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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Governance, Local Politics and Districtization in Tanzania: The 1998 Arumeru Tax Revolt |
Author: | Kelsall, Tim |
Year: | 2000 |
Periodical: | African Affairs: The Journal of the Royal African Society |
Volume: | 99 |
Issue: | 397 |
Period: | October |
Pages: | 533-551 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Tanzania |
Subjects: | rebellions 1998 taxation Politics and Government Economics and Trade |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/723315 |
Abstract: | The subject of this article is a tax revolt which centred in the west of Arumeru district, northeast Tanzania, in the first half of 1998. The most dramatic events in the dispute included the refusal of almost the entire population of the district to pay the development levy, the beating up of Council tax collectors, the burning of the Council Chairman's house and his subsequent resignation, a march by as many as 15,000 people on the Regional Headquarters in Arusha, the intervention of the Prime Minister, the spread of the dispute to other districts, and a subsequent tour of Arumeru by President Mkapa, who urged, among other things, a more speedy redistribution of estate land to villagers. The article analyses the course of the revolt, arguing that it was heavily conditioned by elite interests, and should not therefore be taken as evidence of the kind of popular empowerment compatible with the aspirations of governance theorists. The revolt is explained as an instance of the 'districtization' of Tanzanian politics, a phenomenon with important implications for future accountability and stability in the country. Notes, ref., sum. |