Kenyan scholar releases a book on Tanzania, ahead of Barack Obama visit

By Chris Wamalwa

USA: A Kenyan professor based in the US has published a book on the Culture and Customs of Tanzania ahead of the historic visit of Tanzania by US President Barack Obama.

Professor Kefa Otiso, one of the leading Kenyan scholars based in the US has been at the forefront in championing Diaspora issues especially Dual Citizenship and the full implementation of voting rights for the Diaspora.

The book, ‘Culture and Customs of Tanzania’ released at the end of January 2013 by Greenwood Press, is a reference volume covering the geography and history of Tanzania in addition to the country’s religious practices, literature, media, film, art, housing, cuisine, dress, marriage and family structures, gender roles, social customs and lifestyles, as well as music, dance and drama. 

The 250 pages hard cover book is now available in bookstores and Amazon.

 Tanzania is the largest and most diverse country in East Africa. It is larger than the combined area of its immediate neighbours; Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, and Rwanda. Aside from its more than 130 indigenous ethnic groups, it also has a sprinkling of people groups from other parts of the world.

Most of its people are practitioners of Christianity, Islam, and various African traditional religions. Yet despite this diversity, Tanzania is one of Africa’s most politically stable countries. It currently has one of the fastest growing economies in the world.

Speaking to The Standard, Prof Otiso said that even though he would have loved to write one on his native Kenya, he couldn’t because Neal Sobania had already written that volume in 2003.  Nevertheless Otiso is at the forefront of promoting Kenya’s cause in the US as current president of the Kenya Scholars and Studies Association whose annual conference is held every September.

Otiso, who also wrote the Culture and Customs of Uganda in 2006, is grateful for the chance to write the two books “because they have given me a chance to expand the frontiers of knowledge as well as my horizon”. 

Both books are designed to be accessible to wide audiences including students, tourists, journalists and other general readers.

He encourages Africans, especially academicians, to be at the forefront of writing their countries’ stories and histories as this would go a long way in correcting the continent’s poor image abroad.

“A lot of the books that currently exist on Africa are really on the experience of outsiders such as Europeans in Africa. These outsiders seldom do a good job of portraying the continent’s cultures and customs,” he said.

The release of Otiso’s publication is timely as it coincides with President Obama’s visit to Tanzania at the end of June 2013.

During the socialist era, Tanzania emphasised on the publication of Swahili books. When it switched to capitalism in the mid-1980s, it started to promote the use of English and has since had a big shortage of English books.

Besides the lack of enough English writers in the country, the shortage is also due to its young publishing industry.

Some of the Tanzanians who have seen the book wish it were available in the Tanzanian school system that seldom teaches the material covered in the book. Many Tanzanians are relatively uninformed of the geography and history of their own country.

Prof Otiso teaches urban, economic, population, and development geography at Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio, USA. He is also the director of the university’s global village.  Otiso can be reached at [email protected].