Paper short abstract:

This paper uses the career of the Tanzanian politician Oscar Kambona to demonstrate how international clientelistic political networks created alternative modes and narratives of nationalism; in this case, by activating a Pan-Africanist network to challenge Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere.

Paper long abstract:

This paper uses the career of the Tanzanian politician Oscar Kambona to demonstrate how international clientelistic political networks created alternative modes and narratives of nationalism; in this case, by activating a Pan-Africanist network to challenge the power and legitimacy of Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere. After having constructed a robust cosmopolitan political network during his years as a student in London (1956-59), Oscar Kambona parlayed these connections to build up an international constituency among elite Pan-Africanists across the continent, which he activated to challenge Julius Nyerere after they fell out in 1967. In exile, Kambona re-assembled a revealing (if ultimately fruitless) network of elites, many also in exile, from his new home in London, in an attempt to return to power in Tanzania based on his retelling of the story of Tanzanian nationalism and Pan-Africanism.