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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:TANU and the Colonial Office
Author:Iliffe, JohnISNI
Year:1997
Periodical:Tanzania Zamani: A Journal of Historical Research & Writing
Volume:3
Issue:2
Pages:1-62
Language:English
Notes:biblio. refs.
Geographic terms:East Africa
United Kingdom
Subjects:decolonization
colonialism
TANU
History and Exploration
nationalism
Politics and Government
History, Archaeology
history
political science
TANU (Organization)
Abbreviation:TANU=Tanganyika African National Union
Abstract:By the end of World War II the broad principle of British colonial policy was to prepare its colonial territories for self-government. In practice, decolonization normally consisted of unplanned, erratic, defensive, and minimal responses to nationalist challenges. The Colonial Office records show this to have been especially true of Tanganyika (mainland Tanzania), partly because its Governor from 1949 to 1958, Sir Edward Twining, responded to nationalism with breathtaking fluctuations of policy, but even more so because Tanganyika was the least developed of the British East African territories. It might logically have been the last to gain independence, but was in fact the first. The key to the rapid liberation of East Africa from colonial rule was the Tanganyikan election of 1958-1959 and the tripartite voting system under which it was conducted, which, instead of returning a moderate, multiracial leadership, as intended, gave the African nationalist movement, TANU, a sweeping victory. The constitutional procedures which the British had devised to control decolonization did not work where there was a single dominant party with no effective opposition. When the new Colonial Secretary, Iain Macleod, took office in October 1959, he was faced with an untenable situation, which he tried, but failed, to stabilize, before recognizing that in Tanganyika there was no realistic alternative to rapid independence. Ref.