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SUMMARY:Language and Nationalism in Tanzania - Dr Emma Hunter\, Faculty of
  History\, University of Cambridge
DTSTART:20100216T160000Z
DTEND:20100216T180000Z
UID:TALK23079@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Susannah Lacon
DESCRIPTION:Language policy lies at the heart of 'Tanzanian exceptionalism
 '. Promotion of a shared national language\, Swahili\, by the nationalist 
 party TANU during the independence struggle is celebrated as a first step 
 in creating a national political culture\, permanently distinguishing Tanz
 ania's politics from those of its neighbours. In education\, the choice of
  post-colonial leaders to privilege Swahili as the medium of instruction a
 t primary level and in adult education was similarly distinctive. The grow
 ing dominance of Swahili in the public sphere over the course of the post-
 independence decades thus serves to contribute to a nationalist historiogr
 aphy which stresses the growing unity of a Tanzanian nation under the lead
 ership of Julius Nyerere.\n \nThis seminar will use debates from the 1950s
  and 1960s as a means of interrogating this narrative. Taking as a startin
 g point a debate conducted in the pages of the newspaper Ngurumo in 1965\,
  I will suggest that language debates functioned as a crucial site in whic
 h the place of the nation within global history and contemporary global ne
 tworks was contested. Exploring the controversies around the Swahili langu
 age and perceptions of its past\, its present and its future offers insigh
 ts into continuing arguments over Swahili's place in the Tanzanian educati
 on system.\n
LOCATION: Faculty of Education\, 184 Hills Road\, Cambridge\, CB2 8PQ in r
 oom GS4
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