Tanganyikan nationalism as 'women's work': Life histories, collective biography and changing historiography

Journal of African History

Volumn 37, Issue 3, 1996, Pages 465-478

  Geiger, Susan ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 5844357375     PISSN: 00218537     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/s0021853700035544     Document Type: Article

References (57)

1. D. Denoon and A. A. Kuper, 'Nationalist historians in search of a nation: the "New Historiography" in Dar es Salaam', Afr. Affairs, LIX (1970), 329-49.
2. I. N. Kimambo, Three Decades of Production of Historical Knowledge at Dar es Salaam (Dar es Salaam, 1994).
3. An exception to this generalization is Steven Feierman's thoughtful history of the changing discursive and practical relationships among and between peasant intellectuals and chiefs of Shambaai, colonial administrators and the leadership of the Tanganyika National African Union. Steven Feierman, Peasant Intellectuals: Anthropology and History in Tanzania (Madison, 1990). More recently, Thaddeus Sunseri has challenged the 'nationalist' interpretation of the Maji Maji Rebellion of 1905, which seeks and finds the origins of 1950s nationalism in this uprising in what was then German East Africa. Thaddeus Sunseri, 'Gender struggles, famine and the Majimaji war in Uzaramo' (Paper presented to the African Studies Association Annual Meeting, Orlando, Nov. 1995).
4. An exception to this generalization is Steven Feierman's thoughtful history of the changing discursive and practical relationships among and between peasant intellectuals and chiefs of Shambaai, colonial administrators and the leadership of the Tanganyika National African Union. Steven Feierman, Peasant Intellectuals: Anthropology and History in Tanzania (Madison, 1990). More recently, Thaddeus Sunseri has challenged the 'nationalist' interpretation of the Maji Maji Rebellion of 1905, which seeks and finds the origins of 1950s nationalism in this uprising in what was then German East Africa. Thaddeus Sunseri, 'Gender struggles, famine and the Majimaji war in Uzaramo' (Paper presented to the African Studies Association Annual Meeting, Orlando, Nov. 1995).
5. Tanganyika receives mention on five pages, Julius Nyerere on four pages, in Basil Davidson, The Black Man's Burden: Africa and the Curse of the Nation-State (New York, 1992). In his review of the book, Pieter Boele van Hensbroek, calls it Davidson's magnum opus. See Pieter Boele van Hensbroek, 'Cursing the nation-state', Transition, LXI (1993), 114-32.
6. Tanganyika receives mention on five pages, Julius Nyerere on four pages, in Basil Davidson, The Black Man's Burden: Africa and the Curse of the Nation-State (New York, 1992). In his review of the book, Pieter Boele van Hensbroek, calls it Davidson's magnum opus. See Pieter Boele van Hensbroek, 'Cursing the nation-state', Transition, LXI (1993), 114-32.
7. For a critique of the use of the prophet Kinjikitile as a nationalist hero, and for the search for male heroes more generally see Sunseri, 'Gender struggles', 3-8.
8. John Iliffe (ed.), Modern Tanzanians (Nairobi, 1973).
9. Mohamed Said, 'Founder of a political movement: Abdulwahid K. Sykes (1964-1968)', Africa Events (Sept. 1988); and an unpublished manuscript, 'Ally K. Sykes Remembers'.
10. For a survey of this work see Susan Geiger, 'Women and African nationalism', Journal of Women's History, II (1990), 227-44.
11. In Strategies of Slaves and Women: Life-Stories From East/Central Africa (New York, 1993), Marcia Wright presents several previously published life history studies along with two new essays.
12. For a comprehensive review of scholarship on Yoruba women, which includes the studies of Nigerian women involved in nationalist politics, see LaRay Denzer, 'Yoruba women: a historiographical study', Int. J. Afr. Hist. Studies, XXVII (1994), 1-39.
13. There is a short pamphlet in Swahili of popular biographical sketches of TANU women and UWT activists; there is a life history volume, Magdalene K. Ngaiza and Bertha Koda (eds.), Unsung Heroines: Women's Life Histories from Tanzania (Dar es Salaam, 1991); the journal Sautiya siti frequently offers profiles or brief sketches, usually of 'exceptional' women; Laura Fair's Ph.D. dissertation, 'Pastimes and politics: a social history of Zanzibar's Ng'ambo community 1890-1950', (University of Minnesota, 1994) has substantial biographical information on the famous Zanzibari taarab singer, Siti binti Saad; Marcia Wright's studies; and several biographical profiles in Marja-Liisa Swantz, Women in Development: A Creative Role Denied? (New York, 1985). Laeticia Mukurasi's Post Abolished (New York, 1991) about her struggle against sex discrimination is, I believe, the first published autobiography written by a Tanzanian African woman.
14. There is a short pamphlet in Swahili of popular biographical sketches of TANU women and UWT activists; there is a life history volume, Magdalene K. Ngaiza and Bertha Koda (eds.), Unsung Heroines: Women's Life Histories from Tanzania (Dar es Salaam, 1991); the journal Sautiya siti frequently offers profiles or brief sketches, usually of 'exceptional' women; Laura Fair's Ph.D. dissertation, 'Pastimes and politics: a social history of Zanzibar's Ng'ambo community 1890-1950', (University of Minnesota, 1994) has substantial biographical information on the famous Zanzibari taarab singer, Siti binti Saad; Marcia Wright's studies; and several biographical profiles in Marja-Liisa Swantz, Women in Development: A Creative Role Denied? (New York, 1985). Laeticia Mukurasi's Post Abolished (New York, 1991) about her struggle against sex discrimination is, I believe, the first published autobiography written by a Tanzanian African woman.
15. There is a short pamphlet in Swahili of popular biographical sketches of TANU women and UWT activists; there is a life history volume, Magdalene K. Ngaiza and Bertha Koda (eds.), Unsung Heroines: Women's Life Histories from Tanzania (Dar es Salaam, 1991); the journal Sautiya siti frequently offers profiles or brief sketches, usually of 'exceptional' women; Laura Fair's Ph.D. dissertation, 'Pastimes and politics: a social history of Zanzibar's Ng'ambo community 1890-1950', (University of Minnesota, 1994) has substantial biographical information on the famous Zanzibari taarab singer, Siti binti Saad; Marcia Wright's studies; and several biographical profiles in Marja-Liisa Swantz, Women in Development: A Creative Role Denied? (New York, 1985). Laeticia Mukurasi's Post Abolished (New York, 1991) about her struggle against sex discrimination is, I believe, the first published autobiography written by a Tanzanian African woman.
16. There is a short pamphlet in Swahili of popular biographical sketches of TANU women and UWT activists; there is a life history volume, Magdalene K. Ngaiza and Bertha Koda (eds.), Unsung Heroines: Women's Life Histories from Tanzania (Dar es Salaam, 1991); the journal Sautiya siti frequently offers profiles or brief sketches, usually of 'exceptional' women; Laura Fair's Ph.D. dissertation, 'Pastimes and politics: a social history of Zanzibar's Ng'ambo community 1890-1950', (University of Minnesota, 1994) has substantial biographical information on the famous Zanzibari taarab singer, Siti binti Saad; Marcia Wright's studies; and several biographical profiles in Marja-Liisa Swantz, Women in Development: A Creative Role Denied? (New York, 1985). Laeticia Mukurasi's Post Abolished (New York, 1991) about her struggle against sex discrimination is, I believe, the first published autobiography written by a Tanzanian African woman.
17. John Iliffe, A Modern History of Tanganyika (Cambridge, 1979), 572.
18. Kambona to Fabian Society, 18 Oct. 1955, Fabian Colonial Bureau (FCB) papers 121, Rhodes House (RH) Oxford.
19. At the first meeting of the TANU women's section held in Dar es Salaam on 8 July 1955, 400 women joined. See D. Z. Mwaga, B. F. Mrina and E. F. Lyimo, Historia ya Chama cha TANU 1954 Hadi 1977 (Dar es Salaam, 1981), 113, and Kambona to Fabian Society, 18 Oct. 1955, FCB papers, 121, RH.
20. The question, 'who are the Swahili?' has long been debated and frequently racialized by interested scholars. For a useful analysis of this debate, see Deborah P. Amory, 'Waswahili ni nani?: the politics of Swahili identity and culture' (Paper presented to the African Studies Association Annual Meeting, Boston, Nov. 1990).
21. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism (London, 1991), 12.
22. Iliffe, Modern History, 486.
23. Ibid. 486.
24. Margaret R. Somers, 'Narrativity, narrative identity, and social action: rethinking English working-class formation', Social Science History, XVI (1992), 591-629.
25. 20 Pearl T. Robinson, 'Democratization: understanding the relationship between regime change and the culture of polities', Afr. Studies Rev., XXXVII (1994), 40.
26. An exception to this generalization occurred in Bagamoyo in 1936, when antagonism between two opposing women's dance groups, one associated with Arabs and the other with Shomvi-Shirazi and African populations in the town became 'so intense that the district officer restricted their public activities'. See August H. Nimtz, Islam and Politics in East Africa: The Sufi Order in Tanzania (Minneapolis, 1980), 98. Sheryl McCurdy also provides evidence of the role of women's dance groups in the 1932 conflict in Ujiji and administrative ignorance of the same in 'Ngomas, court disputes, and the "war" of 1932: colonial ignorance of Ujiji women's social roles in urban organizations' (Paper presented at the African Studies Association Annual Meeting, Toronto, Nov. 1994).
27. An exception to this generalization occurred in Bagamoyo in 1936, when antagonism between two opposing women's dance groups, one associated with Arabs and the other with Shomvi-Shirazi and African populations in the town became 'so intense that the district officer restricted their public activities'. See August H. Nimtz, Islam and Politics in East Africa: The Sufi Order in Tanzania (Minneapolis, 1980), 98. Sheryl McCurdy also provides evidence of the role of women's dance groups in the 1932 conflict in Ujiji and administrative ignorance of the same in 'Ngomas, court disputes, and the "war" of 1932: colonial ignorance of Ujiji women's social roles in urban organizations' (Paper presented at the African Studies Association Annual Meeting, Toronto, Nov. 1994).
28. Early male dance societies were equally open. See Jonathon Glassman, Feasts and Riot: Revelry, Rebellion, and Popular Consciousness on the Swahili Coast, 1856-1888 (Portsmouth NH, 1995), 76.
29. For details on Dar es Salaam, see Susan Geiger, 'Women in nationalist struggle: TANU activists in Dar es Salaam', Int. J. Afr. Hist. Studies, XX (1987), 1-26.
30. Ibid. 14-15.
31. Interview with Bibi Titi Mohamed, Temeke, Sept. 1984.
32. Henry Bienen, Tanzania, Party Transformation and Economic Development (Princeton, 1970), 43.
33. Amory, 'Waswahili ni nani?', 22.
34. Interview with Tatu Mzee, Kinondoni, Oct. 1984, and many others.
35. Interview with Tatu Mzee, Kinondoni, Oct. 1984.
36. Julius Nyerere, Freedom and Unity/Uhuru Na Umoja (Dar es Salaam, 1967); Hansard, 10 Dec. 1962, 'President's inaugural address', 180.
37. Julius Nyerere, Freedom and Unity/Uhuru Na Umoja (Dar es Salaam, 1967); Hansard, 10 Dec. 1962, 'President's inaugural address', 180.
38. Interviews with Halima Selengia Kinabo, Mwamvita Salim, Zainabu Hatibu, Elizabeth Gupta, Kanasia Mtenga, Moshi, Oct. 1988; Pili Juma, Mwajuma Msafiri, Agnes Sahani, Mwanza, Nov. 1988.
39. Mwamvita Salim's narrative, Mwanza, Oct. 1988.
40. R. W. Smith, D.C., Kigoma, to Dist. Sec., TANU, Ujiji, 20 Mar. 1958, Ref. No. A6/5/32, Tanzania National Archives (TNA); Tanganyika African Association (TAA), Kigoma, citing Government Notice No. 20 on 11 Jan. 1957, 'Political uniforms prohibition', Sections 2 and 3, A6/5, TNA.
41. Interview with Halima Hamisi, Dar es Salaam, Oct. 1984.
42. Iliffe, Modern History, 532.
43. R. W. Smith, D.C., Kigoma, to Dist. Sec., TANU, Ujiji, 20 Mar. 1958, Ref. No. A6/5/32, TNA; N. D. Morant, Commanding Officer, Police, Kigoma District, to R. H. Missozi, Branch Sec., TANU, Mwangongo, 1 July 1958, Ref. No. A. 24/9/84, A6/5 Kigoma, TNA.
44. Asst. Superindent of Police, Kigoma District, to Dist. Chairman, TANU, Ujiji, 21 Nov. 1958, Ref. No. S/14, A6/5, Kigoma, TNA.
45. Commissioner of Police, Dar es Salaam, to President, TANU, Dar es Salaam, 19 Mar. 1958, Ref. No. S/15/3/185, A6/5 Kigoma, TNA.
46. Officer I/C Police, Kigoma District, to Dist. Chairman, TANU, Ujiji, 5 Jan. 1959, Ref. No. S/14, A6/5, Kigoma, TNA.
47. S. G. Pierce to Kashindye, Dist. Sec., TANU, Ref. No. KIS/A.24/24/41, 25 June 1959, re TANU meeting to be held at Usagara ground, Ujiji, Kigoma District, 29 June 1959. A6/5 Kigoma, TNA.
48. Notes of a meeting wth TANU Committee, 9 Sept. 1959, A6/5, TNA.
49. W. J. Bowering, D.C., Kigoma, to Dist. Chairman, TANU, 23 Sept. 1959, re 9 Sept. 1959 meeting and police officer's reply concerning Youth League songs, copy No. KIG/A/8/2. S. G. Pierce, Officer I/C Police, Kigoma District, to D.C., Kigoma, 18 Sept. 1959, A6/5, TNA.
50. Nyerere, Freedom and Unity, 186.
51. Ibid. 186.
52. For a recent exploration, see Helena Jerman, 'How I feel to be a Tanzanian', Suomen Antropologi, II (1993), 31-41.
53. Maurice Halbwachs, The Collective Memory (New York, 1980), 31.
54. Ibid. 31.
55. Richard Werbner, Tears of the Dead: The Social Biography of an African Family (Washington DC, 1991), 4-5.
56. Ibid.
57. The formal associations generally followed western organizational models. As the immediate precursor to TANU, the most fully studied and described is the Tanganyika African Association; others include the Tanganyika African Welfare and Commercial Association and the African Commercial Employees Association. A variety of worker organizations, co-operative societies, and tribal unions are also identified for their (usually proto-nationalist) role.