The Power of Pan-Africanism Tanzanian/African American Linkages, 1947–1997 Lessie Burnita Tate White Hair Press Parker, Colorado Copyright © 2015 by Lessie Burnita Tate All rights reserved. Celebration Edition For the truth is that there are now 36 different nationalities in free Africa, one for each of the 36 independent states—to say nothing of those still under colonial or alien domination. Each state is separate from the others: each is a sovereign entity. And this means that each state has a government which is responsible to the people of its own area—and to them only; it must work for their particular well-being or invite chaos within its territory. Can the vision of Pan-Africanism survive these realities? I do not believe the answer is easy. Indeed I believe that a real dilemma faces the Pan-Africanist. On the one hand is the fact that Pan- Africanism demands an African consciousness and an African loyalty; on the other hand is the fact that each Pan-Africanist must also concern himself with the freedom and development of one of the nations of Africa. — Julius Kambarage Nyerere, President, Republic of Tanzania, at the inauguration of the University of Zambia, 13 July 1966 FOREWORD While blacks in America fought the social residue of two hundred years of slavery and a hundred years of social and economic exclusion, blacks in Africa were fighting to end the era of foreign colonization that engulfed the continent following the 1884 Berlin Conference. No African representatives were present at this meeting of European powers that sought to establish guidelines for the claiming of African territory. The result was the so-called Scramble for Africa, during which Britain, France, Portugal, Germany, and Belgium participated in a race to divide the continent among themselves, and along the way, plundered its resources and deprived its native population of education, economic development, and the right to self-government. As Africa began its fight for self-rule under the aegis of a few European-educated leaders, the African diaspora in the United States began its own battle to achieve the equal opportunity promised in their country’s Constitution. Armed conflict on both sides of the Atlantic began to break the back of establishment reluctance to change, but it was diplomacy and Gandhian pacifism, led by the elite intelligentsia, that brought their freedom efforts to fruition. Lessie Tate’s account of how African Americans worked to aid their African sisters and brothers in their fight to throw off the yoke of European colonialism, while waging their own struggle for civil rights on the other side of the Atlantic, is unique. In the process of mining the archives of two continents and the memories of those iii iv / THE POWER OF PAN-AFRICANISM who participated in these parallel struggles, she has revealed a rich vein of previously silent witnesses to the events of that era. It was my exciting pleasure to have been chosen as final editor for Lessie Tate’s dissertation, The Power of Pan-Africanism: Tanzanian /African American Linkages, 1947–1997, successfully submitted as the final step towards earning her Ph.D. at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I have prepared this special bound edition of her dissertation text as my gift to her in celebration of her accom- plishment and as a reminder that the world is waiting for her book. Congratulations, Dr. Lessie Burnita Tate! Janice Stensrude Parker, Colorado 20 May 2015 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS During my long period of matriculation there have been many wonderful people who have knowingly and unknowingly enriched my pursuit of scholarship as well as my life. As a non-traditional student returning to the university in middle age, it was Professor Kairn Klieman’s African History classes and the opportunity to travel to Ghana in 1999 through her study-abroad program at the University of Houston that drew me to the critical study of Africa. Professor Klieman gave me the tools to distinguish between preconceived beliefs established in popular American black culture and the historical analysis of African history. Under the guidance of Professor Gregory Maddox, I began my exploration of Tanzania with my first study-abroad trip to the country in 2000. It was on this trip that I became acquainted with the University of Dar es Salaam and Professors Isaria N. Kimambo and Yusuf Q. Lawi in that university’s history department. The University of Dar es Salaam served as a base, and Professors Kimambo and Lawi were great support in my continued research on my return trips to Tanzania. Yet the most important aspect of this trip was spotting a dhow, with the name Marcus Garvey painted on its side, on a beach in Bagamoya. Sighting this symbol of early global Pan-Africanism sparked my continued interest in Tanzania that resulted in this dissertation. Attending The Center for African American Studies Summer Institute at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and the Research Program in 2001, I began to explore the connection between Tanzania’s practice of Pan-Africanism and the US black v vi / THE POWER OF PAN-AFRICANISM community under the mentorship of East African historian Professor Edward Alpers. Time spent at UCLA was a tremendous boost to my research. Professor Alpers was in Tanzania at the height of nation building and talked with me at great length about his experiences in the country, notably his time spent with Walter Rodney. The UCLA Graduate Library is where I began to trace the threads of Kiswahili political language in US black print. On a return trip to Tanzania in 2002, I met African American expatriates Edie Wilson, Elaine Wamba, and Pete and Charlotte O’Neal, among others still living in the country. It was also the period I began my research in the East Africana Archives, where I explored Tanzanian newspapers for evidence of African American activity in the country. I am extremely grateful for Tanzanian and African American expatriate friendships and their sharing of their memoirs with me. From this research I wrote my thesis, which completed my Master of Arts in history at Texas Southern Univer- sity. With me at the time I sighted the dhow Marcus Garvey was Professor Gregory Maddox. “You will write about his one day,” he said at the time. His words fed my resolve to continue my research. I began doctoral studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana- Champaign in 2004. During my years of coursework, I benefitted greatly from the wonderful seminars taught by Don Crummey, Fanon Wilkins, Maria Todorova, Charles Stewart, Jean Allman, and David Roediger. Moreover, I can never express the depth of my gratitude to my dissertation committee members, Jean Allman, Maria Todorova, David Roediger, James Brennan, Jamie Monson, and Gregory Maddox, who generously gave of their time in reading the numerous drafts of this dissertation. Words are insufficient to express how grateful I am to Jean Allman who directed my research and patiently waited for me to complete this task. Of course this research could not have been accomplished without the support and help from the staffs of the numerous archives I visited. I would especially like to thank Christopher ACKNOWLEDGMENTS / vii Harter of the Amistad Research Center at Tulane University, where I made many return visits and was the cause of their many trips to the warehouse for my exploration into Pan-African and human rights archival records. I owe gratitude, too, to all twenty-one of my classmates who entered historical doctoral studies at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign with me in 2004. It has been stated many times that the process of writing a dissertation is a lonely one. I have been fortunate to have friends and colleagues to assist me in this journey. I owe a great deal of gratitude to Alvia Wardlaw and Janice Stensrude who edited this work in its roughest form. Doretha Smith Henderson and Virginia Rowe Franklin, who began this journey with me, are remembered at this time. I am thankful for the hospitality of Jim and Blandina Giblin on my trips to Tanzania. In addition, I feel endlessly grateful for the support of Alyce Coffy and Janell and Akwesi Agyeman, as well as the faculty and staff of Texas Southern University’s History and Geography departments. Most of all, I would like to remember my parents, grandparents, and blended family, who did not live to see this accomplishment but whose shoulders I stood on nonetheless. I lovingly acknowledge my son Johnathan for keeping me grounded and sane. And to the many more close friends and colleagues not named who encouraged and supported me throughout this long process, I thank you. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction.. 1 Chapter One: The Tanzanian/African American Linkage: A Product of Black Hubs, 1947–1960. 35 Chapter Two: An African/Diaspora Linkage at the Dawn of African Independence . 92 Chapter Three: Tanzanian Nation Building in Africa and Abroad, 1967–1974. 165 Chapter Four: Lessons from the Combination of African Continental and Diaspora Pan- Africanism in Tanzania, 1974–Onward. 205 Bibliography. 259 ix INTRODUCTION Defining that space that constitutes the black world is critical for understanding how Africans and the African diaspora functioned within it and how information flowed outside it. Black consciousness carved space from within the Western metropolis for the creation of black hubs and networks. Black hubs were the gathering places, outside Africa, of racially conscious Africans and African descen- dants. The dispersal of large numbers of Africans to Brazil, colonial America, and the Caribbean, through the transatlantic slave trade, created the phenomena of black space.1 It was this institution of slavery that seeded the first black hubs that formed wherever black slavery had flourished.