This thesis uses Lake Tanganyika as a case study to analyse long-distance commerce in East and Central Africa during the period c.1830-1890. This era is loosely demarcated by the arrival of traders from the Indian Ocean Coast to the lakeshore at its beginning, and the imposition of European colonial rule at its end. Its central argument is that the shores of Lake Tanganyika represented a frontier region in this spatial and temporal context. The nature of this frontier was intimately tied to Lake Tanganyika's specific environmental characteristics. People migrated to and across the lake for protection and because of the commercial opportunities that were available to those who did so. This promoted cultural exchange, political instability, and commercial opportunity - themes that are common in other analyses of frontiers, borderlands, and other large bodies of water. The development of the frontier was tied to the ways in which lakeshore populations and long-distance traders encountered each other within the context of the lakeshore environment. The results of these encounters led to the emergence of distinct cultural forms. These were expressed via a collective demand for certain commercial goods in an integrated lakeshore market, pervasive religious beliefs and rituals, and types of settlement that re-shaped the lakeshore's position in relation to elsewhere in East and Central Africa. The coalescence of these cultural forms may be regarded as the development of a 'frontier culture' that set the lacustrine region apart from nearby landward regions. Such a focus on cultural exchange sheds new light on the encounter between longdistance traders and other interior populations, which is often understood in terms of economic transactions and political upheaval. The Lake Tanganyika case study, therefore, allows for the addition of a cultural layer to some of the prevailing perspectives regarding long-distance commerce in East and Central Africa.

This zooarchaeological study examined animal economies practiced by local communities against the context of the expansion of the caravan trade in eastern Africa during the nineteenth century. Specific objectives were to establish whether: a) animal economies in areas crossed by caravan trade routes were transformed as a result of expanding trade and the demand for supplies; b) new herd management strategies were adopted by local communities to ensure production of surpluses for exchange; and c) the expansion of this trade caused subsistence stress for local communities. The study area is the Lower Pangani River Basin, north-eastern Tanzania. The three studied riparian island settlements of Ngombezi, Old Korogwe and Kwa Sigi are mentioned in the nineteenth-century European accounts as caravan halts in the Lower Pangani. These were identified through archaeological survey and oral interviews - using the nineteenth-century accounts as a guide to their likely locations. Excavation exposed evidence for human settlements dating to the late seventeenth or early eighteenth centuries AD, and materials recovered include over 30,000 pieces of animal bone, 39,000 potsherds, 4,020 local and imported beads, metal objects, worked bones, remains of flintlock muskets and coins. The analysis of the faunal remains indicates that domestic livestock, a wide range of wild animals, and locally caught fish, were all being consumed at these settlements. The proportion of wild fauna in the assemblage suggests their significant contribution to the diet. At Ngombezi where the longest dated sequence was revealed, such a consumption pattern of mixing domestic and wild resources is not significantly different from that of the pre-nineteenth-century levels, suggesting that the integration of these settlements into the caravan trade network had limited effects on food procurement strategies and consumption patterns. There is a general lack of evidence that young animals were slaughtered, which would be indicative of consumption pressure on domestic stock, as the majority of domestic stock was slaughtered after reaching maturity age - over 3 years for cattle and over 2 years for sheep and goat. These major findings contradict arguments made by historians that the caravan trade had a transformative effect on communities lying along the main trade routes in the region, though additional research at other sites is needed to strengthen this argument.

This study seeks insights into the peoples and traditions of the Tanzanian coast during the 61h to 151h century through the application of archaeological survey and excavation techniques in the vicinity of the two important trading centres of Kaole and Kilwa. It adopts a maritime cultural landscape perspective, an approach that has seen very limited previous application to the East African coast, despite the central role played by the sea in the development of its port settlements and exploitation of its resources. Six themes are covered, namely the identification of coastal settlement sites and establishment of their chronology; recognition of principal phases in settlement development; exploitation of maritime resources and economy; identification of settlement location in relationship to the physical environment of the coast; establishment of the hierarchical nature of coastal settlement; and recognition of the principal harbour and port types. The coastal communities exploited their marine location as basis for iron making, fishing, shellfish gathering and coral extraction (for building and lime making) with some agriculture and trade activity, the latter involving imported goods particularly in the larger settlements of Kaole in late 151 millennium and Kilwa from 13lh century. Some communities were culturally homogenous throughout the period, though diversity was apparent at Kilwa in the 6th to 10th century with presence of huntergatherers and/or the Pastoral Neolithic in addition to iron production

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By the mid-1970s, Tanzania had the biggest co-operative movement in Africa and the oldest in East Africa. Despite such achievement, for decades, the literature on Tanzania’s small-scale coffee and cotton cultivation and marketing co-operatives has suffered from a dearth of substantive historical accounts. The available literature is fragmented along various academic disciplines, mostly political science and sociology. In addition, there is no single substantive secondary historical study specifically dedicated to the co-operative movement since the inception in 1932. The neglect is more critical given the current renaissance in Africa and increasing international interest in the co-operative movement at either national or local levels. This thesis seeks to fill this gap by utilising primary sources from the Co-operative College archive in Manchester and Tanzania National Archive (TNA) to examine and evaluate the coffee and cotton marketing co-operatives during the 1932 to 1982 period. The study further explores the interlocking forces and policies that led to its growth and development. The development is also examined against the changing political and ideological influences during the interwar, and post-war to independence periods. This thesis is structured under three cases, two of which are coffee marketing co-operatives, the Kilimanjaro Native Co-operative Union (KNCU) and Bukoba Co-operative Union (BCU) in Kagera; and the cotton apex marketing co-operative in the WCGA, the Victoria Federation of Co-operative Unions (VFCUS) which was formed in 1955. Study findings show that the time gap in the formation of the mentioned co-operatives were due to the colonial authority neglecting its own co-operative development policy. The evidence shows that, the KNCU which was formed in 1933 and BCU in 1950 were both established at the behest of the British colonial government in a move to control the coffee industry. Importantly, the study examines the power relations involved and the government interventions in the process and the extent to which the co-operatives were promoted and controlled by the government through the co-operative and agricultural marketing policies and legislations. This was particularly provided under Section 36 of the 1932 co-operative legislation and was further reinforced by three policies, the 1934 Chagga Rule, the 1937 Native (control and marketing) Ordinance and the Defence Ordinance, Orders of 1939 and 1940; and the African Agricultural Products (Control and Marketing) Ordinance, 1949. The post-colonial authority perpetuated the colonial policies in promoting co-operatives and the control of agricultural export revenues provided under the 1962 by the National Agricultural Products Board (Control and Marketing) Act by intensifying the intervention, effectively strangling and restructuring them to provide for effective control. Again, there was an increased politisation of the movement’s function as they became an integral part of the propagation of the socialist/ujamaa ideology and the national development plan as the 1976 villagisation policy. This study is of the view that the colonial and post-colonial authorities intervened in the formation of co-operatives given the fact that they were economically strategically vital. During the phases covered in this thesis, the established legislations reinforced the government’s control over the co-operative movement and the producers; and granted themselves a monopoly over the handling and export of small-scale produced coffee and cotton through the control of marketing boards by appointing co-operatives as crop handling agents. Thus, the co-operative movement never attained autonomous status as it became part of the government machinery in extracting resources and exploiting small-scale growers.

This thesis uses the city of Dar es Salaam as a prism for exploring the intersection of the Cold War and decolonisation with political life in post-colonial Tanzania. By deconstructing politics in the city through transnational and international approaches, it challenges prevailing narratives of the global Cold War, African liberation, and the contemporary Tanzanian history. In the decade after Tanzania became independent in 1961, President Julius Nyerere’s commitment to the liberation of Africa transformed Dar es Salaam into a cosmopolitan epicentre of international affairs in Africa, on the frontline of both the Cold War and decolonisation. In shifting the focus away from superpower relations and the paradigm of the nation-state, this thesis shows how African politicians exercised significant influence over Cold War powers, but also how the global context pushed Nyerere’s government into increasingly authoritarian methods of rule. The political geography and public sphere of Dar es Salaam, as a ‘Cold War city’, provides an interpretative lens through which diverse but ultimately entwined narratives are understood. These include the international rivalry between East Germany and West Germany; the politics of the exiled Mozambican liberation movement, FRELIMO; the local experience of the global ‘1968’; and thecourse of elite politics in a critical period in the Tanzania’s recent history. This multilateral history is made possible by a multiarchival approach, to shed light on developments in Dar es Salaam from multiple, triangulated perspectives.

No description available.