Sascha Klocke
Researcher, Lund University
Research interests: Inequality and colonial legacies in Tanzania
My research focus lies on Eastern Africa, especially Tanzania. I address long-term trends in inequality and living standards, with a special focus on colonial-era incomes and wages, agricultural transformation, and rural development. I also investigate questions of colonial legacies from a perspective of colonial and post-colonial constraints to development policy and economic development.
Country Cases
Tanzania today has one of the lowest levels of income inequality in sub-Saharan Africa, and its post-colonial history shows a level of political stability rarely seen on the continent. How this was achieved it not so clear, however. Despite being one of the most-studied countries in contemporary African studies, Tanzania’s (economic) history has received comparatively little attention. In this study, we focus on the long-term trend in income inequality from the colonial era to the present. We take advantage of Tanzania’s historical peculiarities such as its regional diversity and the presence of large numbers of immigrants from the Indian sub-continent and we investigate topics such as racial discrimination in the colonial economy, rural living standards, and the development of peasant agriculture.