Andrew Burton

Andrew Ross Burton

Helene Charton-Bigot

Contemporary Africa is demographically characterized above all else by its youthfulness. In East Africa the median age of the population is now a striking 17.5 years, and more than 65 percent of the population is age 24 or under. This situation has attracted growing scholarly attention, resulting in an important and rapidly expanding literature on the position of youth in African societies. While the scholarship examining the contemporary role of youth in African societies is rich and growing, the historical dimension has been largely neglected in the literature thus far. Generations Past seeks to address this gap through a wide-ranging selection of essays that covers an array of youth-related themes in historical perspective. Thirteen chapters explore the historical dimensions of youth in nineteenth-, twentieth-, and twenty-first–century Ugandan, Tanzanian, and Kenyan societies. Key themes running through the book include the analytical utility of youth as a social category; intergenerational relations and the passage of time; youth as a social and political problem; sex and gender roles among East African youth; and youth as historical agents of change. The strong list of contributors includes prominent scholars of the region, and the collection encompasses a good geographical spread of all three East African countries.

Youth in East African History

Generations Past

Examines how the colonial state dealt with rapid urbanisation in the context of the state's views on social order and disorder.

African Underclass

James Brennan

James R. Brennan

Yusufu Qwaray Lawi

British Institute in Eastern Africa

From its modest beginnings in the mid-19th century, Dar es Salaam has grown to become one of sub-Saharan Africa's most important urban centres. A major political, economic and cultural hub, the city stood at the cutting edge of trends that transformed twentieth-century East Africa. Dar es Salaam has recently attracted the attention of a diverse, multi-disciplinary, range of scholars, making it currently one of the continent's most studied urban centres. This collection from eleven scholars from Africa, Europe, North America and Japan, draws on some of the best of this scholarship and offers a comprehensive, and accessible, survey of the city's development. The perspectives include history, musicology, ethnomusicology, culture including popular culture, land and urban economics. The opening chapter offers a comprehensive overview of the history of the city. Subsequent chapters examine Dar es Salaam's twentieth century experience through the prism of social change and the administrative repercussions of rapid urbanization; and through popular culture and shifting social relations. The book will be of interest not only to the specialist in urban studies but also to the general reader with an interest in Dar es Salaam's environmental, social and cultural history. James Brennan is a Lecturer in History at the School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS), University of London. His research interests include nationalism and urbanization in Tanzania, and he is currently researching the historical role of radio and other mass media in East Africa's political culture. Andrew Burton is an Honorary Research Fellow of the British Institute in Eastern Africa, based in Addis Ababa. He has published widely on East African urban culture; and his current interests are the history of youth, urbanization and delinquency in Eastern Africa. Yusuf Lawi is the former Head of the Department of History at the University of Dar es Salaam; and is currently Senior Lecturer in History and Deputy Director of the University's Centre for Continuing Education. He specializes in environmental and social history.

Histories from an Emerging African Metropolis

Dar es Salaam. Histories from an Emerging African Metropolis

Andrew Burton

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