African   Histories

The   African   Sickness

Tanzania. From colonialism to Capitalism, going through socialism

Tanzania, as route forced for the caravans of slaves and Arab retailers between the East Indian coast and the Great Lakes, has happened in its history through a pile of vicissitudes, influenced by the Portuguese, the Arabs, the Germans and the British at its colonial time, and the internal migrations of Masai and Bantú. Swahili, that was born in the coast like language to deal, quickly expanded towards the interior with the Arab caravans, and it has become the nexus of union more hard between the tanzanos, proud of that its language is between the ten first of the world. Basoue of Range, the mythical Portuguese navigator, arrived at his coasts in century XV, and before the beauty of the place and the interest in the commerce of gold, he tried to take control from the zone, but the Arabs expelled and developed it the productive business of the commerce of slaves more and more, necessary for the expansion of the American colonies. With the conversion of the convinced British in anti-slavery, the problems of sultán of Zanzíbar, that handled the commerce of slaves, worsened, reason why in 1873 it reaches an agreement with the British to abolish the slavery and to obtain his protection. The colonial history of Tanzania comes given by the agreements between German and British to distribute Africa Eastern; into 1890 Tanzania, with Burundi and Rwanda, they become Africa of the German East; World War I faced the 2 powers, and German General Paul von Lettow, to the control of German and African, conscious troops mixed that it could not defeat to the best one supplied I exercise British, made a war based on surprise attacks and fast retirement; it was never defeated by the British although the size of its army was 100 times superior. The loss of World War I by Germany yielded the control of Rwanda and Burundi to the Belgians, and from Tanzania to the British. The colonial time finished in 1961, when Tanganika obtained its independence. Julius Nyerere, was president between 1962 and 1985, year in which resigned as a result of the disastrous economic policy that took to the country to the bankruptcy, becoming one of the few African presidents who resign instead of being dismissed. Pressed by the World Bank and the Monetary Bottom the International, its resignation caused a change in the economic course of Tanzania, that since then it has embraced a capitalist market economy. Its retirement of the policy in 1990 has placed in a pedestal a politician idealistic, devoto of the equality and the human rights, admired by its integrity and known like Mwalimu, the professor. Paraphrasing a slogan which many politicians in their electoral campaigns use now, " the economy, stupid, the economy " like indicator of which at the present time the ideologies govern more by the economy than by the ideas, we can say that the dream of Julius Nyerere failed by the stupid economy. To give is Salaam, the capital of Tanzania from 1961 and whose name means " Port of La Paz ", it has grown without stopping from that moment to now, with a population superior to the 2 million inhabitants; strategically located to give logistic support to Zanzíbar and to the caravans, he was founded on 1857, and he has been in addition under British and German control, that have left his impronta in the city. The resistance between the miserable African population and the international atmosphere and of businesses is brutal, example of the new capitalist policy of the government, who has like primary objective the economic growth, although this one is not distributed between all the social classes. It has the doubtful privilege to show the greater number of prostitutas and growth of AIDS of Africa.

Go To:

Previous:
Next:
Main:
More Info About Tanzania (Spanish):