Politics, decolonisation, and the Cold War in Dar es Salaam c.1965 72
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.