Coercion and Dissent: Sleeping Sickness ‘Concentrations’ and Colonial Authority in Tanganyika

Abstract

This article examines the means by which perceived threats of sleeping sickness epidemics were used to justify extensive population resettlement through the formation of ‘concentrations’ in Ulanga District, Tanganyika, between 1939 and 1945. Underlying this specious spatial reordering of communities were ulterior motives that interpreted and pushed broader colonial development agendas of social engineering.
The prominent role of leading colonial officers, notably A. T. Culwick, is emphasised and reexamined,
especially in relationship to paternalism and the coercive aspects of closer settlement. This article explores the nature of legitimised coercion, contested meanings of the League of Nations mandate, and tensions within the administration. Local resistance to concentration challenged colonial hegemony and the self-fashioned form of benign autocracy constructed by officials like Culwick, who relied on a projection of prestige for political authority in his district and among his peers. Concentration was therefore a contested and contingent process with dissent evidenced both against and within government.

Keywords: Tanzania; East Africa; settlement histories; colonial policy; development; colonial administration; accommodation

Jackson, JM 2022, ‘Coercion and Dissent: Sleeping Sickness ‘Concentrations’ and the Politics of Colonial Authority in Ulanga, Tanganyika‘, The Journal of African History, pp. 1-18 Full text, doi:10.1017/S0021853722000202.

More CRC News

Cover Image for a website post of a blog entry

Envisioning African Futures: Blog Post by Detlef Müller-Mahn and Eric Kioko

Against the backdrop of recent visits by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Chancellor Olaf Scholz and several German ministers to Africa, CRC-TRR Future Rural Africa researchers Detlef ...
Read More »
Dr. Richard Kiaka and his research assistants

Future Rural Africa Researchers Awarded Cologne International Forum Innovative Tandem Project Grant

The University of Cologne’s International Forum is awarding five project grants (€ 15,000 each) annually for project-related innovative tandem collaborations between University of Cologne-based academics ...
Read More »
Cover Image for a Lecture given by David Anderson at the University of Nairobi

Video Lecture: Kiotalel’s Kin – Identity, Autochthony and the Occult in Kenya’s Western Highlands

By Prof. David Anderson (CRC Project A02 Past Futures) In this presentation given at the University in Nairobi in late 2023, David Anderson focuses on ...
Read More »
Cover for a talk between David Anderson and Laleh Khalili

Video: Collective Punishment as Colonial Policing – A Conversation between David Anderson and Laleh Khalili

In this conversation, Prof. Laleh Khalili (Exeter; author of Time in the Shadows) and Prof. David Anderson (Future Rural Africa Project A02 Past Futures) discuss ...
Read More »
Kilombero Valley in Tanzania

Francis Ching’ota and Jonathan Jackson on Broadening Participation in Research Through Building Sustainable Relationships and Disseminating Knowledge

In their latest publication titled “Maono ya Bonde la Kilombero, Tanzania: Historia za Maendeleo Yake”, Francis Ching’ota, an Assistant Lecturer from the National Institute of ...
Read More »
Scroll to Top