar initiatives have been undertaken in portions of Africa.
9. The United States and India, in trying to redress historic imbalances in community development, have attempted to redress economic injustices (once maintained by law) by redefining the economic rights of oppressed groups. The United States has attempted to counteract the effects of slavery, segregation, and embedded societal discrimination against groups such as blacks and women through affirmative action programs in education and hiring and in the allocation of state contracts. After independence, India attempted to compensate for its legacy of past discrimination by giving lower caste citizens preferences in education and civil service employment. See, for example, Thomas Sowell, Preferential Policies (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1990) and "A Question of Colour," The Economist 335, no. 7910 (15 April 1995): 13-14. Similar initiatives have been undertaken in portions of Africa.
10. C. R. D. Halisi, "Citizenship and Populism in the New South Africa," (paper presented at the 92nd Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, San Francisco, 29 August-1 September 1996).
11. In Kenya, provinces are often associated with particular ethnic groups. For example, Western province is often considered a Luyha territory; Central province, Kikuyu; Nyanza, Luo; Eastern province, Kamba; and Coastal province, Swahili (and other coastal ethnic groups). For an examination of the political ramifications of ethnic citizenship in Kenya, see Stephen Ndegwa, "Citizenship and Ethnicity: An Examination of Two Transition Moments in Kenyan Politics," American Political Science Review 91, no. 3 (1997): 616.
12. For example, see T. H. Marshall and Tom Bottomore, Citizenship and Social Class (London: Pluto Press, 1992); or Bryan Turner, Citizenship and Capitalism (London: Allen & Unwin, 1986) on the extension of rights in Western societies.
13. For example, see T. H. Marshall and Tom Bottomore, Citizenship and Social Class (London: Pluto Press, 1992); or Bryan Turner, Citizenship and Capitalism (London: Allen & Unwin, 1986) on the extension of rights in Western societies.
14. Iris Marion Young, "Polity and Group Difference: A Critique of the Ideal of Universal Citizenship," in Beiner, Theorizing Citizenship, p. 183.
15. The different experiences of Western and African countries support Peter Riesenberg's idea that citizenship is constantly manipulated by powerful societal actors to influence the distribution of scares resources. Peter N. Riesenberg, Citizenship in the Western Tradition (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992), pp. 4-5.
16. This article examines the citizenship debate in mainland Tanzania and does not include Zanzibar.
17. See Issa Shivji, Class Struggles in Tanzania (London: Heinemann, 1976), pp. 41-44.
18. Robert Gregory, South Asians in East Africa (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1993), pp. 12-13.
19. Martha Honey, "A History of Indian Merchant Capital and Class Formation in Tanganyika: c. 1840-1940" (Ph.D. diss., University of Dar es Salaam, 1982).
20. Susanne Mueller, "The Historical Origins of Tanzania's Ruling Class" (Working Paper No. 35, Boston University African Studies, 1980).
21. For a comprehensive examination of Tanganyika during the colonial era see John Iliffe, A Modern History of Tanganyika (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979).
22. The term "nation" is placed in quotation marks because Tanganyika, like most of the world's countries, did not have state boundaries that corresponded to a territory inhabited by a single cultural group.
23. Martin H. Y. Kaniki, "TANU: The Party of Independence and National Consolidation," in Gabriel Ruhumbika, ed., Toward Ujamaa: Twenty Years of TANU Leadership (Dar es Salaam: East African Literature Bureau, 1974), p. 17.
24. Ibid., p. 12.
25. Julius K. Nyerere, "The Principles of Citizenship," in Nyerere, Freedom and Unity (Dar es Salaam: Oxford University Press, 1969), pp. 126-130.
26. Jamhuri ya Muungano ya Tanzania, Katiba ya Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania ya Mwaka 1977 (Dar es Salaam: Government Printer, 1993).
27. Information on the deportations, the hotel closing, and the confiscation of the Dar es Salaam Club assets was obtained from William Edgett Smith, "Julius K. Nyerere," New Yorker 47, no. 36 (23 October 1971): 47-49.
28. Julius K. Nyerere, "Tanganyika Citizenship," in Nyerere, Freedom and unity, pp. 258-260.
29. Henry Bienen, "National Security in Tanzania After the Mutiny," in Lionell Cliffe and John Saul, eds., Socialism in Tanzania, vol. 1 (Nairobi: East African Publishing House, 1972), pp. 220-221.
30. For an explanation of the concept of a developmental dictatorship see Richard Sklar, "Beyond Capitalism and Socialism in Africa," Journal of Modern African Studies 26, no. 1 (1988): 1-21.
31. Rwekaza S. Mukandala, "The Political Economy of Parastatal Enterprise in Tanzania and Botswana" (Ph.D. diss., University of California at Berkeley, 1988).
32. This group would include MPs, ministers, senior officials of parastatals, councilors, and civil servants in high and middle cadres.
33. See Bruce Heilman, "Creating a Capitalist Regime in Tanzania," paper presented at the 1995 African Studies Association's Annual Meeting, Orlando, Florida, 3-6 November 1995. In the 1970s, events in nearby Uganda drove home to the Tanzanian Asian community the precarious nature of their citizenship status as a prosperous non-African immigrant minority in an overwhelmingly poor African country. (The term "Asian" refers to a number of distinct communities whose origins can be traced to India and Pakistan.) After repeatedly and publicly accusing citizen and noncitizen Asians of engaging in corruption, overpricing and hoarding goods, undermining African entrepreneurs, avoiding taxes, conducting acts of economic sabotage, and refusing to assimilate into African society, General Idi Amin expelled 50,000 of them from Uganda in August 1972. (See Yash Tandon and Arnold Raphael, The New Position of East Africa's Asians: Problems of a Displaced Minority [New York: Minority Rights Group, 1978], p. 1.) Even though the expulsions were confined to Uganda, the lesson was clear to Asians living in the East African countries of Kenya and Tanzania, who also experienced African-Asian tensions. The work of Elizabeth Hopkins, "Racial Minorities in British East Africa," in Stanley Diamond and Fred Burke, eds., The Transformation of East Africa (London: Basic Books, 1966), pp. 85-153, illustrates that Asians were concerned about events in other East African countries. This concern was also reflected in conversations I had with Asian businesspeople in the 1990s.
34. See Bruce Heilman, "Creating a Capitalist Regime in Tanzania," paper presented at the 1995 African Studies Association's Annual Meeting, Orlando, Florida, 3-6 November 1995. In the 1970s, events in nearby Uganda drove home to the Tanzanian Asian community the precarious nature of their citizenship status as a prosperous non-African immigrant minority in an overwhelmingly poor African country. (The term "Asian" refers to a number of distinct communities whose origins can be traced to India and Pakistan.) After repeatedly and publicly accusing citizen and noncitizen Asians of engaging in corruption, overpricing and hoarding goods, undermining African entrepreneurs, avoiding taxes, conducting acts of economic sabotage, and refusing to assimilate into African society, General Idi Amin expelled 50,000 of them from Uganda in August 1972. (See Yash Tandon and Arnold Raphael, The New Position of East Africa's Asians: Problems of a Displaced Minority [New York: Minority Rights Group, 1978], p. 1.) Even though the expulsions were confined to Uganda, the lesson was clear to Asians living in the East African countries of Kenya and Tanzania, who also experienced African-Asian tensions. The work of Elizabeth Hopkins, "Racial Minorities in British East Africa," in Stanley Diamond and Fred Burke, eds., The Transformation of East Africa (London: Basic Books, 1966), pp. 85-153, illustrates that Asians were concerned about events in other East African countries. This concern was also reflected in conversations I had with Asian businesspeople in the 1990s.
35. See Bruce Heilman, "Creating a Capitalist Regime in Tanzania," paper presented at the 1995 African Studies Association's Annual Meeting, Orlando, Florida, 3-6 November 1995. In the 1970s, events in nearby Uganda drove home to the Tanzanian Asian community the precarious nature of their citizenship status as a prosperous non-African immigrant minority in an overwhelmingly poor African country. (The term "Asian" refers to a number of distinct communities whose origins can be traced to India and Pakistan.) After repeatedly and publicly accusing citizen and noncitizen Asians of engaging in corruption, overpricing and hoarding goods, undermining African entrepreneurs, avoiding taxes, conducting acts of economic sabotage, and refusing to assimilate into African society, General Idi Amin expelled 50,000 of them from Uganda in August 1972. (See Yash Tandon and Arnold Raphael, The New Position of East Africa's Asians: Problems of a Displaced Minority [New York: Minority Rights Group, 1978], p. 1.) Even though the expulsions were confined to Uganda, the lesson was clear to Asians living in the East African countries of Kenya and Tanzania, who also experienced African-Asian tensions. The work of Elizabeth Hopkins, "Racial Minorities in British East Africa," in Stanley Diamond and Fred Burke, eds., The Transformation of East Africa (London: Basic Books, 1966), pp. 85-153, illustrates that Asians were concerned about events in other East African countries. This concern was also reflected in conversations I had with Asian businesspeople in the 1990s.
36. For excellent discussions of the political transition in Tanzania during the 1980s and 1990s, see Dean McHenry, Limited Choices: The Political Struggle for Socialism in Tanzania (Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1994), and Aili Mari Tripp, Changing the Rules: The Politics of Liberalization and the Urban Informal Economy in Dar es Salaam (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997).
37. For excellent discussions of the political transition in Tanzania during the 1980s and 1990s, see Dean McHenry, Limited Choices: The Political Struggle for Socialism in Tanzania (Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1994), and Aili Mari Tripp, Changing the Rules: The Politics of Liberalization and the Urban Informal Economy in Dar es Salaam (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997).
38. Ayub Rioba, Japhet Sanga, and Pudenciana Temba, "Budget Receives Mixed Reaction," Daily News (Dar es Salaam), 17 June 1994, p. 1; Joseph Kulangwa, "Viwanda vya umma vimeshindwa uzalishaji-Rais," Uhuru (Dar es Salaam), 21 June 1994, p. 1; and "Suspicious Bid to Control ALAF Empire," Express (Dar es Salaam), 26-29 June 1994, p. 1.
39. Ayub Rioba, Japhet Sanga, and Pudenciana Teraba, "Budget Receives Mixed Reaction," Daily News (Dar es Salaam), 17 June 1994, p. 1; Joseph Kulangwa, "Viwanda vya umma vimeshindwa uzalishaji-Rais," Uhuru (Dar es Salaam), 21 June 1994, p. 1; and "Suspicious Bid to Control ALAF Empire," Express (Dar es Salaam), 26-29 June 1994, p. 1.
40. Ayub Rioba, Japhet Sanga, and Pudenciana Teraba, "Budget Receives Mixed Reaction," Daily News (Dar es Salaam), 17 June 1994, p. 1; Joseph Kulangwa, "Viwanda vya umma vimeshindwa uzalishaji-Rais," Uhuru (Dar es Salaam), 21 June 1994, p. 1; and "Suspicious Bid to Control ALAF Empire," Express (Dar es Salaam), 26-29 June 1994, p. 1.
41. Paul Kaiser, "Structural Adjustment and the Fragile Nation: The Demise of Social Unity in Tanzania," The Journal of Modern African Studies 34, no. 1 (June 1996): 227-239.
42. Although the year 1993 was a low point for African-Asian relations, it was also characterized by animosity between mainlanders and Zanzibaris and between Christians and Muslims. As a result, a group of primarily Christian African mainlanders promoted the idea of breaking up the union and recreating Tanganyika. The rise of Tanganyikan nationalism can be interpreted as a symptom of the strain in the relationship between Christians and Muslims on the mainland.
43. Mtikila said that the term gabacholi referred to any powerful people-African, Arab, European, or Asian - selling out the nation, but the term nonetheless retains a special symbolic connection to the Asian community because it was supposedly derived from the Gujarati term for thief.
44. It can be argued that the deterioration of public services has a more serious effect on Africans than Asians because Asians have a strong tradition of providing their own community services and are less dependent on the state. Paul Kaiser's Culture, Transnationalism, and Civil Society: Aga Khan Social Service Institutions in Tanzania (Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers, 1996) examines the education and health services offered by the Ismaili community in East Africa and illustrates the strength of Asian community organizations in providing social services.
45. TANU changed its name to Chama cha Mapinduzi/Party of the Revolution in 1977 after it merged with the Afro-Shirazi party of Zanzibar.
46. "Mkapa Warns Fanning Hatred," Daily News (Dar es Salaam), 5 July 1994, p. 1.
47. Augustine Sangi, "Nervous Traders Cut Back on Stock as Election Looms," Sunday Observer (Dar es Salaam), 22 October 1995, p. 1. Ironically, in the early 1990s, as anti-Asian sentiment came to the surface in Tanzania, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni officially reaffirmed the economic rights of Asians in Uganda by encouraging families expelled in the 1970s to return and reclaim their confiscated properties.
48. Ali Al'Amin Mazrui, Cultural Engineering and Nation Building in East Africa (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1972), pp. 213-214; and "Who Are the Indigenous People?" Express (Dar es Salaam), 12-15 June 1994, p. 11.
49. Ali Al'Amin Mazrui, Cultural Engineering and Nation Building in East Africa (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1972), pp. 213-214; and "Who Are the Indigenous People?" Express (Dar es Salaam), 12-15 June 1994, p. 11.
50. Adebayo Adedeji, "General Background to Indigenization: The Economic Dependence of Africa." in Adedeji, ed., Indigenization of African Economies (New York: Africana Publishing Company, 1981), pp. 29-31.
51. Lineages, however, had initiation ceremonies that allowed outsiders to become members. Isaria Kimambo, Penetration and Protest in Tanzania (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1991), p. 29.
52. Jonathan Glassman, Feasts and Riot: Revelry, Rebellion, and Popular Consciousness on the Swahili Coast. 1856-1888 (Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann, 1995), pp. 40-43.
53. Ibid., pp. 161-179.
54. It is this backdrop of communal exclusiveness that may help to explain why, after the revolution in Zanzibar, Abeid Karume forced African-Asian and African-Arab marriages.
55. Julius K. Nyerere, "Ujamaa: The Basis of African Socialism," in Nyerere, Freedom and Unity, pp. 166-167.
56. Ibid.
57. "Who Are the Indigenous People?" Express (Dar es Salaam), 12-15 June 1994, p. 11.
58. Vincent Nnamba, "Ubinafsishaji mashirika siyo Kuuza Nchi - Waziri Mkuu," Uhuru (Dar es Salaam), 24 June 1994, p. 1.
59. Author's interview with a shopkeeper in Mwanza, 1993.
60. This is due to trade, the multiethnic nature of the anticolonial struggle, and the location of the commercial and political center of the country, Dar es Salaam, on the coast (a Swahili cultural zone). See Beverly Bosler-Brown, "The History of a Lakeside Town: Ujiji 1863-1914" (Ph.D. diss., Boston University, 1973) and James Van de Veer Alien, "Swahilization: A Cultural Concept and Its Significance in Kenya Today" (Paper 125, Institute of African Studies, University of Nairobi, 1979).
61. This is due to trade, the multiethnic nature of the anticolonial struggle, and the location of the commercial and political center of the country, Dar es Salaam, on the coast (a Swahili cultural zone). See Beverly Bosler-Brown, "The History of a Lakeside Town: Ujiji 1863-1914" (Ph.D. diss., Boston University, 1973) and James Van de Veer Allen, "Swahilization: A Cultural Concept and Its Significance in Kenya Today" (Paper 125, Institute of African Studies, University of Nairobi, 1979).
62. Robert Gregory, India and East Africa: A History of Race Relations Within the British Empire, 1890-1939 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), p. 31; and John Milner Gray, "Zanzibar and the Coastal Belt: 1840-1884," in Roland Oliver and Gervase Mathew, eds., History of East Africa, vol. 1 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963), p. 218.
63. Robert Gregory, India and East Africa: A History of Race Relations Within the British Empire, 1890-1939 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), p. 31; and John Milner Gray, "Zanzibar and the Coastal Belt: 1840-1884," in Roland Oliver and Gervase Mathew, eds., History of East Africa, vol. 1 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963), p. 218.
64. Suleman Sumra, "The Indigenous Capital and the Asian Question" (University of Dares Salaam photocopy, 1990), p. 7.
65. Television was a relatively new industry on mainland Tanzania, with the first broadcasts airing in 1993. As with other important new societal developments, television was at the forefront of people's minds.
66. RTD had the rights to the soccer matches but did not have television broadcast capabilities.
67. The nature of the conflict between ITV and the Asian-owned TV stations gave the appearance that an enterprising RTD official may have embarked on an income-generating project that involved awarding the already allocated broadcast rights to CTN and DTV.
68. Information on the struggle over the World Cup broadcast rights was obtained from Henry R. Muhanika, "TV Stations at War," Express (Dar es Salaam), 12-15 June 1994; "Mengi Thanks Government," Daily News (Dar es Salaam), 29 June 1994; "CTN Director, 10 Others in Court," Daily News (Dar es Salaam), 28 June 1994; "Adel Denies Freeing DTV Director Dewji," Daily News (Dar es Salaam), 11 July 1994; "Economic Links Must Between Giants and Minors," Express (Dar es Salaam), 26-29 June 1994, p. 1.
69. Information on the struggle over the World Cup broadcast rights was obtained from Henry R. Muhanika, "TV Stations at War," Express (Dar es Salaam), 12-15 June 1994; "Mengi Thanks Government," Daily News (Dar es Salaam), 29 June 1994; "CTN Director, 10 Others in Court," Daily News (Dar es Salaam), 28 June 1994; "Adel Denies Freeing DTV Director Dewji," Daily News (Dar es Salaam), 11 July 1994; "Economic Links Must Between Giants and Minors," Express (Dar es Salaam), 26-29 June 1994, p. 1.
70. Information on the struggle over the World Cup broadcast rights was obtained from Henry R. Muhanika, "TV Stations at War," Express (Dar es Salaam), 12-15 June 1994; "Mengi Thanks Government," Daily News (Dar es Salaam), 29 June 1994; "CTN Director, 10 Others in Court," Daily News (Dar es Salaam), 28 June 1994; "Adel Denies Freeing DTV Director Dewji," Daily News (Dar es Salaam), 11 July 1994; "Economic Links Must Between Giants and Minors," Express (Dar es Salaam), 26-29 June 1994, p. 1.
71. Information on the struggle over the World Cup broadcast rights was obtained from Henry R. Muhanika, "TV Stations at War," Express (Dar es Salaam), 12-15 June 1994; "Mengi Thanks Government," Daily News (Dar es Salaam), 29 June 1994; "CTN Director, 10 Others in Court," Daily News (Dar es Salaam), 28 June 1994; "Adel Denies Freeing DTV Director Dewji," Daily News (Dar es Salaam), 11 July 1994; "Economic Links Must Between Giants and Minors," Express (Dar es Salaam), 26-29 June 1994, p. 1.
72. Information on the struggle over the World Cup broadcast rights was obtained from Henry R. Muhanika, "TV Stations at War," Express (Dar es Salaam), 12-15 June 1994; "Mengi Thanks Government," Daily News (Dar es Salaam), 29 June 1994; "CTN Director, 10 Others in Court," Daily News (Dar es Salaam), 28 June 1994; "Adel Denies Freeing DTV Director Dewji," Daily News (Dar es Salaam), 11 July 1994; "Economic Links Must Between Giants and Minors," Express (Dar es Salaam), 26-29 June 1994, p. 1.
73. Information on this incident came from "Morogoro MP Sides with 'Mama Ntilie,'" Business Times (Dar es Salaam), 8-15 July 1994; and "Mama Ntilie, Wenye Vioski Wafanya Ghasia Morogoro," Uhuru (Dar es Salaam), 5 July 1994, p. 1. The shop looted was Mohammed Adam's store.
74. Information on this incident came from "Morogoro MP Sides with 'Mama Ntilie,'" Business Times (Dar es Salaam), 8-15 July 1994; and "Mama Ntilie, Wenye Vioski Wafanya Ghasia Morogoro," Uhuru (Dar es Salaam), 5 July 1994, p. 1. The shop looted was Mohammed Adam's store.
75. Halisi, "Citizenship and Populism in the New South Africa," p. 18.