In this volume, 16 historians explore the double-sided nature of African nationalism - specifically, its capacity to inspire expressions of unity and its tendency to narrow political debate.

Contents: Introduction by Gregory H. Maddox & James L. Giblin - I POLITICS & KNOWLEDGE On socially composed knowledge: reconstructing a Shambaa royal ritual by Steven Feierman - Kingalu Mwana Shaha & political leadership in nineteenth-century Eastern Tanzania by Edward A. Alpers - II POLITICS, CULTURE & DISSENT IN COLONIAL TANGANYIKA Colonial boundaries and African nationalism: the case of the Kagera Salient by Ralph A. Austen - Indirect rule, the politics of neo-traditionalism & the limits of invention in Tanzania by Thomas Spear - Narrating power in colonial Ugogo: Mazengo of Mvumi by Gregory H. Maddox - The tribal past & the politics of nationalism in Mahenge district 1940-60 by Jamie Monson - The landscapes of memory in twentieth- century Africa by E.S. Atieno Odhiambo - Some complexities of family & state in colonial Njombe by James L. Giblin - Local, regional & national: South in the 1950s by Marcia Wright - III THE NATION & ITS DISSIDENTS Breaking the chain at its weakest link: TANU & the colonial office by John Iliffe - Censoring the press in colonial Zanzibar: an account of the seditious case against Al-Falaq by Lawrence E.Y. Mbogoni - An imagined generation: Umma youth in nationalist Zanzibar by Thomas Burgess - The short history of political opposition & multi-party democracy in Tanganyika 1958-64 by James R. Brennan IV THE NATIO RECONSIDERED Engendering & gendering African nationalism: rethinking the case of Tanganyika (Tanzania) by Susan Geiger - Between the 'global' & 'local' families: the missing link in school history teaching in postcolonial Tanzania by Yusuf Q. Lawi - Jack-of-all-arts or Ustadhi? The poetics of cultural production in Tanzania by Kelly M. Askew