Between the late 1960s and the early 1980s, after the initial euphoria of African national independence and before the era of market liberalization, hundreds of thousands of young East Africans left their rural homes and became the first generation in their families to make lives in the city. This demographic shift occurred in the absence of economic growth and far exceeded the interventions and visions of urban planners and policymakers. What kind of city did these urban sojourners envision and create? How did they reconcile the promises of decolonization and political liberation with the realities of inequality, scarcity and urban infrastructural collapse? Based on research in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, this talk exploresAfrica’s urban revolution as encountered by popular artists and intellectuals including investigative journalists and newspaper gossip columnists, songwriters and musicians, Christian women’s advice writers, nurses and social workers, and Swahili underground pulp fiction publishers. It examines how migrants in the city theorized the postcolonial predicament based on their urban experiences, using the urban landscape they encountered as the raw material with which they pose broader questions about African liberation, gender roles, adulthood, community and social justice.

Speaker’s Bio:

Emily Callaci is an assistant professor of African History at University of Wisconsin, Madison. Her upcoming book is about urban migration and cultural politics during Tanzania’s socialist era, from 1967 through 1985. She has also begun research on a second book project on transnational history of the family planning movement in twentieth century Africa. She has published in Journal of African History and Urban History.

Seminar Chairs: Abosede George and Rhiannon Stephens

Columbia University Faculty House (directions available here: http://universityseminars.columbia.edu/resources/directions-to-faculty-house/)

Please RSVP to ths2122@columbia.edu if you would like to join the group for dinner at a nearby restaurant.