Cultured States

Ivaska Andrew Ivaska

Description

Cultured States is a vivid account of the intersections of postcolonial state power, the cultural politics of youth and gender, and global visions of modern style in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, during the 1960s and early 1970s. Andrew Ivaska describes a cosmopolitan East African capital rocked by debates over youth culture, national cultural policy, the rumored sexual escapades of the postcolonial elite, the content of university education, leftist activism, and the reform of colonial-era marriage laws. If young Tanzanians saw themselves as full-fledged participants in modern global culture, their understandings of the modern conflicted with that of a state launching "decency campaigns" banning cultural forms such as soul music, miniskirts, wigs, and bell-bottoms. Promoted by the political elite as a radical break from the colonial order, these campaigns nonetheless contained strong echoes of colonial assumptions about culture, tradition, and African engagements with the modern city. Exploring the ambivalence over the modern at the heart of these contests, Ivaska uses them as lenses through which to analyze struggles around gender relations and sexual politics, youth and masculinity, and the competition for material resources in a Dar es Salaam in rapid flux. Cultured States is a major contribution to understandings of urban cultural politics; national political culture; social struggles around gender, generation, and wealth; and the transnational dimensions of postcolonial histories too often conceived within national frames.

Sujets

• Histoire
• East Africa
• Cultural studies
• History of Africa

Informations

• Publié par: Duke University Press
• Date de parution: 25 janvier 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780822392958
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Cultured States

ANDREW IVASKA Cultured States YOUTH, GENDER, AND MODERN

STYLE IN 1960S DAR ES SALAAM

Duke University Press Durham and London 2011

© 2011 Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acidfree paperb Designed by C. H. Westmoreland Typeset in Quadraat by Achorn International, Inc.

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Ivaska, Andrew M. (Andrew Michael), 1971– Cultured states : youth, gender, and modern style in 1960s Dar es Salaam / Andrew Ivaska. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn9780822347491 (cloth : alk. paper) isbn9780822347705 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Politics and culture—Tanzania—Dar es Salaam. 2. Clothing and dress—Tanzania—Dar es Salaam. 3. Dar es Salaam (Tanzania)—Social life and customs. I. Title. gt1586.5.1937 2011 306.209678'232—dc22 2010029128

For Sally and David Ivaska

Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: Postcolonial Public Culture in Sixties Times 1

137Culture and Its Others in a Cosmopolitan Capital  National

2 “The Age of Minis”: Secretaries, City Girls, and Masculinity Downtown 86

3 Of Students, ’Nizers, and Comrades: Youth, Internationalism, and the University College, Dar es Salaam 124

4 “Marriage Goes Metric”: Negotiating Gender, Generation, and Wealth in a Changing Capital 166

Conclusion 206

Notes 219 Bibliography 253 Index 271

Acknowledgments

This book, nearly a decade in the making, has been touched and shaped by numerous people—teachers, colleagues, friends, hosts. First and foremost, as a doctoral student at the University of Michigan I was privi leged to work under the guidance of a wonderful dissertation commit tee. From my first week in Ann Arbor, Fred Cooper provided just the right mix of bracing critique and supportive encouragement to keep me going. Nancy Rose Hunt first inspired me to work on questions of pub lic culture and continued throughout to nudge me in productive direc tions. As cochairs, both were wise and patient mentors. David William Cohen led my first graduate course in African history and has been an extraordinarily generous and inspiring example ever since. A wealth of insight on all things Tanzanian, Kelly Askew offered invaluable advice. Juan R. Cole and Geoff Eley supported this project from early on and reminded me of the importance of making broad connections. I could not have asked for a better team of teachers. At the University of Michigan I was fortunate to have found a vibrant and stimulating intellectual environment. Jose Amador, Shaun Lopez, Kristan McGuire, Andrew Needham, and Mario Ruiz were fantas tic collaborators and supportive friends who made graduate school a little easier. In seminars, conferences, coffee shops, bars, and homes, countless other colleagues and teachers in Ann Arbor provided engag ing discussion, challenging critique, encouragement, and friendship. They include Apollo Amoko, Kathleen Canning, Judy Daubenmier, Mamadou Diouf, Frieda Ekotto, Jenny Gaynor, Simon Gikandi, Rob Gray, Gabrielle Hecht, Vukile Khumalo, Anna Lawrence, Kate Luongo, Delphine Mauger, Rudolf Mrazek, Moses Ochonu, Monica Patterson, Elisha Renne, Alice Ritscherle, George Steinmetz, Ann Stoler, Penny Von Eschen, members of the Africa Workshop, the African History Reading Group, the Global Ethnic Literatures Seminar, and the Ford Seminar. Geographically farther afield, I have benefited from the com ments, critique, conversation, and generous support of Jean Allman,