Democratizing cinema and censorship in Tanzania, 1920-1980

International Journal of African Historical Studies

Volumn 38, Issue 3, 2005, Pages 481-511

  Brennan, James R ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 33845293977     PISSN: 03617882     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (156)

1. Dominic Boyer, "Censorship as a Vocation: The Institutions, Practices, and Cultural Logic of Media Control in the German Democratic Republic," Comparative Studies of Society and History 45 (2003), 512
2. See J. M. Burns, Flickering Shadows: Cinema and Identity in Colonial Zimbabwe (Athens, Ohio, 2002), Chs. 1 and 5
3. Charles Ambler, "Popular Films and Colonial Audiences: The Movies of Northern Rhodesia," American Historical Review 106 (2001), 81-105
4. and Robert J. Gordon, "The Battle for the Bioscope in Namibia," African Identities 3 (2005), 37-50
5. The best work on this for contemporary Africa is Brian Larkin, "Indian Films and Nigerian Lovers: Media and the Creation of Parallel Modernities," Africa 67 (1997), 406-40
6. also see Thomas Blom Hansen, "In Search of the Diasporic Self: Bollywood in South Africa," in Raminder Kaur and Ajay Sinha, eds., Bollywood: Popular Indian Cinema through a Transnational Lens (New Delhi, 2005), 239-60
7. Guy Phelps, Film Censorship (London, 1975), Ch. 2
8. S. T. Bhaskaran, "Film Censorship and Political Control in British India," Journal of Indian History 54 (1976), 656
9. Aruna Vasudev, Liberty and Licence in the Indian Cinema (New Delhi, 1978), 17
10. For a full analysis of Colonial Films Committee, see Rosaleen Smyth, "British Colonial Film Policy, 1927-1939, with Special Reference to East and Central Africa," Journal of African History 20 (1979), 437-50
11. Smyth, "British Colonial Film Policy," 439
12. Thelma Gutsche, The History and Social Significance of Motion Pictures in South Africa 1895-1940 (Cape Town, 1972), Ch. 2
13. Gordon, "The Battle for the Bioscope," 39-40
14. See unpublished letter of Sulemani Bajuma to Editor, Mambo Leo, ca. January 1936, in TNA 13038/II/504
15. "Dar's First Cinema Was a Tent" by Bashir Punja, Sunday News, 17 April 1966
16. "Dar es Salaam Cinemas and Their History," The Nationalist, 11 May 1966
17. Tanganyika Opinion, 1 April 1932
18. Tanganyika Standard, 30 March 1935
19. L. A. Notcutt and G. C. Latham, The African and the Cinema (London, 1937), 114
20. There is a significant secondary literature on the history of BEKE: see Smyth, "The Development of British Colonial Film Policy," 443-49
21. Mike Ssali, "The Development and Role of an African Film Industry in East Africa with Special Reference to Tanzania, 1922-1984" (Ph.D. thesis, University of California, Los Angeles, 1988), 37-56
22. and Andrew Ivaska, "Negotiating 'Culture' in a Cosmopolitan Capital: Urban Style and the Tanzanian State in Colonial and Postcolonial Dar es Salaam" (Ph.D. thesis, University of Michigan, 2003), Ch. 1
23. Commissioner of Police to CS, 27 January 1921, TNA 2056/2
24. Jardine to CS, 16 January 1921, TNA 2056/2
25. Brett to CS, 2 June 1927, TNA 61/172/9
26. Tanganyika Standard, 22 November 1930
27. Tanganyika Times, 1 February 1930
28. Tanganyika Standard, 12 March 1932
29. Tanganyika Herald, 14 May 1932
30. Commissioner of Police to CS, 17 October 1929, TNA 13038/I/39
31. Tanganyika Times, 21 December 1929
32. "Cinema," Mambo Leo, December 1928
33. Tanganyika Standard, 23 June 1934
34. Burns, Flickering Shadows, 15-16
35. CS to Cameron, 2 October 1930, TNA 19244/8
36. [illegible] to Cameron, 3 October 1930, TNA19244/9
37. Scott to CS, 20 January 1932, TNA 19244/59
38. For background see James R. Brennan, "South Asian Nationalism in an East African Context: The Case of Tanganyika, 1914-1956," Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 19 (1999), 24-39
39. and Richa Nagar, "South Asian Diaspora in Tanzania: A History Retold," ibid., 16 (1996), 62-80
40. In 1931, Dar es Salaam's population was 22,734 Africans, 9,000 Asians, and 1,330 Europeans; by 1957 it was 93,363 Africans, 29,986 Asians, and 4,479 Europeans. Andrew Burton, African Underclass (Oxford, 2005), 282
41. Tanganyika Opinion, 28 February 1930
42. Tanganyika Herald, 9 December 1930
43. also quoted in Tanganyika Opinion, 25 April 1930
44. T. B. Sheth to CS, 15 April 1930, TNA 18843/I/58
45. R. L. Nakil to CS, 29 May 1930, TNA 18843/I/82
46. A. C. Donne (Director of Education) to CS, 24 August 1931, TNA 18843/I/197
47. The Indian Association vetted all Indian appointees to the board until 1937. Honorary Secretary, Indian Association to Chairman, Cinematograph Censorship Board, 12 April 1937, TNA 18843/III/501. Indians usually comprised eight of the board's 24 members
48. Tanganyika Gazette, 21 August 1936
49. Acting Municipal Officer, Zanzibar to CS, 2 September 1946, ZNA AB5/127/107
50. Tanganyika Herald, 22 July 1936
51. Donne to Durman, n. d. (ca. October 1932), TNA 13038/IV/7
52. Deutches Konsulat, Dar es Salaam to PC Eastern, 22 June 1936, TNA 61/172/108
53. Tanganyika Herald, 26 June 1936
54. Tanganyika Territory Intelligence Report for Half Year Ending 31 December 1934, enclosed in CS to Cunliffe-Lister, 27 February 1935, CO 691/140/3/3
55. Tanganyika Herald, 14 December 1935
56. Tanganyika Herald, 14 May 1932
57. H. A. Jariwala to CS, 8 December 1930, TNA 13038/I/119
58. E. C. Baker, "Memorandum on the Social Conditions of Dar es Salaam, 4 June 1931," 98. A copy of the report is available at SOAS special collections, University of London
59. District Officer [hereafter DO], Dar es Salaam, to Provincial Commissioner [hereafter PC], Eastern Province, 8 December 1930, TNA 13038/I/126; Baker, Memorandum, 98
60. For an extended discussion on the search for African urban "respectability" in Dar es Salaam, see Ivaska, "Short Title," Ch. 1
61. PC Eastern to CS, 11 December 1930, TNA 13038/I/124
62. PC Eastern to CS, 19 November 1931, TNA 13038/I/227C
63. Mitchell to CS, 31 December 1931, TNA 13038/I/232
64. Director of Education to CS, 19 February 1936, TNA 13038/IV/45
65. M.W.M. to Hutt, 27 September 1935, TNA 13038/II/413
66. This fact was starkly portrayed in an installment of the comic "Capital Capers," where one member of the all-African floor audience complains that laughter from the all-European balcony was making it too difficult for him to understand the English-language film. "Capital Capers No. 34: At the Cinema," Tanganyika Standard, 24 October 1953
67. PC Eastern to CS, 26 February 1941, TNA 10491/II/2
68. Nickol, September 1948 Social Welfare Report, TNA 38616/1A
69. Minute of Social Welfare Officer to CS, 28 January 1946, TNA 27436/102
70. On anti-urban legislation and motives generally in Dar es Salaam, see Burton, African Underclass, Chs. 9 and 12
71. Rosaleen Smyth, "The Feature Film in Tanzania," African Affairs 88 (1989), 389-96
72. and Rosaleen Smyth, "The Post-War Career of the Colonial Film Unit in Africa: 1946-1955," Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 12 (1992), 163-77
73. David Giltrow, "The Educational Communications Factor in Tanzania's Rural Development," Provisional Council for the Social Sciences in East Africa Annual Conference, Dar es Salaam, 1970, Vol. 4, 285-304
74. Vasudev, "Liberty and Licence," 63
75. On reactions in India to The Drum, see Prem Chowdhry, Colonial India and the Making of Empire Cinema: Image, Ideology and Identity (Manchester, 2000), 86-96
76. Pant to CS, Zanzibar, 8 April 1950, ZNA AB5/131/2
77. Bhaskaram, "Film Censorship," 667
78. Ashish Rajadhyaksha and Paul Willemen, Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema (New Delhi, 1994), 260
79. Tanganyika Standard, 14 May 1938
80. PC Eastern to CS, 3 June 1942, TNA 61/172/1/17
81. Chairman, Cinematograph Censorship Board to CS, 21 March 1942, TNA 26633/32
82. Tanganyika Gazette, 3 April 1942. The two were Ali Kiro and Jume Suleman Rajabu
83. Zanzibar Government Official Gazette, 3 January 1948
84. American distributors were particularly keen to see that films were exhibited in Tanganyika, as American films comprised slightly over half of the films being censored in 1949 - slightly over a third were Indian, and the rest British or Arab. Of the 173 films presented to Tanganyika's censors between January and June 1949, 92 were American, 27 British, 47 Indian, and 7 Arabic; yet receipts from the Indian films outstripped American films. Rosaleen Smith, "The Feature Film in Tanzania," 391. The ratio of American films to Indian films exhibited in Zanzibar in the 1940s ranged between 3:2 and 2:1, and comprised the vast majority of the 220-230 films received each year. Acting British Resident, Zanzibar to Colonial Secretary, 26 September 1946, ZNA AB5/127/112
85. PC Eastern to CS, 16 August 1946, TNA 13038/VI/79
86. Tanganyika Herald, 24 June 1933
87. letter of "a disappointed cine-goer," Tanganyika Standard, 19 March 1952
88. C. R. Fernandes to Twining, 19 September 1949, TNA 10849/1528/1
89. Master & Dastur to PC Eastern, 4 November 1950, TNA 10849/1528/12A
90. Minute of Commissioner of Police to CS, 5 January 1940, TNA 10849/624/2
91. 'Tanganyika Political Intelligence Summary - January 1951," CO 537/7225/2
92. B. Hutt to E.L. Scott, 19 May 1951, Public Records Office, Colonial Office 537/7225/8
93. See also minute of Barton to E. L. Scott, 20 March 1951, CO 537/7225/4
94. PC Eastern to DC Dar es Salaam, 16 December 1952, TNA 540/27/37/1
95. Harris to PC Eastern, 9 November 1953, TNA 540/27/37/27
96. A.E.D. Firman, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Films, Nairobi to Chairman, Film Censorship Board, Dar es Salaam, 14 December 1953, TNA 540/27/37/43
97. An Inter-territorial Film Censorship Board was mooted at the East African Information Conference in 1955, with the strong support of both Tanganyika and Zanzibar, but apparently never materialized. Minutes of the Zanzibar Censorship Panel, 25 August 1955, ZNA AB5/136/8A
98. Responsive to religious sensibilities, the Tanganyikan government banned the extremely popular Filmindia magazine after coordinated Muslim protests against the magazine's sexual content. Letter of M. O. Abbasi, Tanganyika Standard, 2 June 1952
99. th April, 1959," CO 822/1773/10
100. P. Everett, Territorial Film Censor to Harris, 24 November 1954. The five African members, all men, included Dossa Aziz, Ali Kiro, Amri Kayura, Jumbe Rajabu, and Abdulwahid Sykes
101. th July, 1954," enclosed in Twining to Lennox-Boyd, 8 September 1954, CO 822/859/1
102. Letter of John Frank, 8 July 1955, Tanganyika Standard
103. Tanganyika Legislative Council Official Report (Hansard), 3 June 1959, 354
104. Tanganyika Standard, 4 June 1959
105. "Extract from Tanganyika Intelligence Summary, November 1956," CO 822/859/133
106. Grattan-Bellew to Mathieson, 12 March 1958, CO 822/1362/197
107. Grattan-Bellew to Mathieson, 20 May 1958, CO 822/1786/4
108. "Film Review - West of Zanzibar," Mwongozi, 7 May 1954, in ZNA AB5/110/27A
109. Acting CS to Chairman, Stage Plays and Cinematograph Censorship Board, 2 June 1954, ZNA AB5/110/32
110. See Afrika Kwetu, 15 July 1954
111. Mwangaza, 28 July 1954
112. Mwangaza, 11 August 1954
113. I am indebted to Jonathon Glassman for lending me his notes on the newspapers Afrika Kwetu and Mwangaza. For a further analysis of these debates, see Glassman, "Sorting Out the Tribes: The Creation of Racial Identities in Colonial Zanzibar's Newspaper Wars," Journal of African History 41 (2000), 395-428
114. Minute of Rashidi Kawawa to Permanent Secretary, 22 September 1961, TNA 482/PM/190/01
115. Editorial in Uhuru, 13 January 1962
116. Nationalist, 11 May 1966
117. Tanganyika Standard, 24 July 1964
118. Majadiliano ya Bunge (Hansard), Tanzania, 10 June 1969, col. 11
119. The Standard, 11 June 1969
120. For an analysis of the role of cinema in postcolonial Zanzibar, see Thomas Burgess, "Cinema, Bell Bottoms, and Mini-Skirts: Struggles over Youth and Citizenship in Revolutionary Zanzibar," International Journal of African Historical Studies 35 (2002), 287-314
121. The Standard, 3 March 1965
122. Minute of A. Hamisi, Film Censorship Panel, 13 April 1964, ZNA AD5/74
123. Minutes of the Zanzibar Stage Plays and Cinema Board, 27 March 1965, ZNA AD5/83/153
124. The Standard, 18 January 1966
125. The Standard, 5 and 6 April 1967
126. "Viewpoint on film censorship," Sunday News, 30 July 1967
127. One man instructed the U.W.T. to "Go to dirty, smelling Kariakoo market and clean it, as you did some weeks ago ... But banning special entertainments is too early for you - sorry!" Letter of Ramadhani Mwinyi, The Standard, 17 January 1970
128. The Nationalist, 26 January 1965
129. "Focus on the Cinema Industry," The Nationalist, 18 December 1967. British and continental distributors also agreed to pay 10 percent to NDC
130. See letters of "Cine-goer" and Raj Patel in The Standard, 22 January 1968, and reply of H. P. Njau, Secretary of NDC Board, in ibid., 9 February 1968
131. Sunday News, 28 July 1968
132. and "Film Industry in Tanzania," The Nationalist, 5 August 1968. KFC had taken over film distribution in Kenya in January 1968
133. Mtoro Reihan Kingo (Mayor of Zanzibar) to Management, Empire, CineAfrique, and Majestic, 2 March 1968, ZNA AD5/8/183
134. Posting of Saif Abushez Tahery, 2 July 2003, to namaskar-africana listserv
135. Asians formed 60 percent of commercial film audiences, Africans 30 percent, and Europeans 10 percent. E. E. Kaungamno, "Mass Media and Youth," in The Young Child Study in Tanzania: Age 7 to 15 (Dar es Salaam, 1977), 90
136. Ndugu A. Rutimirwa, "Film Distribution in Tanzania," unpublished seminar paper, 1984, 18, cited in Ssali, "Development and Role of an African Film Industry," 125-27
137. Editorial in Uhuru, 12 May 1967
138. Letter of Sally Mrema, The Nationalist, 23 October 1970
139. See also letter of Niku Kagubo-Kakasya, Sunday News, 26 November 1970
140. Letter of Issac H. Adhero, Daily News, 27 April 1976
141. Letter of C. K. Nsherenguzi, Managing Director, Tanzania Film Company Ltd., The Standard, 21 January 1972
142. On founding of TFC, see Smyth, "The Feature Film in Tanzania," 392
143. "Tanzania to Process Own Films" by Ernest Ambali and Abdul Hai, The Nationalist, 13 June 1970
144. "Tanzania Itatoa Filam za sinema Mwaka Ujao" by S. Mwambenja, Uhuru, 10 November 1972
145. Nkwabi Ng'wanakilala, The Liberating Effect of Mass Communication in Tanzania, in series Studies in Adult Education No. 33 (Dar es Salaam: Institute of Adult Education), January 1979, 69
146. "Revolution in Filming: Afro-Americans to Help Tanzanian Film Industry," by Hadji Konde, The Standard, 4 April 1972
147. "The Place of a Film Company in Tanzania," by Rosita Sweetman, Sunday News, 3 September 1972
148. Uhuru, 6 March 1976
149. "Filamu zilingane na siasa yetu," by George Semboney, Uhuru, 29 July 1976
150. Sunday News, 25 June 1972
151. See also letter of M. Z. Tengia, The Standard, 22 March 1971
152. "The Film Industry Puzzle!" by Hubert Temba, Sunday News, 18 April 1976
153. letter of A. E. Muhammad, Daily News, 8 January 1975
154. Nkwabi Ng'wanakilala, The Liberating Effect of Mass Communication in Tanzania, 67
155. "Film Pirates Outsmart Censorship Board," The Daily Mail, 17 May 1999
156. and "Censorship Board Ill-equipped To Scrutinise Films," 18 March 1999