Urchins, loafers and the cult of the cowboy: Urbanization and delinquency in Dar es Salaam, 1919-61

During the British colonial period a substantial young African population e merged in Dar es Salaam. Both colonial officials and African elders viewed this with dismay. They felt the resulting demoralisation of African youth p osed a threat to both (African) authority and (colonial) order. However, me asures aimed at addressing the ramifications of this phenomenon were mostly unsuccessful. Ironically, whilst British colonial policy aimed to keep Afr ican youth quiescent in rural, gerontocratic, tribal administrations, colon ialism in fact provided the context in which both rapid urbanization and ge nerational tension occurred. These continued to occur after independence; a nd it is argued that TANU politicians not only inherited the problems assoc iated with the administration of the Tanganyikan capital, but that their re sponses were influenced by European and 'elite' African attitudes of the co lonial era.