The Politics of Poverty

Felicitas Becker is Professor of African history at Ghent University, and has previously taught at School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, and the University of Cambridge. Her Ph.D. thesis from the University of Cambridge won the Ellen MacArthur Prize in economic history, and her first book, Becoming Muslim in Mainland Tanzania, 1890–2000 (2008), obtained a British Academy postdoctoral fellowship publication award. She is currently working on the interaction between notions of progress used in development discourse and those deployed by religious reformers in East Africa.

• Introduction; 1. The end of slavery, famine and food aid in Tunduru; 2. Changing configurations of poverty in the colonial Southeast and the myth of communalism; 3. The struggle to trade; 4. Independence and the rhetoric of feasibility; 5. Villagisation and the pursuit of market access; 6. The politics of development in the era of liberalisation; 7. Performing and pursuing development in Kineng'ene; Conclusion; Bibliography.

'The Politics of Poverty thus complements the existing literature on development and poverty in Tanzania, offering another historical account that is anthropologically informed, environmentally minded, and attuned to political-economic dynamics … Practitioners and scholars of development, particularly those with an interest in Tanzania and rural areas more generally, will find this book a useful addition to their libraries.' Jessica Pouchet, International Journal of African Historical Studies