The TAZARA (Tanzania Zambia Railway Authority) or Freedom Railway stretches from Dar es Salaam on the Tanzanian coast to the Copperbelt region of Zambia. The railway, built during the height of the Cold War, was intended to redirect the mineral wealth of the interior away from routes through South Africa and Rhodesia. After being rebuffed by Western donors, newly independent Tanzania and Zambia accepted help from communist China to construct what would become one of Africa's most vital transportation corridors. Drawing on first-hand experiences of engineers and laborers together with life histories of traders who used the railway, Jamie Monson tracks the railroad from its design and construction to its daily use as a passenger train that provided an important means for moving people and goods from one village to another. This engaging history reveals how transnational interests contributed to environmental change, population movements, the rise of local and regional economic enterprise, and one of the most sweeping development transitions in post-colonial Africa.

孟潔梅（Jamie Monson）麥考萊斯特自2009年以來一直在麥考萊斯特大學教學。孟潔梅女士是一位曆史學傢, 一直關注坦贊鐵路這一中國援非的裏程碑項目。她的的研究興趣包括非洲社會、環境和農業曆史曆史以及非中關係。並且對坦贊鐵路的曆史很感興趣，潛心研究，多次實地考察，拜訪當地群眾，瞭解當時曆史情況，後集結成著。