Ismaili community in Tanzania
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timnicholson
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Sat Oct 24, 2009 8:43 am
Ismaili community in Tanzania
Hello--<BR><BR>I'm an American phd student that has just started trying to locate Ismaili educators or members of the Ismaili diaspora in Tanzania that have memories of the early independent times or ujamaa era.<BR>Please contact me at [email protected]<BR>Thank you.
You will find the book below very helpful....
AFRICA'S WINDS OF CHANGE
Memoirs of an International Tanzanian
Al Noor Kassum
Availability: Now In Stock
From I. B. Tauris
Pub date: Oct 2007
288 pages
10 b/w illus.
Size 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
$35.00 - Hardcover (1-84511-583-X)
More Shopping Options
Description
The 1960s were a tumultuous period in the history of Africa as one country after another won independence from the colonial powers. This was particularly true of Tanzania as it sought to carve out a role for itself between conflicting European and inter-African interests.
It was in these extraordinary times that Al Noor Kassum rose to become a prominent political figure in newly independent Tanzania. Hand-picked by Julius Nyerere – later to become the country’s first President – to run for elections on a Tanganyika African National Union ticket, he embarked on a career that brought him to prominence nationally and internationally.
Africa’s Winds of Change documents the changes that have taken place in Tanzania from the middle of the 20th century to the present day, through the prism of an East African Asian experience. The author sheds new light on the character and legacy of Julius Nyerere, who emerges as radically different from the stereotypical anti-Western firebrand which became his image in the West.
Africa’s Winds of Change offers a fascinating personal history of a unique African nation at a critical stage in its development.
Author Bio
Educated in Tanzania and the UK, where he was called to the Bar at the Inns of Court in London, Al Noor Kassum was a prominent figure in Tanzanian politics and the Ismaili Muslim community after the country’s independence. He held several ministerial positions within the Tanzanian government and was also the East African Community’s Minister of Finance and Administration. He has also held senior positions in Unesco and at the UN Headquarters in New York. Currently, he is Vice-Chancellor of Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania.
Table of contents
Foreword * Preface * Early Years in Tanganyika and Abroad * From Lincoln’s Inn to Legislative Council * Wind of Change in Africa * Arusha Declaration * Diamonds * Towards the East African Community * Developing Tanzania’s Natural Resources * Reflections
Copyright © 2008
Palgrave Macmillan Ltd
New York, NY 10010
Privacy Policy | UK and Rest of the world site | Contact us
You're surfing with IE6 [IE (6.0)] on WinXP
http://www.palgrave-usa.com/catalog/pro ... 184511583X
There is also an interesting article below by Mansoor Ladha who is now in Calgary but was a journalist in Tanzania.
Futility of governments trying to set fashion
By Mansoor Ladha, Calgary HeraldJuly 26, 2009
In Nicolas Sarkozy's France, the debate on "To veil or not to veil" rages. But, back in October 1968, I witnessed the "Battle of the Minis" in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, when in the country's sprawling Kariakoo market a screaming mob halted buses, dragging off African girls wearing tight dresses or miniskirts. The girls were beaten and had their clothes ripped off.
This was the beginning of "cultural revolution," African style. President Julius Nyerere, a disciple of Mao Zedong, had decreed Tanzania should copy China's Proletariat Revolution, rejecting all foreign things. Nyerere's "green guards," so-called for the colour of their uniforms, targeted miniskirts as their priority item.
Opposition came from the University of Dar es Salaam, where coeds put on their shortest minis and told the green guards to "Get lost." Girls at a youth hostel unanimously voted that "men should not decide what women should wear." One secretary defended her mini, explaining that it made it easier for her to move around the office and push through a crowded bus. A female member of Parliament backed up the miniskirted girls, assuring them that "you can go naked--we won't object."
However, the country's stubborn President Nyerere appeared determined to fight: "It is foolish to wear clothes that show legs," he declared. "It would be better for people to go unclothed if their intention is to expose their legs."
In their enthusiasm, Tanzanians sparked up a lively debate in the national press. The Standard, the country's leading English daily, received 108 letters concerning the ban, while only 14 supported it. Ban supporters maintained miniskirts, tight trousers and wigs undermined Tanzania's culture and were foreign in nature. Opponents claimed it was futile to condemn banned fashion as imitation of foreign culture, as all mass-produced goods were also foreign in any case.
"Unless they want all Tanzanians to go naked, they should have no fashion in Tanzania which is acceptable as originating from this country. . . . Whatever we choose as our national dress, we shall be deceiving ourselves," one letter writer said. Football, declared another letter, is "a degrading product of colonialism and elite European boarding schools. African culture never produced such a clownish performance."
Many writers took jabs at the dress worn at the state banquets by the local leaders and political stalwarts, with some arguing that "traditional" costumes featured by the national dancing troupes were just as revealing as miniskirts. Others were bold enough to point out that the ruling party, TANU's elite, including Nyerere, who has increasingly made the "Zhou Enlai" suit popular, was in itself foreign.
However, one correspondent really hit the nail on the head. He said if the government's intention really was to preserve African culture, they should all go half naked as "our grandfathers used to do." All the clothes "we are putting on now are "foreign culture." But if the government wanted people to preserve our culture, than "why are we telling the Masai tribesmen to stop going half naked and put on modern dress like trousers."
The correspondence in newspapers and the mood in the country clearly showed at the time that the nation had become modern, mature in its thinking, critical and fashion conscious.
Opponents of miniskirts were right in the sense that if women sported skirts with their thighs exposed, they were crossing the bounds of human decency while a group of Masai roaming, half naked, with their buttocks showing, is certainly not a pretty sight on any street.
The newly independent government's aim was to create a modern African society. These measures were aimed at doing so, but the "green guards" took the law into their hands and became too anxious to implement it.
Mansoor Ladha is a journalist based in Calgary.
© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald
http://www.calgaryherald.com/story_prin ... 4&sponsor=
AFRICA'S WINDS OF CHANGE
Memoirs of an International Tanzanian
Al Noor Kassum
Availability: Now In Stock
From I. B. Tauris
Pub date: Oct 2007
288 pages
10 b/w illus.
Size 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
$35.00 - Hardcover (1-84511-583-X)
More Shopping Options
Description
The 1960s were a tumultuous period in the history of Africa as one country after another won independence from the colonial powers. This was particularly true of Tanzania as it sought to carve out a role for itself between conflicting European and inter-African interests.
It was in these extraordinary times that Al Noor Kassum rose to become a prominent political figure in newly independent Tanzania. Hand-picked by Julius Nyerere – later to become the country’s first President – to run for elections on a Tanganyika African National Union ticket, he embarked on a career that brought him to prominence nationally and internationally.
Africa’s Winds of Change documents the changes that have taken place in Tanzania from the middle of the 20th century to the present day, through the prism of an East African Asian experience. The author sheds new light on the character and legacy of Julius Nyerere, who emerges as radically different from the stereotypical anti-Western firebrand which became his image in the West.
Africa’s Winds of Change offers a fascinating personal history of a unique African nation at a critical stage in its development.
Author Bio
Educated in Tanzania and the UK, where he was called to the Bar at the Inns of Court in London, Al Noor Kassum was a prominent figure in Tanzanian politics and the Ismaili Muslim community after the country’s independence. He held several ministerial positions within the Tanzanian government and was also the East African Community’s Minister of Finance and Administration. He has also held senior positions in Unesco and at the UN Headquarters in New York. Currently, he is Vice-Chancellor of Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania.
Table of contents
Foreword * Preface * Early Years in Tanganyika and Abroad * From Lincoln’s Inn to Legislative Council * Wind of Change in Africa * Arusha Declaration * Diamonds * Towards the East African Community * Developing Tanzania’s Natural Resources * Reflections
Copyright © 2008
Palgrave Macmillan Ltd
New York, NY 10010
Privacy Policy | UK and Rest of the world site | Contact us
You're surfing with IE6 [IE (6.0)] on WinXP
http://www.palgrave-usa.com/catalog/pro ... 184511583X
There is also an interesting article below by Mansoor Ladha who is now in Calgary but was a journalist in Tanzania.
Futility of governments trying to set fashion
By Mansoor Ladha, Calgary HeraldJuly 26, 2009
In Nicolas Sarkozy's France, the debate on "To veil or not to veil" rages. But, back in October 1968, I witnessed the "Battle of the Minis" in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, when in the country's sprawling Kariakoo market a screaming mob halted buses, dragging off African girls wearing tight dresses or miniskirts. The girls were beaten and had their clothes ripped off.
This was the beginning of "cultural revolution," African style. President Julius Nyerere, a disciple of Mao Zedong, had decreed Tanzania should copy China's Proletariat Revolution, rejecting all foreign things. Nyerere's "green guards," so-called for the colour of their uniforms, targeted miniskirts as their priority item.
Opposition came from the University of Dar es Salaam, where coeds put on their shortest minis and told the green guards to "Get lost." Girls at a youth hostel unanimously voted that "men should not decide what women should wear." One secretary defended her mini, explaining that it made it easier for her to move around the office and push through a crowded bus. A female member of Parliament backed up the miniskirted girls, assuring them that "you can go naked--we won't object."
However, the country's stubborn President Nyerere appeared determined to fight: "It is foolish to wear clothes that show legs," he declared. "It would be better for people to go unclothed if their intention is to expose their legs."
In their enthusiasm, Tanzanians sparked up a lively debate in the national press. The Standard, the country's leading English daily, received 108 letters concerning the ban, while only 14 supported it. Ban supporters maintained miniskirts, tight trousers and wigs undermined Tanzania's culture and were foreign in nature. Opponents claimed it was futile to condemn banned fashion as imitation of foreign culture, as all mass-produced goods were also foreign in any case.
"Unless they want all Tanzanians to go naked, they should have no fashion in Tanzania which is acceptable as originating from this country. . . . Whatever we choose as our national dress, we shall be deceiving ourselves," one letter writer said. Football, declared another letter, is "a degrading product of colonialism and elite European boarding schools. African culture never produced such a clownish performance."
Many writers took jabs at the dress worn at the state banquets by the local leaders and political stalwarts, with some arguing that "traditional" costumes featured by the national dancing troupes were just as revealing as miniskirts. Others were bold enough to point out that the ruling party, TANU's elite, including Nyerere, who has increasingly made the "Zhou Enlai" suit popular, was in itself foreign.
However, one correspondent really hit the nail on the head. He said if the government's intention really was to preserve African culture, they should all go half naked as "our grandfathers used to do." All the clothes "we are putting on now are "foreign culture." But if the government wanted people to preserve our culture, than "why are we telling the Masai tribesmen to stop going half naked and put on modern dress like trousers."
The correspondence in newspapers and the mood in the country clearly showed at the time that the nation had become modern, mature in its thinking, critical and fashion conscious.
Opponents of miniskirts were right in the sense that if women sported skirts with their thighs exposed, they were crossing the bounds of human decency while a group of Masai roaming, half naked, with their buttocks showing, is certainly not a pretty sight on any street.
The newly independent government's aim was to create a modern African society. These measures were aimed at doing so, but the "green guards" took the law into their hands and became too anxious to implement it.
Mansoor Ladha is a journalist based in Calgary.
© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald
http://www.calgaryherald.com/story_prin ... 4&sponsor=