TANZANIA'S NEW POLITICAL REGIONALISM AND INTRODUCTORY GEOGRAPHY'S PORTRAYAL OF SOUTHERN AFRICA

Abstract

ABSTRACT Regionalism in Tanzania's recent transition to multi-party politics is examined as a means of interrogating themes from political geography as they appear in introductory geography textbooks from North America. The textbooks are used as examples of broader popular perceptions and representations of Southern Africa in North America generally. Although Tanzania would appear from textbooks to have a high potential for divisive regionalism, the evidence from Tanzania itself instead suggests that geography textbooks, like widespread Western media accounts of Southern African politics, can be misleading as sources for interpretive tools about African affairs. Given what these textbooks suggest about Tanzania and Southern Africa, it is apparent that basic ideas conveyed to introductory students in North America, as a subset of the Western public at large, about African political geography require reconsideration, especially given the dramatic decade of transition since 1990.