Africa's Freedom Railway

AFRICA HistORY Monson TRANSPOrtatiON How a Chinese JamiE MONSON is Professor of History at Africa’s “An extremely nuanced and Carleton College. She is editor of Women as On a hot afternoon in the Development Project textured history of negotiated in- Food Producers in Developing Countries and Freedom terests that includes international The Maji Maji War: National History and Local early 1970s, a historic Changed Lives and Memory. She is a past president of the Tanzania A masterful encounter took place near stakeholders, local actors, and— Studies Assocation. the town of Chimala in Livelihoods in Tanzania Railway importantly—early Chinese poli- cies of development assistance.” the southern highlands of history of the Africa —James McCann, Boston University Tanzania. A team of Chinese railway workers and their construction “Blessedly economical and Tanzanian counterparts came unpretentious . no one else and impact of face-to-face with a rival is capable of writing about this team of American-led road region with such nuance.” rail power in workers advancing across ’ —James Giblin, University of Iowa the same rural landscape. s Africa The Americans were building The TAZARA (Tanzania Zambia Railway Author- Freedom ity) or Freedom Railway stretches from Dar es a paved highway from Dar Salaam on the Tanzanian coast to the copper es Salaam to Zambia, in belt region of Zambia. The railway, built during direct competition with the the height of the Cold War, was intended to redirect the mineral wealth of the interior away Chinese railway project. The from routes through South Africa and Rhodesia. path of the railway and the After being rebuffed by Western donors, newly path of the roadway came independent Tanzania and Zambia accepted help from communist China to construct what would together at this point, and become one of Africa’s most vital transportation a tense standoff reportedly corridors. Drawing on first-hand experiences of ensued as each side Railway engineers and laborers together with life his- threatened to prevent the tories of traders who used the railway, Jamie Monson tracks the railroad from its design and other from proceeding. construction to its daily use as a passenger train that provided an important means for moving —from the introduction people and goods from one village to another. This engaging history reveals how transnational interests contributed to environmental change, INDIANA population movements, the rise of local and regional economic enterprise, and one of the University Press most sweeping development transitions in post- Bloomington & Indianapolis colonial Africa. http://iupress.indiana.edu Front jacket photo by the author 1-800-842-6796 Back jacket photo by Steven Davis INDIANA Jamie Monson Africa’s Freedom Railway Africa’s Freedom Railway How a Chinese Development Project Changed Lives and Livelihoods in Tanzania Jamie Monson Indiana University Press Bloomington & Indianapolis Title page illustration: Woodcut by The paper used in this publication meets Liang Yiqiang and Don Peigao depicting the minimum requirements of American friendship between African villagers and National Standard for Information Sciences TAZARA railway workers, from a collection —Permanence of Paper for Printed Library of poetry. Rainbow of Friendship, 107. Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. Manufactured in the United States of This book is a publication of America Indiana University Press Library of Congress Cataloging-in- 601 North Morton Street Publication Data Bloomington, IN 47404-3797 USA Monson, Jamie. http://iupress.indiana.edu Africa’s freedom railway : how a Chinese development project changed lives and Telephone orders 800-842-6796 livelihoods in Tanzania / Jamie Monson. Fax orders 812-855-7931 p. cm. Orders by e-mail [email protected] Includes bibliographical references and index. © 2009 by Jamie Monson ISBN 978-0-253-35271-2 (cloth : alk. paper) All rights reserved 1. Railroads—Tanzania. 2. Economic assistance, Chinese—Tanzania. 3. No part of this book may be reproduced Economic development projects—Tanzania. or utilized in any form or by any means, 4. Africa—Foreign economic relations— electronic or mechanical, including China. 5. China—Foreign economic photocopying and recording, or by any relations—Africa. I. Title. information storage and retrieval system, HE3243.M66 2008 without permission in writing from the 385.0985—dc22 publisher. The Association of American University Presses’ Resolution on 2008031559 Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition. 1 2 3 4 5 14 13 12 11 10 09 For Steve and Jenny Contents Acknowledgments ix 1. Introduction 1 Part 1. Freedom Railway 2. Railway Visions 15 3. Building the People’s Railway 35 4. Living along the Railway 71 Part 2. Ordinary Train 5. The Ordinary Train 93 6. Landscape Visions 124 7. Conclusion 147 Appendix 1. Eight Principles Governing China’s Economic and Technical Aid to Other Countries 155 Appendix 2. Parcel Shipments to and from Selected Rail Stations, 1998–2000 157 Appendix 3. Land Cover Change, Kilombero Valley Study Area 161 Notes 165 Bibliography 183 Index 193 Acknowledgments It may not “take a village” to produce and publish many kinds of books. This one, however, could not have come into being without the assistance, collaboration, and support of many colleagues and friends from three continents. The project began through my relationship with my friend and colleague, James Giblin, and his wife Blandina. The Giblins, and the community of friends they welcome into their home in Segelea, have been a source of intellectual engagement and friendship for many years. It was due to them that I first met and interviewed Philemon Kaduma in Mbeya in 1998. My conversations with Mr. Kaduma launched this book project, and I am indebted to him for the knowledge and wisdom he has shared with me, and for the friendship I have been blessed to have with him and his family. Mr. Kaduma introduced me to others who made substantial contributions to this book in its early stages, in particular Raphael Chawala. During a subsequent field trip to Tanzania in 2000, Du Jian of the Chinese Railway Expert Team generously shared with me important background information about the project, in addition to stories about his own personal experiences. These conversations persuaded me that this was a project worth undertaking. In Tanzania I have been fortunate to work and collaborate with a community of scholars at the University of Dar es Salaam who have had a strong influence on my thinking about the history of TAZARA and Tanzanian history more generally. I am especially thankful to have had the opportunity to present my work at the university on more than one occasion, and appreciate the intellectual engagement I have had x Acknowledgments with faculty and students. I am especially grateful for the friendship and collegiality of Yusufu Lawi, Fred Kaijage, Isaria Kimambo, Eginald Mihanjo, and Rehema Nchimbi in the history department. Much of what I know about the practice of African history was learned during my dissertation research in 1990–91; both Seth Nyagava and Nestor Luanda taught me important lessons that have stayed with me. George Ambindwile has been an invaluable research assistant in the archives and around town during the pursuit of elusive research materials. Adrian Chamwela Mgulambwa made sure we got there safely. In the department of sociology Simeon Mesaki has been a longtime friend and shared his unpublished reports and docu- ments with me. I owe a very special thanks to my friend Mrs. Grace Mshigeni, who has supported and encouraged me in so many ways all these years. During the many years of fieldwork that we carried out in the TAZARA “passenger belt,” our research team made our base in Ifakara at the Ifakara Health Research and Development Center (IHRDC). This center became our home in Tanzania, and we were privileged to benefit from the research-friendly amenities and also from the opportunity to engage with other field researchers based there. I am grateful to Hassan Mshinda, Rose Nathan, David and Joanna Schellenberg, and Hajo and Adriana Tami, who were among the many scholars we interacted with. The staff also made a great difference in our lives during fieldwork, and Ve- ronica Mkopi was an especially important person to us not only at the center but also on our numerous field trips. Our field research team included three invaluable assistants. George Mwom- beta assisted with life history interviews; Onesmo Kwawira painstakingly collected parcel receipts data from the TAZARA stations; and Jesse Grossman piloted and completed the comparison of landscape cover change using satellite images. Each of these three individuals contributed a significant part of the primary evidence for this book. I would also like to thank the TAZARA employees who gave me guidance and assistance during the project. The TAZARA public relations managers at headquarters in Dar es Salaam that worked with me, Conrad Simuchile and Mwase Lundu, and also James Mwitangeti, were very helpful to me. Mr. Nalitolela gave me guidance and assistance at TAZARA headquarters on many occasions. Many individual stationmasters and other TAZARA personnel in Tanzania and in Zambia have also made this project possible. In China, I have been fortunate to have developed relationships of friendship and collegiality with scholars from the Institute for West Asian and African Studies (IWAAS) at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. This friendship began when Yao Guimei first invited me to give a talk on my TAZARA research at IWAAS in November 2003. Since that time I have appreciated the generosity and assistance Acknowledgments xi of my colleagues there, especially He Wenping, Liu Haifang, Yang Lihua, and Wei Cuiping. In China I have also been fortunate to have met and worked with Africanist colleagues at Peking University. Li Anshan was very helpful during our visit to China in 2007. Li Baoping has made important contributions to this book by assisting me with contacts and interviews in China, helping me to locate Chinese sources, and reading chapters of this manuscript.

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