The United Republic of Tanzania is a rare phenomenon in Africa, the result of a merger between the former British colony of Tanganyika and the island republic of Zanzibar. While there has been and still are tensions, this has held together, perhaps because the country has been ruled by a dominant party ever since independence. It enjoyed a special aura under its first president, Julius Nyerere, who spoke glowingly of an African socialism, which did not quite prosper as hoped, and a democracy, which is admittedly better than elsewhere but not quite what it might be. But the party is still there and Tanzania is doing as well as most and better than some. Still, while Tanzania is not as popular as before, it remains an important state and is worth knowing better. Given the shortage of literature on the country, it is fortunate that one can fall back on this, now second edition of the Historical Dictionary of Tanzania. It includes information, in the dictionary section, on life before the colonial powers arrived, what Germany and Britain did during their tenure, and what has happened since independence in 1961. This is provided in xxx concise entries. The chronology traces the history, pre-colonial, colonial, and independent, going year by year. And the introduction provides an overview. Certainly not to be missed is the amazingly large bibliography [thomas_p._ofcansky]_historical_dictionary_of_tanz_bookos-z1.org_

This subtle and powerful ethnography examines African healing and its relationship to medical science. Stacey A. Langwick investigates the practices of healers in Tanzania who confront the most intractable illnesses in the region, including AIDS and malaria. She reveals how healers generate new therapies and shape the bodies of their patients as they address devils and parasites, anti-witchcraft medicine, and child immunization. Transcending the dualisms between tradition and science, culture and nature, belief and knowledge, Langwick tells a new story about the materiality of healing and postcolonial politics. This important work bridges postcolonial theory, science, public health, and anthropology. [Stacey_A._Langwick]_Bodies__Politics__and_African_bookos-z1.org_

In this study of Hutu refugees from Burundi, driven into exile in Tanzania after their 1972 insurrection against the dominant Tutsi was brutally quashed, Liisa Malkki shows how experiences of dispossession and violence are remembered and turned into narratives, and how this process helps to construct identities such as "Hutu" and "Tutsi." Through extensive fieldwork in two refugee communities, Malkki finds that the refugees' current circumstances significantly influence these constructions. Those living in organized camps created an elaborate "mythico-history" of the Hutu people, which gave significance to exile, and envisioned a collective return to the homeland of Burundi. Other refugees, who had assimilated in a more urban setting, crafted identities in response to the practical circumstances of their day to day lives. Malkki reveals how such things as national identity, historical consciousness, and the social imagination of "enemies" get constructed in the process of everyday life. The book closes with an epilogue looking at the recent violence between Hutu and Tutsi in Rwanda and Burundi, and showing how the movement of large refugee populations across national borders has shaped patterns of violence in the region. [Liisa_Helena_Malkki]_Purity_and_exile_violence___bookos-z1.org_