Associate Professor Michelle Moyd explores the pivotal role of the Tanzania People’s Defence Force in southern Africa’s liberation movements in a new article for The Conversation, drawing on historian Charles G. Thomas’s new book and his research into post-colonial African military history.
“Unlike other writing on African armies – particularly the body of work on colonial armies – this one [Thomas’s book] does not centre rank-and-file troops. Instead, Thomas’s analysis is based on rich interviews with high-ranking officers who led and moulded the force in its first two decades. This has enabled him to offer a top-down view of the construction of the army.