The British Indirect Rule and Nationalism in Tanganyika (1922-1961)

Dr. CHORFI Fatima
Université d’Oran 2-Mohamed Ben Ahmed

Abstract: Nationalism is a strong commitment shared by a group of people who belong to one country. It is a desire for political independence by a nation that is controlled by another one. From a purely historical point of view, nationalism emerged in America in the 18th century. The American settlers who became a nation, were committed to fight for their freedom. This fight was based on the political thought of Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine and their ideas politically contributed to the birth of the American nation. However, nationalism in Asia and Africa began to appear after the First World War. In fact, its progress was reflected in the history of the League of Nations and that of the United Nations after the First and the Second World War. The colonized people of Asia and Africa spoke with one voice and formed a strong united front. This was affirmed in the resolutions of the Afro-Asian conference of Bandung in 1955. In fact, in this conference, the Afro-Asian people recommended the principle of self -determination which is a fundamental human right. As a movement, African nationalism was based on different principles. The most important ones were: an independent government, a certain unity of territory with common cultural characteristics and common social institutions, a belief in a common origin and a common history with a hope of a glorious future. Yet, the evolution of nationalism throughout Africa was different from one territory to another. The process of nationalism in each African territory was a particular case because of the conditions in which it had risen. In Tanganyika for example, it was only after the Second World War that nationalism took its modern form. Within this context, this work will be an attempt to shed light on nationalism in Tanganyika. When did it emerge? What were the factors that led to its emergence? Who had contributed to its promotion and evolution? What were its claims and objectives? And to what extent were they achieved?

Key words: Tanganyika, Nationalism, 1922-1961.

Résumé : Le nationalisme est un engagement fort partagé par un groupe de personnes appartenant à un pays. C’est un désir d’indépendance politique de la part d’une nation contrôlée par une autre. D’un point de vue purement historique, le nationalisme est apparu en Amérique au 18ème siècle. Les colonies américaines qui sont devenus une nation se sont engagées à se battre pour leur liberté. Ce combat était basé sur la doctrine politique de Thomas Jefferson et Thomas Paine et leurs idées ont contribué politiquement à la naissance de la nation américaine. Cependant, le nationalisme en Asie et en Afrique a commencé à apparaître après la Première Guerre mondiale. En fait, ses progrès ont été reflétés dans l’histoire de la Ligue des Nations et celle des Nations Unies après la Première et la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Les peuples colonisés d’Asie et d’Afrique ont protesté d’une seule voix et ont formé un front uni et fort. Cela a été affirmé dans les résolutions de la conférence afro-asiatique de Bandung en 1955. En fait, lors de cette conférence, les peuples Afro-asiatiques ont recommandé le principe de l’autodétermination, qui constitue un droit fondamental de l’homme. En tant que mouvement, le nationalisme africain était fondé sur des principes différents. Les plus importants sont: un gouvernement indépendant, une certaine unité de territoire avec des caractéristiques culturelles communes et des institutions sociales communes, une croyance en une origine commune et une histoire commune avec l’espoir d’un avenir glorieux. Pourtant, l’évolution du nationalisme en Afrique était différente d’un territoire à l’autre. Le processus de nationalisme sur chaque territoire africain est un cas particulier en raison des conditions dans lesquelles il s’est élevé. Dans le Tanganyika, par exemple, le nationalisme a pris sa forme moderne après la seconde guerre mondiale. Dans ce contexte, ce travail tentera de porter lumière sur le nationalisme au Tanganyika. Quand est-il apparu? Quels ont été les facteurs qui ont mené à son émergence? Qui a contribué à sa promotion et à son évolution? Quels étaient ses revendications et objectifs? Et a quel point ont-ils été atteints?

Mots clés: Tanganyika, Nationalisme, 1922-1961.

I- HISTORICAL BACKGRAOUND OF TANGANYIKA BEFORE 1922

1-Tanganyika, a German Colony: 1884-1914

During the 19th century, the colonial powers such as Britain, France, Germany, Portugal, Italy, Belgium and Spain quarreled over the shares of the African continent. To overcome this clash, these powers agreed to mark out their spheres of interest in the Berlin Conference better known as the scramble for Africa. Thus, all the African territories fell under the colonial rule -apart from Ethiopia and Liberia –and obviously Tanganyika became a German colony.

By November 20, 1890, Germany and Britain had worked an agreement that the British would establish a protectorate over Zanzibar and that Tanganyika would become a German colony.¹In fact in 1891, the German East African Company appointed a governor in Tanganyika with headquarters at Dar Es-salaam.²

According to the American historian, Evans-Smith William, the German had imposed their government on the mainland in a very harsh way. This kind of rule had provoked the African resistance. Between 1888 and 1889, there had been the Abushiri revolt, an insurrection of both the Arabs and Swahili population of the areas of the East African coast which were granted to Germany by the Sultan of Zanzibar in 1888.³ However it was eventually suppressed by an Anglo-German blockade of the coast. Yet the Africans resistance was not totally swept away. Indeed, between 1891 and 1898, the Hehe people, an ethnic group based in south-central nowadays Tanzania, led by their chief Mkwawa, resisted German expansion. The latter started in July 1891, when the German commissioner, Emil Von Zelewski, led a battalion of soldiers to suppress the Hehe. On August, 17, they were attacked by Mkwawa’s 3.000 strong army at the village of Lugalo in Tanganyika. That battle was the first major defeat of the Germans’ troops as the Commissioner himself was killed and the beginning of the Hehe seven years wars against the German in the form of guerilla warfare.

The most significant Tanganyikan revolt against German rule was the armed Maji Maji uprising and rebellion in Madaba from 1905 to 1907. Germany began levying head taxes in 1898, and relied heavily on forced labour to build roads and accomplish various other tasks. In 1902, the German governor, Carl Peters, ordered villages to grow cotton as a cash crop for export. In 1905, a drought threatened the region in addition to the farmers’ resentment over the cotton scheme led to launch the rebellion against the Germans in July. Yet, the revolt led to many indigenous casualties. In fact, it fizzled out in the face of superior German weaponry. The war resulted in 250.000 -300.000 total death, mostly civilians from famine as the Germans destroyed their villages, crops and even other food resources.⁴

Since then Tanganyika remained under the German rule without any serious rebellion till the outbreak of the First World War. Indeed, in 1914, Germany was defeated and consequently lost its colonies. As a result, at the Versailles Peace Talks,⁵ Tanganyika was passed to the British as the League of Nations Mandate Territory.

2-The Impact of the First World War on the Consciousness of the Africans

The First World War had a stimulating effect upon African nationalism.⁶ Throughout the continent, the educated elite mainly became aware of their situation and started to protest against it. They tried to organize and unite themselves in order to make their voice heard everywhere.

In the Gold Coast, for example in 1920, Casely Hayford founded the National Congress of British West Africa. The latter claimed the right of the Gold Coast to self -determination, and more representation in the Legislative Council. In fact, the members of this political party who were lawyers, doctors, merchants and intellectuals didn’t ask for reforms in the Gold Coast only, but also in the whole West African territories. This Congress was the first attempt to link the claims of the Gold Coast with those of other West African territories⁷.

The impact on the other West African territories can be explained in the case of nationalism in Nigeria. In fact, the National Congress of British West Africa had-to a great extent-influenced the emergence of nationalism in this territory. But, the process of nationalism in Nigeria was slower than that of the Gold Coast because it was not until 1914 that the separate colonial regions in north and south Nigeria were unified to react against colonial rule. In 1923, Herbert Macaulay founded the Nigerian Democratic Party.⁸ It was the first political party which claimed compulsory education for all the Nigerians in order to increase the rise of consciousness among all the masses.

Within a similar context, a movement which had emerged before the First World War, deep-rooted the same claims of the National Congress of British West Africa. It was the Pan African Movement Which was founded by Edward Blyden, Marcus Garvey and Williams Du Bois.⁹ In its second Congress, in Paris, in 1919, the movement’s delegates asked for self-government of nations. They urged the right of the Africans to participate in local governments. They explained how these masses could have self-governments and their own representatives so that they could stand on their behalf.

3- Tanganyika British Protectorate and the early forms of Nationalism

As a result of the First World War, Tanganyika became a British mandate territory under the League of Nations. Thus, the British set up an indirect rule system which was to control parts of its colonial empire through pre-existing indigenous power structures and they established their administration under the leadership of Sir Horace Byatt, who headed the civilian administration during the war to become the first British Governor in 192. To restore their rule, the British had followed a detailed process.¹⁰

In the initial phase, the British had used the chiefs to communicate with their tribesmen or peasants. They had also used them to collect taxes and to maintain order. In the second phase, once the colonial authority was firmly established, the British officials were not in need for the recognized chiefs only, but also for the younger people. In 1925, the British administration founded the institution of the Local Native Council. The members of this Council were not only chiefs, but also teachers, traders and alike.¹¹ Yet, the executive orders were still transmitted through the chiefs. The British government not only imposed the payment of Poll Tax on each African to the colonial administration, but also to their chiefs. In fact, within this period, the British Government was pursuing this kind of policy in order to decrease the dependence between chiefs and their people.¹²

In the third phase, the British Government increased its intervention in the everyday business of life. In 1930, it proliferated the marketing controls, and made stricter supervision of the education system.¹³ It had also attempted to change the African method of land usage. This land had a double connotation for the Africans; first, it had a spiritual value since it belonged to their ancestors, second it had an economic one as it was a means of their survival.

As a result of this British policy, a new kind of African society had emerged in Tanganyika. The more enterprising Africans, traders, teachers and improving farmers came in individual contact with the machinery of central government. Thus the old communicators of the British were no more the focal point in local society.¹⁴

Within this social change, a group of peasantry emerged.¹⁵ This group had witnessed the emergence of an independent landowning peasantry. Thus the chiefs were considered irrelevant to the peasants who were dealing with economic agencies or new social communities. This peasantry had tried to protest against the British rule within a larger frame in their society as a whole.

Unlike the other African territories Tanganyika’s distinguishing feature was the existence of the Swahili Society.¹⁶ It is a society which had first existed on the Coast of Tanganyika. Then, it had spread throughout the interior. Its main features were based on towns and trading centers that had an equivocal relationship with the rural areas which were economically independent. However, culturally and socially the Swahili society was enjoying a wider frame of reference. It had absorbed the emerged educated groups who were looking for a wider frame for their energies.¹⁷

The Swahili society had staffed the African servants of Tanganyika. It gave this territory its first focused pressure groups. The most significant ones were: The Tanganyika Territory African Civil Servants Association and the Tanganyika African Association.

The Tanganyika Territory African Civil Servants Association was founded in March 1922 by Martin Kayamba, head clerk in the Tanga district office.¹⁸ Its office bearers were Christian and Muslim Africans as well as Arabs. It shared the modern character of the Swahili society. This Association claimed the regulation of the African Civil Servants Status by drawing attention to their unfavorable one in central government service.

Since the British continued the German practice of transferring African employees of the administration throughout the territory, the Association protested against this. It used the argument that most of the African civil servants were ex-enemy subjects and wanted to assure that the new British regime was really better than the German one.¹⁹

According to many educated Africans, after the First World War, consciousness of Tanganyika seemed to have been enhanced by the change of the complete government machine.²⁰ However, the Tanganyika Territory Civil Servants Association seemed to have faded out in the late l 920’s because of the oppression exercised by the British.²¹

The process of nationalism in Tanganyika started to emerge effectively after the Second World War. Yet, on the light of what had been shown before, it seemed that Tanganyika had been influenced after the First World War by the other forms of nationalism in other African Territories. The most predominant one was the case of the National Congress of British West Africa. The Second Congress of the Pan-African Movement, too, had contributed to the rise of the Tanganyika’s civil servants consciousness.

II- THE RISE OF NATIONALISM IN TANGANYIKA AFTER THE SECOND WORLD WAR

The participation of the African troops in the second world war paved the way for the rise of political consciousness that had spread all over the colonized territories. For the very first time, the Africans were side to side with the colonial powers which were on their turn fighting for their own independence. This contact enhanced the Africans’ claims to get rid of the colonial powers and enabled them to realize that the only way to achieve their objective is through protesting and fighting. Tanganyika was no exception, the Second World War and the contribution of the external factors such as the US President, Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points Speech, the Atlantic Charter, the foundation of the United Nations Organisation, the Pan-African movement and the Bandung Conference respectively were the necessary elements that gave birth to a new form of nationalism in Tanganyika.

1) The External Factors that Led to the Rise of Nationalism in Tanganyika

The Second World War was a turning point in the modern history of Africa. It increased African consciousness; soldiers from all over Africa participated in this War. As a result, the number of Africans who were politically conscious greatly increased because they had learned to see their own countries from the outside. Furthermore, they were able to read newspapers, to listen to wireless bulletin, and to take interest in international affairs.²² They became mature enough to address the colonial powers and to ask for their rights. As an African representative addressed the French National Assembly shortly after the Second World War and made it clear: “In helping you to extricate yourselves from the Hitler mess, we tasted the bread of freedom. Do not think that you can now take the taste away from us.”²³

Another major external factor that greatly contributed to the rise of nationalism in African colonies in general, and particularly in Tanganyika is the Fourteen Points Speech of Woodrow Wilson. Indeed, on January 8, 1918, the US President Woodrow Wilson went before Congress to enunciate the Fourteen Points which consisted of certain basic principles such as freedom, democracy and self- determination. These fourteen principles had a great impact on the future of the colonies who became aware of their situation and started to claim their independence.²⁴

In Addition to Woodrow principles, on August 14, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the United States of America signed with the Prime Minister of Great Britain Winston Churchill the Atlantic Charter. The latter was basically a declaration of shared Anglo-American principles in which they based their hopes for a better future for the world:

Respect the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live; and they wish to see sovereign rights and self· determination restored to those who had been forcibly deprived of them.²⁵

But Britain restricted this to European countries that had acquired the former German territories.²⁶ Yet, in the mean time another international organization would deep-root the right of the colonized territories to self-determination and the process of decolonization, namely the foundation of the United Nations Organisation.

Indeed, in 1945, the United Nations had taken over responsibility of the former mandated territories of the League of Nations known as Trusteeship territories. In fact, it was clear enough that in the Charter of the United Nations that all states of the world had equal rights and was put in the second item in article number one:

To develop friendly among Nations based on respect for the principles of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace.²⁷

Those external factors were engendered by other similar factors among those colonized territories which had been recently independent and tried to enable the remaining territories both in Africa and Asia to get their freedom from the colonial powers, namely Pan-Africanism Movement and the Bandung Conference respectively.

In October 1945, the fifth congress of Pan-Africanism was held in Manchester and it enhanced the right of peoples everywhere to organize trade unions, cooperatives, societies, farmers‘ organizations without the chacklers of imperialist officialdom.²⁸ The members of this congress had determined their opposition to all forms of colonialism and imperialism and all their consent to African nationalism and independence. This determination was echoed later among the different nations that claimed their independence in both continents: Asia and Africa. This was put in practice during the first conference of the non-aligned countries.

It was the first non-aligned countries Conference that took place in Bandung, Indonesia. Among its members there were independent African countries such as Libya, Egypt and Ethiopia. The Conference was organized on the initiative of the Indonesian President Ahmed Sukarno. It brought together nine states in an attempt to form a non-aligned bloc opposed to the colonialism and the imperialism of the super powers. The five principles adopted by the conference were: non- aggression and respect for sovereignty, non- interference in internal affairs, equality and peaceful co-existence.²⁹ In fact this solidarity had now spread nationalist activists all over Africa and became the milestone that would witness the process of the decolonization of its territories. Tanganyika seemed to be on that path as those external factors mentioned above would match to a greater extent the internal conditions that were in favour of such an achievement namely education that promoted the rise and spread of their political consciousness, as well as the different associations and the trade unions that were set up and consolidated their way to independence.

2) The Internal Factors that Led to the Rise of Nationalism in Tanganyika

In 1946, as a result of the Second World War, Tanganyika became a British Trust Territory under the United Nations. Thus the situation improved and the political consciousness rose among the African masses. This was due to different factors such as education, associations and trade unions respectively, which greatly contributed to the rise of nationalism in Tanganyika.

A- Education:

The growth of nationalist consciousness was a consequence of the provision of education; it was linked with the growth of towns. In 1914 Dar es Salam had a population of 20.000; by 1931 this had risen to 24.000 and by 1948 to nearly 70.0000, while by 1958 it was about 130.000. Tanga, Tabora, Mwanza, Dodoma, Lindi and Morogoro, the six biggest towns outside Dar es Salaam in 1948, had a population of only 70.000 between them, while all the remaining urban areas totaled only another 60.000. In each of these towns could be found a variety of African organizations: tribal societies, dance clubs, football clubs, organizations of traders, and many more. By 1945, the percentage of primary -school children receiving education had risen to thirty percent, and illiteracy was being reduced at the rate of two percent a year.³⁰ In fact, after the Second World War with the pressure of the United Nations Committee, investment in education continued under government’s Ten Year Development Plan. Thus by 1956, fourty percent of the children of primary school age attended schools and there were almost 25.000 students in secondary schools including 204 girls.³¹ In fact these schools supplied a western type of education which deep-rooted the consciousness of these masses. The growth of nationalism was partly a consequence of the provision of education. It is important to note that in Tanganyika the Swahili language played a major role in the spread of literacy and political consciousness among the Tanganyika. It promoted their unity and enabled their involvement in the political field.³²

The elite succeeded to spread their nationalist ideas to their African masses by using the Swahili language that was a common feature among most of Tanganyika’s population. It largely contributed to convince them of the nationalist cause. Though there were several other languages among the population, Swahili was the lingua franca that united them. According to the historian Ali Mazrui, the Swahili language was spoken on the east coast of Africa as early as the tenth century and its origin seemed to be Arabic the plural of coast Sawahil. It was used as a tool of communication between the merchants who were most of them Arabs that settled on the coast and got married to Bantu women living there. Then it penetrated to the interior but did not widely spread until the nineteenth century. But when it did it spread quickly as a result of trade in slave, ebony, gold and ivory.

The spread of Swahili and its use did not deter with the coming of the European colonial powers in Tanganyika. During the German colonial era, the Swahili language was used as a tool of instruction though German was taught as a subject at school and the Germans documented the Swahili language. With the coming of the British after the First World War, English became the official language of the country. Yet, Swahili was accepted at the provincial and district level. Besides, Swahili was kept as a medium of instruction in the first five years of the primary school. English was introduced as a subject at the third grade and then it became the medium of instruction after eight years in school. Swahili was available as a subject throughout the secondary school. In 1930, a Language Committee was founder in order to standardize and promote the development of Swahili.³³

Being a national language, Swahili deep-rooted the Tanganyika nationalists’ unity and commitment to voice their protest against the colonial rule. Indeed, In each of the Tanganyika towns could be found a variety of African organisations; tribal societies; dance clubs; football clubs; organizations of traders and many more. According to the historian Andrew Coulson (Tanzania, A Political Economy, 1982, p. 102), three types of organizations were to prove particularly important in the development of nationalist consciousness: Clubs for African civil servants and teachers, from one of which the first political party was eventually to be formed; trade unions; and cooperative societies as well.

b) Associations:

1- The Tanganyika Territory African Civil Servants Association:

In 1922, the Tanganyika Territory African Civil Servants Association was founded by the educator and civil servant Martin Kayamba Mdumi to bring together the Muslim and Christian servants in Tanganyika to help them improve themselves. The claims of the association were better terms of work for workers, high prices for agricultural products and development in agriculture.

2- The Kilimanjaro Native Planters Association:

In January 1925, Joseph Merinyo, clerck and interpreter in the District Office and a prominent coffee grower from the Old Moshi Chiefdom, called together fourteen farmers representing coffee producers in twelve Kilimanjaro chiefdoms and established the Kilimanjaro Native Planters Association “ to protect and promote the interests of the Native Coffee Growers on the mountain.”³⁴For the very first time, the Association created for the very first time mutual assistances between the chiefs who stood against the British. However, in April 1925, a change of governors had already led to shifts in policy which were to have a direct bearing on the young association’s future. Donald Cameron, the new governor, decided to cease the association. Thus it has been suggested that the association did not simply collapse but killed. Moreover, it was killed not because of its weakness, but because its strength and independent tendencies both in terms of economic interests and political implications for Kilimanjaro were perceived as threatening to the colonial administration. In addition, the Association created new leadership channels and sought to assert economic self-control in both the growing and marketing of its important coffee crop. It was considered a threat for precisely those reasons.

3 -The Tanganyika African Association:

The Tanganyika African Association was founded in 1929. It was formed for the welfare of the native civil servants. Yet, this Association’s central focus had little popular support. The spontaneous initiative shown by the people or the elite was not enough to generate a nationalist movement. From 1936 onwards, the African Association had a rival.³⁵

4-The African Welfare and Commercial Association:

The African Welfare Commercial Association was originally founded in 1936 as a welfare society of African traders without tribal links in Dar Es-Salaam. Its founder was Erika Fiah, a Ugandan shopkeeper who came to Dar Es-Salaam. In 1937, he started the newspaper Kwetu which not only campaigned for more education facilities for Africans, but also for political power. As its membership increased the association turned itself into national political organization. It protested against any government laws that may affect the Tanaganyikans and asked for their representation in the Legislative Council:

Since the Africans are not represented in the Legislative Council, this Association, as the central body, looking after the welfare of all Africans in Tanganyika Territory, would always watch carefully any laws proposed by the Government which may affect Africans, and after proper consideration, would make such representations to Government, and Members of the Legislative Council, as the Association consider proper in the interests of the Africans.³⁶

However, this Association did not last for a long time because its founder spent most of his time with Dar Es-Salaam Dockers and neglected the Association which could not stand without him.³⁷

C- The Trade Unions:

Andrew Coulson noted that for many years the workers in Tanganyika and mainly the dockers had been the biggest employers of labour in Dar Es Salam and Tanga, but their conditions of work were very poor. Thus, it was obvious that the docks were the places where the working class became conscious of their power to fully use to resent and protest against the British exploitation. In 1937, there was a Dockers strike in Tanga and forty Dockers formed a trade union to stand on the behalf the Dockers and express their grievances. Two years later, in 1939, another strike was organized by the casual workers as a protest against the low wages as well as a claim of some of the fringe benefits enjoyed by the permanent workers. However it failed because the companies succeeded to recruit a new unskilled labour force.

During the Second World War in 1943, inflation had caused a rise in prices and wages had fallen down .Consequently, there was another strike which was much harder than the previous ones. However, the British government arrested 142 men and the strike was broken. Four years later, another strike was organized after fruitless negotiation between the government and the dockers. This one lasted for a whole month and it did not involve the dockers only, but also teachers and workers at the Mpanda lead mine, the Uvinza -salt works and various small firms around Mwanza.³⁸

The most significant result of that strike was the foundation of the Dock workers and Stevedores Union in October 1947. At the beginning the union did not have the assistance of the government but the latter soon realized that it would not have a control over its activities. As a result the government appointed an officer to render any assistance to the union but the real objective was to secure moderate leadership rather than radical one. An agreement had been reached between the union and the government that included a phased decasualization of the labour force and was signed in November 1948.

However, two years later, in 1950, that same agreement had been used by the employers to sack workers thus another strike broke out. What was particular was the outbreak of violence that resulted in the two African casualties and the injury of Asian and European policemen. As a result, the union was dissolved by High Court orders and its assets were confiscated and almost all the permanent workers were sacked. Consequently, eleven years’ experience of working-class organization was lost.

Yet, the workers’ grievances were not relieved though the government was prepared to register small local craft associations and the whole experience had an importance consequence on the trade union movement. Indeed, the latter understood the necessity of revolting against the colonial rule. Tom Mboya, an American influenced Kenyan unionist visited Tanganyika in 1955 argued that responsible educated officials should establish unions from the top downwards to strengthen their power. Consequently, the British government and the employers did not have the choice and accepted this because they realized that it was in their interests to create a well-paid, permanent labour force.

One month later after Mboya’s visit, the British government accepted the registration of the Tanganyika Federation of Labour (TFL). The latter was a body to co-ordinate all other unions. What was new about those unions was the leadership. It was held by officials of the African Commercial Employees Association, the Tanganyika African Government Servants’ Association and the Tanganyika Railway African Union, all the unions with a high proportion of clerical staff among their members. Henceforth leadership was no longer in the hands of unskilled or semi-skilled workers, such as the dockers. The new leaders, namely Kawawa, Kanaliza, Mpangala and Tandau had all been to secondary schools, but they had not worked in factories or on the land.

However, the trade unions were not supposed to be involved in politics and similarly the co-operatives were supposed to be for marketing only those which were accused of being involved in politics ran the risk of having their registration cancelled by Registar of Co-operative Societies. In fact the British government had an eye on both trade unions and the co-operatives. The former were watched over by labour officers from the Department of Labour and the latter were watched over by officials from the Cooperative Development Division. Thus, according to the Historian Andrew Coulson, these kinds of organisations’ leaders could not satisfy the masses’ needs as they were dependent on the government assistance and expended with the patronage of the British ruler and when faced with the problems they turned to the state for help in the form of controlled cost-plus pricing, guaranteed markets, subsidized credit and eventually state ownership. The true trade unions were to come after the foundation of the Tanganyika African National Union in 1954 led by Julius Nyerere.

III-THE INDEPENDENCE STRUGGLE OF THE TANGANYIKA NATIONALISTS (1945 -1961)

The Tanganyika African Association and the Tanganyika African Civil Servants Association remained clubs rather than revolutionary organizations. But they were important because they provided central nationalist organizations which were in touch with tribal organizations with the necessary mass support.³⁹

Tanganyika African National Union

In 1953, Julius Nyerere was elected president of the Tanganyika African Association and almost at once prepared to turn this one into a politica1 party.⁴⁰However, the British governor, Edward Twining, started making life difficult. He passed an order forbidding civil- servants to join it and in 1954 he passed a Societies Ordinance⁴¹ which required every public organization to be registered and supply a registrar with a list of members and a copy of its constitution .In July 1954 the association turned itself into by all the Tanganyika trade unions, cooperatives and associations.⁴²

By this time, Edward Twining was replaced as a governor by Turnbull who was more flexible. Thus, the Tanganyika African National Union urged that the speed of advance towards self-government should be increased. The next advance came in 1960 when a new and larger Legislative Council was created with a majority of elected members.⁴³ At the same time, the Executive Council had been replaced by a Council of Ministers. As Nyerere’s party won, the governor asked its leader to be the Chief Minister and to choose ten of the members of the Council of Ministers.

Thus, the final round of the talks were held in Dar Es Salaam in March 1961 after which Tanganyika was announced that it would have internal self-government in May 1961 and full independence in December 1961. In fact, Tanganyika was to be the test case, the first which the steps to independence that had been followed in India or Ghana were speeded up.⁴⁴

IV. Conclusion

One general point which emerges from this work is that African nationalism was born under colonial circumstances. In Fact, the Africans understood that to achieve their independence, they needed to create a political plate-form supported by the consciousness of the masses. In fact, nationalism as an effective body emerged in Tanganyika after the Second World War. On the light of what had been shown before, what was particular about the Tanganyikan nationalism were the factors that enabled its success. First, unlike the other East African territories such as Uganda and Kenya, Tanganyika did not face tribal conflicts that had exerted influence upon its history. This was due to the Swahili language which deep-rooted the unity of the Tanganyikan masses. Second, the political development in Tanganyika was rapid after the Second World War. This was partly due to the United Nations, which became responsible for the supervision of Tanganyika’s administration and provided the ground and the opportunity for the development of Tanganyika’s nationalism. Third, the· main figure of nationalism was the Tanganyika African National Union Party which became the real voice of African political consciousness in the territory. Its leader, Julius Nyerere, succeeded to acquire the necessary support of the masses. In fact, his success was .partly due ·to the support and confidence that were obtained from the non-Africans including the Asians and the Europeans. For instance, the Asian immigrant communities provided the Tanganyika African National Union with funds. Thus, within seven year of political strt1ggle, Julius Nyerere Led Tanganyika to independence in December 1961 and became the first president of this newly independent African territory

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