Women in Nationalist Struggle: Tanu Activists in Dar es Salaam

Abstract

The Union has not forgotten women behind in its task of arousing national consciousness in the people. It now has 5,000 women members, the majority of whom enrolled during the past four months. Under the inspiration of Bibi Titi Mohamed, the women have organised a Women's Section of the Union with their own leaders. This Bibi Titi Mohamed is a very dynamic woman and is inspiring a revolution [in] the role of women in African society. Though only semi-literate, she is a dynamic and convincing speaker . . . she has already made extensive tours of the Eastern Province and is likely to lead all the women of Tanganyika in a revolution that is without precedent. The present and future [mothers] of Tanganyika have refused to be left behind and are flowing with the current alongside of their men-folk. The of the emancipation of women at a later date has, in this way, been disposed of .... We therefore look forward with confidence to a fully fledged women's organisation in the near future.1 Thus did the young Oscar Kambona capture the euphoria of an early moment in the popular mobilizing efforts of the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU). His heady enthusiasm for women's responsiveness, and his optimistic prediction that the process of nationalist mobilization would solve the problem of women's emancipation were not surprising. Nor was it surprising that he should be writing in such detail along these lines to the Fabian Society,