Abstract:
By the mid-1970s, Tanzania had the largest cooperative movement in Africa and the oldest in
East Africa. Despite such an achievement, the literature on Tanzania’s small-scale coffee and
cotton cultivation and marketing cooperatives has suffered from a dearth of substantive
historical accounts for decades. The available literature is fragmented along various academic
disciplines, mostly political science and sociology. In addition, there is no historical study
specifically dedicated to the cooperative movement since its inception in 1932. The neglect is
more critical, given the current renaissance in Africa and the increasing international interest
in the cooperative movement. This chapter seeks to fill this gap by utilizing primary sources
from the Co-operative College archive in Manchester and the Tanzania National Archive
(TNA) to examine and evaluate the policy and political aspects associated with the history of
cooperatives in Tanzania from 1932 to 1982. Specifically, it explores the interlocking forces
and policies that led to its growth and development. The development is also examined against
the changing political and ideological influences during the interwar, post-war and
independence periods.
