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Street Textuality: Socialism, Masculinity, and Urban Belonging in Tanzania's Pulp Fiction Publishing Industry, 1975–1985

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

Emily Callaci
Emily Callaci*
Affiliation:
History, University of Wisconsin, Madison
*
[email protected]
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Abstract

From the mid-1970s through the mid-1980s, a network of young urban migrant men created an underground pulp fiction publishing industry in the city of Dar es Salaam. As texts that were produced in the underground economy of a city whose trajectory was increasingly charted outside of formalized planning and investment, these novellas reveal more than their narrative content alone. These texts were active components in the urban social worlds of the young men who produced them. They reveal a mode of urbanism otherwise obscured by narratives of decolonization, in which urban belonging was constituted less by national citizenship than by the construction of social networks, economic connections, and the crafting of reputations. This article argues that pulp fiction novellas of socialist era Dar es Salaam are artifacts of emergent forms of male sociability and mobility. In printing fictional stories about urban life on pilfered paper and ink, and distributing their texts through informal channels, these writers not only described urban communities, reputations, and networks, but also actually created them.

Type
Research Article
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 59 , Issue 1 , January 2017 , pp. 183 - 210
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 2017 

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32 This included a strong critique of the influence of foreign films on the morality of urban youth. Mbuguni, L. A. and Ruhumbika, Gabriel, “TANU and National Culture,” in Ruhumbika, Gabriel, ed., Towards Ujamaa: Twenty Years of TANU leadership (Dar es Salaam: East African Literature Bureau, 1974)Google Scholar. Brennan, James discusses this in, “Democratizing Cinema and Censorship in Tanzania, 1920–1980,” International Journal of African Historical Studies 38, 3 (2005): 481–511 Google Scholar.

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37 Ibid., 89.

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39 Two notable exceptions are the oldest of the writers, Hammie Rajab, born in 1940, and Kajubi Mukajanga, born in 1957.

40 Tripp, Aili, Changing the Rules: The Politics of Liberalization and the Informal Urban Economy in Tanzania (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), 38–44 Google Scholar.

41 Author's 2013 interviews: with Kajubi Mukajanga, Dar es Salaam, 8 June; Farid Hammie Rajab, Dar es Salaam, 10 June; Jumaa Mkabarah, Muheza, Tanzania, 17 June; and Jackson Kalindimya, Dar es Salaam, 11 June.

42 Books and Reading, 8.

43 Several writers described the process in interviews, including Jackson Kalindimya, Farid Hammie Rajab, and Kajubi Mukajanga.

44 Bgoya, Books and Reading, 10; Chachage, Tanzanian Publishing Industry, 59.

45 This is based on estimates from advertisements in the newspapers the Daily News and Wakati ni Huu in 1982, which advertise novellas selling for between 30 and 40 Tanzanian shillings. For comparison, tickets to see Urafiki Jazz Band cost 8–10 shillings, as did seeing a movie at a cinema. See also “Paying Dearly for Books,” Daily News, 3 Nov. 1981, which estimated the cost of imported books as ranging from 330 to 350 shillings.

46 In the mid-1970s through the mid-1980s, newspapers ranged in price from around 50 cents to 2 shillings, judging from the prices printed on the newspapers Uhuru, Mzalendo, the Daily News, and the Sunday News.

47 Interviews with M. M. Mulokozi, Dar es Salaam, 6 June 2013; and Kajubi Mukajanga, Dar es Salaam, 8 June 2013.

48 Interview with Jumaa Mkabarah.

49 For late colonial era state publishing endeavors, see Andrew Ivaska, “Negotiating ‘Culture’ in a Cosmopolitan Capital: Urban Style and the State in Colonial and Postcolonial Dar Es Salaam” (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2003), esp. ch. 3.

50 Interview with Jackson Kalindimya, Dar es Salaam, 11 June 2013.

51 Interview with Kajubi Mukajanga, Dar es Salaam, 8 June 2013.

52 As James R. Brennan argues, to be a youth was to not yet be a provider for others; “Youth,” 221–22.

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56 Interviews with Farid Hammie Rajab, Dar es Salaam, 10 June 2013; and Stanley Ganzel, Dar es Salaam, 5 June 2013. They also co-authored a book: Ganzel, Edi and Rajab, Hammie, Kipigo Cha Fashisti Idi Amin Dudu (Dar es Salaam: Tamasha Publications, 1979)Google Scholar.

57 Bgoya, Books and Reading, 39–41.

58 Mwanga's, Zainab publications include Kiu Ya Haki (Morogoro: Spark International Consultants, 1983)Google Scholar; Hiba Ya Wivu (Dar es Salaam: Ruvu Publishers, 1984)Google Scholar; and Uwivu Wa Mumeo (Dar es Salaam: Ruvu Publishers, 1988)Google Scholar. Mvungi's, Martha include Hana Hatia (Dar es Salaam: Tanzania Publishing House, 1975)Google Scholar; and Lwidiko (Dar es Salaam: Tanzania Publishing House, 1985)Google Scholar. Muhando's, Penina publications are too numerous to cite here, but one famous one is Hatia (Nairobi: East Africa Publishing House, 1972)Google Scholar.

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61 Simbamwene, John, Mwisho wa Mapenzi (Dar es Salaam: Longman, 1971)Google Scholar. Similarly, in Ganzel's, Edi Ndoto ya Mwendawazimu (Dar es Salaam: East African Literature Bureau, 1972)Google Scholar, the character Mishack, an urban migrant from Rufiji and a reformed ex-criminal, is convinced by his fiancée Hilda, a beautiful nightclub singer and also an urban migrant, that for them to get the money needed to marry he must help her steal diamonds from mines in Mwanza.

62 Letter-writing is central to the plot of several novellas, including Simbamwene's Mwisho Wa Mapenzi; Kuhenga's, Casmiri, Kovu La Pendo (Dar es Salaam: Longman, 1971)Google Scholar; Mkabarah's, Jumaa, Kizimbani (Dar es Salaam: Black Star Agencies, 1974)Google Scholar; and Rajab's, Hammie, Dunia Hadaa (Dar es Salaam: Busara Publications, 1982)Google Scholar.

63 For examples of novellas whose protagonists make a real point of this, see Anduru, Agoro, Kukosa Radhi (Dar es Salaam: Press and Publicity Center, 1983)Google Scholar; and Simbamwene, Mwisho wa Mapenzi.

64 Anduru, Agoro, Kukosa Radhi (Dar es Salaam: Press and Publicity Center, 1983)Google Scholar.

65 For example, the novellas of Elvis Erastablus Musiba, including Kufa na Kupona (Dar es Salaam: East African Literature Bureau, 1974)Google Scholar; Kikosi cha Kisasi (Dar es Salaam: Kilimanjaro Publishers, 1979)Google Scholar; and Kikomo (Dar es Salaam: Continental Publishers, 1980)Google Scholar. See also Mbelwa, H.C.M., Donda Ndugu (Dar es Salaam: Tanzania Publishing House, 1973)Google Scholar; and Mtobwa, Ben, Pesa Zako Zinanuka (Dar es Salaam: Heko Publishers, 1984)Google Scholar.

66 Musiba, Kufa na Kupona; Kikosi cha Kisasi; and Kikomo.

67 Mukajanga, Kajubi, Mpenzi (Dar es Salaam: Grand Arts Promotion, 1984)Google Scholar.

68 See, for example, M. Sikawa, “Is It Time Tanzania Banned these Western Films?” Daily News, 24 Jan. 1975, on the scandal of young lovers showing affection in public after seeing Western films. For a discussion of attempts of town elders to ban cinema in colonial Dar es Salaam, see Burton, Andrew, African Underclass: Urbanisation, Crime and Colonial Order in Dar es Salaam (Oxford: James Currey, 2005), 75 Google Scholar; and Brennan, James, “Democratizing Cinema; Laura Fair, “Drive-in Socialism: Debating Modernities and Development in Dar es Salaam Tanzania,” American Historical Review 118, 4 (2013): 1077–104Google Scholar.

69 Chachage, Tanzanian Publishing Industry, 50–56. See also Olden, Anthony, “For a poor nation a library service is vital”: Establishing a National Public Library Service in Tanzania in the 1960s,” Library Quarterly 75, 4 (2005): 421–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

70 Musiba, Kufa na Kupona; Kikosi cha Kisasi; Kikomo; and Njama (Dar es Salaam: Continental Publishers, 1981)Google Scholar.

71 Mkabarah, Kizimbani; Anduru, Agoro, The Fugitive (Dar es Salaam: Intercontinental Publishers, 1982)Google Scholar.

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73 For example, in Elvis Musiba's Kufa na Kupona, the bandit who attacks the hero Willy Gamba is described as looking like “Cowboy Cuchillo,” the bandit Cuchillo Sanchez from spaghetti westerns directed by Sergio Sollima in the mid- and late 1960s. Additionally, in Ndibalema's, Charles Nimeponzeka (Dar es Salaam: Longman, 1970)Google Scholar, the evil uncle who tries to kill his niece's lover is part of a gang of young men who wear tight clothes and cowboy hats. Later, many novels featured young protagonists who were skilled in martial arts, or fans of the martial arts. See, for example, Kassam, Joto la Fedha; Simbamwene, John, Dogodogo Wanitesa (Morogoro: Jomssi Publizaitons, 1982)Google Scholar. Less overtly, Mkufya's, W. protagonist in The Wicked Walk (Dar es Salaam: Tanzania Publishing House, 1977 Google Scholar) is a fan of Bruce Lee. Mukaganja, Kajubi went on to publish a biography of Bruce Lee in Kiswahili: Bruce Lee: Mflame wa Kung Fu (Dar es Salaam: Grand Arts Promotion, 1982)Google Scholar. For an exploration of the meaning of kung fu for Ujamaa-era Dar es Salaam youth, see Joseph, May, “Kung Fu Cinema and Frugality,” in Mirzoeff, Nicholas, ed., The Visual Culture Reader (London: Routledge, 2002), 433–50Google Scholar.

74 This is a theme in Tanzanian historiography, appearing throughout Iliffe's, John A Modern History of Tanganyika (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Brennan, James, “Youth, the TANU Youth League and Managed Vigilantism in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.” Africa 76, 2 (2006): 221–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ivaska Cultured States; and Burton, Andrew, “Urchins, Loafers and the Cult of the Cowboy: Urbanization and Delinquency in Dar es Salaam, 1916–61,” Journal of African History 41 (2001): 199–216 Google Scholar; and Burton, Andrew, “Raw Youth, School-Leavers and the Emergence of Structural Unemployment in Late-Colonial Urban Tanganyika,” Journal of African History 47 (2006): 363–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

75 Stren, Urban Inequality, 87.

76 Mkabarah, Kizimbani. This novella was not the first time Mkabarah had explored the tensions between young men and older men with “traditional” ways of thinking in a way sympathetic to the former. In his first book, a biography of the Tanzanian pop musician Salum Abdallah, Mkabarah emphasized Abdallah's refined cosmopolitanism, religiosity, and rejection of all forms of delinquency. It dramatizes Abdallah's struggles to gain autonomy from his strict Arab father, who tried to plan his marriage and prevent him from following his chosen career path, which Mkabarah seems to suggest is a sign of his father's backwardness. In these texts, Mkabarah models a kind of manhood rooted in the struggle to claim autonomy from older generations; Mwanamuziki wa Zamani: Salum Abdallah (Dar es Salaam: University of Dar es Salaam Press, 1966)Google Scholar.

77 This bodily contrast is emphasized in the novels of Mkufya, W. E., including The Wicked Walk (Dar es Salaam: Tanzania Publishing House, 1977)Google Scholar; and The Dilemma (Dar es Salaam: Press and Publicity Center, 1982)Google Scholar.

78 Mukajanga, Kajubi, Kitanda cha Mauti (Dar es Salaam: Grand Arts Promotion, 1982)Google Scholar. For the ultimate sugar daddy story, see Kassam's, Shuga Dedi (Dar es Salaam: International Publishers Agency, 1984)Google Scholar.

79 Ganzel, , Ndoto ya Mwendawazimu (Dar es Salaam: East African Literature Bureau, 1972)Google Scholar; Rajab, Ufunguo wa Bandia; Mukaganja, Kajubi, Tuanze Lini? (Dar es Salaam: Grand Arts Promotion, 1983; first published in 1975)Google Scholar.

80 Anduru, Fugitive.

81 Balisidya, Ndyanao, Shida (Nairobi: Foundation Books, 1975)Google Scholar.

82 This theme of suffering for the sake of love appears in many of Simbamwene's novels. For examples of a young male lover being tortured and physically abused for the sake of love, see Ndibalema, Nimeponzeka; Kajubi Mukaganja, Tuanze Lini?

83 For example, Mkabarah, Kizimbani; Simbamwene, Mwisho wa Mapenzi; Balisidya, Shida; Mbenna, , Sitaki (Dar es Salaam: East African Publishing House, 1976)Google Scholar; Hammie Rajab, Ufunguo wa Bandia; Anduru, Fugitive; Mkufya, Dilemma.

84 Several scholars have spoken of romantic love in African history as a way of claiming modernity. See, for example, Cole, Jenifer and Thomas, Lynn M., “Thinking through Love in Africa,” in Cole, Jenifer and Thomas, Lynn M., eds., Love in Africa (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008), 5 Google Scholar. Brian Larkin has argued that romantic love stories in Northern Nigeria, drawing on Bollywood film, offered youth a kind of “parallel modernity”: “Indian Films and Nigerian Lovers: Media and the Creation of Parallel Modernities,” Africa 67, 3 (1997): 406–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Laura Fair and Andreana Prichard have argued that virtuous romantic love was associated with the creation of national citizenship; see her “Making Love in the Indian Ocean: Hindi Films, Zanzibari Audiences and the Construction of Romance in the 1950s and 1960s,” in Cole, Jennifer and Thomas, Lynn, eds., Love in Africa (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Prichard, Andreana, “‘Let Us Swim in the Pool of Love’: Love Letters and Discourses of Community Composition in Twentieth-Century Tanzania,” Journal of African History 54, 1 (2013): 103–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

85 For a discussion of intergenerational tension between young men and elder men over practices such as polygamy, bridewealth, and so forth, and how caricatures of “sugar daddies” in the press played into this, see Ivaska, Cultured States, 166–205.

86 These debates raged in the newspapers of the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Public intellectuals and politicians debated whether polygyny should remain legal, whether the government should regulate bridewealth payments, whether youth could marry without their parents’ permission, whether unwed mothers should be allowed maternity leave from their jobs, and whether female students should be allowed to continue their studies after becoming pregnant. For a discussion of debates over marriage laws, see Ivaska, Cultured States, 166–205.

87 From an address by Euphrase Kezilahabi at an academic conference in Germany, which appears in “The Swahili Novel and the Common Man in East Africa,” in Schild, Ulla, ed., The East African Experience: Essays on English and Swahili Literature, 2nd Janheinz Jahn-Symposium (Mainz: Verlag, 1980), 78–79 Google Scholar.

88 Mbuguni, L. A. and Ruhumbika, Gabriel, “TANU and National Culture,” in Ruhumbika, Gabriel, ed., Towards Ujamaa: Twenty Years of TANU leadership (Dar es Salaam: East African Literature Bureau, 1974)Google Scholar; F.E.M.K., “Insinuations: Tanzanian Literature after the Arusha Declaration,” Tanzanian Affairs, no. 30 (1 May 1988): n.p.

89 Among the twelve writers and children of writers that I interviewed, only one retained copies of all of his earlier publications, and in fact several writers asked me to share my photocopied versions with them. I came across them in used bookstalls in Dar es Salaam, in neglected uncatalogued boxes in Tanzanian libraries, and scattered in libraries across the United States and Europe.

90 Tripp, Aili, Changing the Rules: The Politics of Liberalization and the Informal Urban Economy in Tanzania (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997)Google Scholar.

91 Publications in this genre included: Kajubi Mukajanga's Hamasa, and Wakati ni Huu; Ben Mtobwa's Heko; Nico ye Mbajo's Mcheshi, and Sani, which he published with Saidi Bawji; Hammie Rajab's Busara; and Kassim Mussa Kassam's Cheka.

92 Perhaps most famously, Hammie Rajab went on to be a filmmaker in Tanzania's nascent film industry, adapting some of his novellas as short video films, until his death in 2011. Kajubi Mukajanga became a magazine publisher and eventually the CEO of the Media Council of Tanzania. Famous Tanzanian political cartoonist Godfrey Mwampembwa, known as Gado, got his start, as a Dar es Salaam teenager, publishing his cartoons in Kajubi Mukajanga's Wakati ni Huu, before becoming one of East Africa's best-known syndicated political cartoonists. Jackson Kalindimya works as a journalist for the newspaper Nipashe.

93 See the list of Tanzanian serial publications in the appendix to Sturmer's, Martin The Media History of Tanzania (Peramiho: Ndanda Mission Press, 1998), 201–71Google Scholar.