A New History of Tanzania

Tanzania, the land and the people have been
subject of a great deal of historical research, but there remains no
readily accessible and concise history of the country. The aim of this
volume is to fill that void. A New History of Tanzania takes
its name from a lecture series introduced at the University of Dar es
Salaam by Professor Isaria Kimambo in 2002. Prior to that, a book
titled, A History of Tanzania, had been published in 1969 by
East African Publishing House in Nairobi for the Tanzania Historical
Association. That book is currently out of print and this is not a
reprint. In this book, Prof. Kimambo has been joined by two other
colleagues; Prof. Gregory H. Maddox of Texas Southern University,
Houston (USA) and Salvatory S. Nyanto, a Tanzanian, Lecturer at the
University of Dar es Salaam, and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of
Iowa (USA); together they have produced an outline history of Tanzania
that covers all important aspects from antiquity to the present that is
different from and richer than its predecessor. Sources from the fields
of archaeology, anthropology, biology, genetics and oral tradition have
been used to produce this excellent book.

A New History of Tanzania
is a timely contribution to academic requirements for teaching and
learning Tanzania’s history. It is also a possible exemplar to the
writing of other countries’ histories, departing as it does, from the
traditional historiography that is influenced by colonial and
postcolonial apologists of nefarious external influences on Africa’s
history. It will also interest other Tanzanians and visitors to Tanzania
who are interested in understanding the country from when it was a
territory with more than one hundred and twenty ethnic groups, to a
nation with an unmistakable identity as it marches forward.