Do you still find yourself referring to Zaire or Czechoslovakia, or wondering whether it should be Moldavia or Moldova, Burma or Myanmar? Dozens of countries, cities and counties have changed their identity over the years. Some of the names we remember from our schooldays or from news headlines just a few years ago are now gone. For example, whatever happened to Tanganyika? This new book by Harry Campbell is a fascinating trawl through the place names that history left behind: the stories about where they came from, what happened to them and what they were replaced by. The stories behind the place names include: Biafra, British Heligoland, Ceylon, Flintshire, Friendly Isles, Islands of Samson and the Ducks, Leningrad, Little Britain, Macedonia, Muscat, Pleasant Island, Stalingrad, Tanganyika, West Britain, Yugoslavia and Zaire. From the major political movements (the Leningrads and Stalingrads of the Socialist Soviet Republic) to enticing destinations (Pleasant Islands, the Friendly Isles), 'Whatever Happened to Tanganyika?' reveals how the atlas of yesteryear became the maps of today.

Life in Tanganyika in the 1950s and a look at race relations between whites and black Africans and others in this East African country are some of the subjects covered in the book. It's full of human interest stories, including the author's. Born and brought up in Tanganyika, the author writes from personal experience. He also got the chance to ask many ex-Tanganyikans a number of questions about life in Tanganyika in the fifties. Many of them were born and brought up in Tanganyika during the same period the author was. And many others went to Tanganyika as children but grew up there. The ex-Tanganyikans he contacted lived in different parts of the world including Tahiti, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Italy, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, the United States, the Middle East, and Russia among others. And they all had interesting stories to tell about life in Tanganyika in the fifties. The perspectives they provided, and the memories they shared with the author about their lives in Tanganyika, are some of the most interesting aspects of this book which focuses on one of the most important periods in the history of Africa. The book is a primary source of information on how life was then in Tanganyika during one of the most important decades in the history of the country just before independence.

When war broke out in Europe in 1914, the fighting quickly extended to the colonial possessions of the European powers. In 1916 British forces operating from South Africa set out to conquer German East Africa (present-day Tanzania, Burundi, and Rwanda). They were assisted by Belgian and Congolese troops operating from the Belgian Congo. The allies never subdued the German army led by Colonel (later General) Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck, but they captured the German rail line and occupied much of the territory of German East Africa. At the conclusion of the war, most of the German colony was transferred to British control under a mandate from the League of Nations. This book by a young British author describes the territory in 1920, the year of its transfer to British control. The author, Ferdinand Stephen Joelson (1893-1979), became a prominent writer on African affairs and the founder and editor of the weekly newspaper East Africa and Rhodesia. British control of Tanganyika lasted until 1961, when the territory became independent. In 1964 it merged with Zanzibar to become the United Republic of Tanzania.