Mkenda , Festo (2009) Building National Unity in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Impact of State Policies on the Chagga Community in Northern Tanzania. PhD thesis, Campion Hall, University of Oxford .
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Abstract
The prevalent approach to African nationalism concentrates on the period following World War II and emphasizes a top-down phenomenon of change engineered by a few African ‘élite’. The approach fails to take account of change at the grassroots level throughout the colonial period. Using the Chagga of Tanzania as a case study, this thesis highlights an alternative approach that views nationalism from below. It traces the way the Chagga community was transformed in response to various policies, becoming integrated into the structures of colonial Tanganyika and unwittingly laying the foundation for its members’ place in an independent Tanzania. The Chagga were never passive to these changes; hence, their active response to the policies that instigated change is an essential part of what leads to the formation of Tanzania. Favouring a civic-ideological trajectory to nationhood, the thesis argues that it is their history rather than their biology that makes the Chagga Tanzanians. Before colonial occupation, the Chagga community, broadly identified by a shared culture, existed in multiple polities. In response to various colonial policies, local actors campaigned for political unity, leading to the election of one Paramount Chief as leader of a Native Administration with jurisdiction over the whole community. Also developing during the period was the Kilimanjaro Native Cooperative Union, a parallel economic structure with similar jurisdiction. While the Native Administration justified its existence on ‘traditional’ grounds, the Cooperative Union relied on democratised grassroots institutions. The Chagga, who esteemed their Cooperative Union, came to view the Native Administration as politically limiting. They voted to abolish the office of Paramount Chief even before independence, setting a precedent for the country-wide abolition of ‘traditional’ chieftaincy. This opened up the political field to more participants, making it possible to negotiate the future of the new nation unencumbered by ill-founded ‘customary’ claims to office and privilege.
| Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | On Tribes and Nations: Biology and Ideology in the Study of African Nationalism, Becoming Chagga: Population and Politics around Kilimanjaro before 1916, Political Pyramiding on Shifting Sands: Chagga Identity, Authority and Contest under the British, 1916-1960, Pyramidal Collapse: The Impact of Trans-independence Administrative Reforms on Chagga Politics, Kujenga Taifa, Kubomoa Ushirika: The KNCU and the Politics of Economic Nationalism, |
| Subjects: | D History General and Old World > DT Africa |
| Divisions: | Africana Jesuitica |
| Depositing User: | JHI Africa |
| Date Deposited: | 27 Mar 2014 13:15 |
| Last Modified: | 11 Jul 2019 11:06 |
| URI: | http://thesisbank.jhia.ac.ke/id/eprint/41 |
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