I began my next research project in the Summer of 1999 in the city of Arusha, in Northeast Tanzania.  While beginning my work there, I was struck by the HUGE number of barbershops that sprung up all over town.  I got to know a bunch of barbers, almost all of them young men who had grown up in town.  They were all extremely familiar with African-American hip hop, and had decked out their shops with a pastiche of images cut out from Ebony and Vibe.  Most strikingly the shops were painted with huge murals that featured iconic images of rappers, basketball players, and film stars.    At the same time, these young men talked about local politics, and the struggles and strife of trying to make a living in a country that was undergoing unprecedented political and economic change.  The results of this research were published in a volume I edited, Producing African Futures: Ritual and Reproduction in a Neoliberal Age and the book I wrote, Street Dreams and Hip Hop Barbershops: Global Fantasy in Urban Tanzania.