Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T15:09:53.866Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Communal Farming in Tanzania: A Comparison of Male and Female Participants

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Extract

Statistical generalizations about peasant behavior in rural Africa that fail to distinguish among kinds of peasants may mask important exceptions. Relationships that hold for the peasantry as a unit may not hold for major subgroups of peasants. For example, there may be significant behavioral differences between rich and poor or male and female peasants. Knowledge of sub-group deviation is needed to build meaningful theory and solve practical problems of rural development.

A few years ago I published an article in this journal titled “Peasant Participation in Communal Farming: the Tanzanian Experience” (1977) which derived a series of hypotheses about peasants and peasant behavior in communal agriculture from a survey of ujamaa villages and villagers. Although it reported differences between men and women in the degree of their participation, it made no further analysis of differences between these sub-groups. The present study seeks to overcome such a deficiency by: (1) examining in more detail the differences between men and women in the degree of their participation in communal production, and (2) determining whether there are significant differences between them in the relationship of their characteristics and attitudes to the degree of their participation. The findings will contribute to an assessment of the scope of applicability of the hypotheses and to an understanding of the factors accounting for differences in sub-group response to communal agriculture.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1982

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Brain, James. (1976) “Less Than Second-class: Women in Rural Settlement Schemes in Tanzania,” pp. 265–82 in Hafkin, Nancy and Bay, Edna (eds.) Women in Africa. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Bugengo, James. (1973) “Ujamaa in Mara Region,” in Proceedings of the Annual Universities of East Africa Social Science Conference, Vol. 1. University Dar es Salaam.Google Scholar
Fortmann, Louise. (1979) “Woman's Work in a Communal Setting: The Tanzanian Policy of Ujamaa.” A paper presented at the Conference on Women and Work in Africa, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, April 29-May 1.Google Scholar
Fortmann, Louise. (1981) “The Plight of the Invisible Farmer: The Effect of National Agricultural Policy on Women,” in Danber, Roslyn and Cain, Melinda L. (eds.), Women and Technological Change in Developing Countries. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Koda, Bertha. (1976) “The Woman Question in Social Emancipation,” Maji Maji 35 (July): 5461.Google Scholar
Lewin, Roger. (1969) “Matetereka,” Mbioni 5, 3: 1334.Google Scholar
Mapolu, Henry. (1973) “The Social and Economic Organization of Ujamaa Villages.” Master's thesis, Department of Sociology, University of Dar es Salaam.Google Scholar
Mbilinyi, Marjorie. (1970) “Traditional Attitudes Toward Women: A Major Constraint on Rural Development.” A paper presented at the Universities of East Africa Social Science Conference, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.Google Scholar
Mbilinyi, Marjorie. (1972a) “The ‘New Woman’ and Traditional Norms in Tanzania,” Journal of Modern African Studies 10, 1: 5772.Google Scholar
Mbilinyi, Marjorie. (1972b) “The State of Women in Tanzania,” Canadian Journal of African Studies 6, 2: 271–7.Google Scholar
McHenry, D. E. Jr. (1977) “Peasant Participation in Communal Farming: The Tanzanian Experience,” African Studies Review 20, 3: 4363.Google Scholar
Mesaki, Simeon. (1975) “Operation Pwani: Kisarawe District-Implementation Problems.” Master's thesis, Department of Sociology, University of Dar es Salaam.Google Scholar
Mustafa, Kemal. (1975) “The Development of Ujamaa in Musoma: A Case Study of Butiama Ujamaa Village.” Master's thesis, Department of Sociology, University of Dar es Salaam.Google Scholar
Nindi, B. C. (1975) “The Articulation of Ismani Social Economic Structure and Its Implication for Ujamaa Vijijini.” Master's thesis, Department of Sociology, University of Dar es Salaam.Google Scholar
Nyerere, J. K. (1967) “Socialism and Rural Development,” pp. 106–44 in Nyerere, J. K. Ujamaa, Essays on Socialism. Dar es Salaam: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Saibul, S. A. (1974) “Social Change Among the Pastoral Maasai in Tanzania in Response to the Ujamaa Vijijini Policy of Tanu Since the Arusha Declaration of 1967,” Master's thesis, Department of Political Science University of Dar es Salaam.Google Scholar
Storgaard, Birgit. (1975/1976) “Women in Ujamaa Villages,” Rural Africana 29 (Winter): 135–55.Google Scholar
Swantz, M. L. (1977) “Strain and Stress Among Peasant Women in Tanzania.” BRALUP Research Paper No. 49. Dar es Salaam: University of Dar es Salaam.Google Scholar