Tanzania and the Cold War in Southern Africa

Abstract

During the 1970s as Southern Africa became deeply embroiled in the Cold War, the government of Julius Nyerere tried to secure the independence and security of Tanzania by fighting racialism and colonialism in the region. This paper analyses the Tanzanian government’s efforts during the second half of the 1970s to reshape the political status quo in Southern Africa and, in particular, to promote the decolonization of Rhodesia. While Nyerere emerged as a central actor in Southern African politics, the implementation of Ujamaa encountered growing difficulties. The official rhetoric of self-reliance notwithstanding, Tanzania received significant amounts of foreign aid from the Western countries, partly due to Nyerere’s cooperation in the resolution of the armed conflicts in Southern Africa. The contradiction between the central role of Tanzania in regional affairs and the deepening economic crisis in the country was finally exposed by the war against Uganda in 1978/79. This paper will analyze the costs of Tanzania’s commitment to regional decolonization. While the UK and US provided their support to Tanzania during the war to secure the cooperation of Nyerere in resolving the conflict in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe independence in 1980 would see Tanzania relegated to a marginal political position in Southern Africa.