A history of history teaching in post-colonial Tanzania,1961-1986.

This study is an inquiry into the historical conditions of existence of history as an academic subject in post-colonial Tanzania. It attempts to establish the extent to which the subject has been enjoying social and political acceptability in Tanzania; as well as describe and explain the historical conditions leading to the same. In particular, the study briefly specifies the historical context in which the formalization of history teaching took place and examines in some details objective and subjective conditions under which the subject has been existing in Tanzania. The study generally concludes that history has been existing as a low status subject in Tanzania during most of the period under examination. This has been especially evident in; firstly the profoundly negative attitudes towards the subject, which have been existing among government bureaucrats, teachers, students and parents; and secondly its being discriminated in resource allocation. In explaining this situation it is argued that throughout history the status of this subject has been a function of class struggle and class rule. While its rise to prominence in the capitalist west was tied up to the rise of bourgeois hegemony, its continuing decline is basically due, to the influence of positivism. This is a philosophical expression of a defensive bourgeois ideology, which emerged as a result of the intensification of working class struggles at home (in the metropoles) and resistances against colonial control abroad. Under the influence of positivism history lost its importance as historical knowledge came to be considered as irrelevant to the immediate and future development tasks. Accordingly, the crumbling of the status of history in Tanzania is explained as resulting from the impact of the related developmentalist ideology. This is a particular form of expression of the still dominant bourgeois ideology, whose negative influence on peoples' attitudes towards history has led to the discrimination of the subject in terms of resource allocation, including human resources. Finally, it is emphasized that only class struggles leading to the transformation or disintegration of developmentalism can change the present status of history