Description
Book SynopsisIn Street Archives and City Life Emily Callaci maps a new terrain of political and cultural production in mid- to late twentieth-century Tanzanian urban landscapes. While the postcolonial Tanzanian ruling party (TANU) adopted a policy of rural socialism known as Ujamaa between 1967 and 1985, an influx of youth migrants to the city of Dar es Salaam generated innovative forms of urbanism through the production and circulation of what Callaci calls street archives. These urban intellectuals neither supported nor contested the ruling party''s anti-city philosophy; rather, they navigated the complexities of inhabiting unplanned African cities during economic crisis and social transformation through various forms of popular texts that included women''s Christian advice literature, newspaper columns, self-published pulp fiction novellas, and song lyrics. Through these textual networks, Callaci shows how youth migrants and urban intellectuals in Dar es Salaam fashioned a collective
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"A brilliant book. . . . Callaci’s original approach enables readers to better understand the making of urban life beyond colonial and postcolonial cities. . . . She does this in such a way that the reader is engrossed by novelty and guided by a sense of theoretical clarity." -- Patrick Hege * H-Soz-Kult, H-Net Reviews *
"Explores a variety of texts—didactic booklets aimed at young women, pulp fiction novellas, and song lyrics . . . A notable strength of the book is its treatment of these sources not only as reflective and productive of a particular moral imagination but also as inextricably entangled in the making of material gender positionalities through the material and reputational economies involved in the creation of these texts. . . . A valuable contribution to the historiography of this well-studied city [Dar es Salaam] and its inhabitants." -- Leander Schneider * American Historical Review *
"Callaci has provided an excellent exploration of a crucial aspect of Tanzanian history and urban studies, and in the process, she creates a model for scholars seeking a broad understanding of African city dwellers and communities. This volume will be valuable reading for upper division students as well as graduate students and scholars in history, African Studies, post-socialist studies, urban studies, qualitative sociology, and anthropology." -- Anne S. Lewinson * International Journal of African Historical Studies *
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
1. TANU, African Socialism, and the City Idea 18
2. "All Alone in the Big City": Elite Women, "Working Girls," and Struggles over Domesticity, Reproduction, and Urban Space 59
3. Dar after Dark: Dance, Desire, and Conspicuous Consumption in Dar es Salaam's Nightlife 102
4, Lovers and Fighters: Pulp-Fiction Publishing and the Transformation of Urban Masculinity 141
5. From Socialist to Street-Smart: A Changing Urban Lexicon 180
Conclusion 207
Notes 215
Bibliography 253
Index 277
