Jessica Turner

My project is focused on economics in postcolonial Tanzania from the perspective of intellectual history. The University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) was one of the leading hubs for social scientific research and political debate in anglophone Africa from the late 1960s onwards. Though speaking to and examining the writings of a generation of Tanzanian economists and intellectuals active at UDSM and beyond, I will show how their work intersected with the discourse and political project of Ujamaa (loosely ‘African Socialism’). In particular, I will explore how these economists conceptualised and produced knowledge about Tanzania’s position within the world economy and sought to mitigate relationships of technological and financial dependency.