Tanzania's operation FIJIJI and local ecological consciousness: The case of Eastern Iraqwland, 1974-1976

Journal of African History

Volumn 48, Issue 1, 2007, Pages 69-93

  Lawi, Yusufu Qwaray ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF DAR ES SALAAM   (Tanzania)

Author keywords

Development; Environment; Land tenure; Political ecology; Socialism; Tanzania

Indexed keywords

ECOLOGY; LAND TENURE; MODERNIZATION; SOCIALISM; VILLAGE;

AFRICA; EAST AFRICA; SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA; TANZANIA;

EID: 34250307183     PISSN: 00218537     EISSN: 14695138     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0021853707002526     Document Type: Article

References (130)

1. Prior to November 1973 there had been efforts at voluntary resettlement of people in collective villages (1961-3), progressive farmers' settlement schemes (1963-5), and Ujamaa Villages (1968-73).
2. However, coercion was not unknown even in these earlier attempts. See, for instance, Louis Fortmann, Peasants, Officials and Participation in Rural Tanzania (Ithaca, 1980), viii-xi.
3. Some of this work includes: Dean E. McHenry, Jr., Tanzania Ujamaa Villages: The Implementation of Rural Development Strategy (Berkeley, 1979)
4. James Scott, Seeing Like a State: Why Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (New Haven, 1998)
5. Juma Mwapachu, 'Operation planned villages in rural Tanzania: A revolutionary strategy for development', in Andrew Coulson (ed.), African Socialism in Practice: The Tanzania Experience (Nottingham, 1979)
6. and Esbern Friis-Hansen, Changes in Land Tenure and Use Since Villagization and their Impact on Peasant Agricultural Production in Tanzania: The Case of the Southern Highlands (Copenhagen Centre for Development Research, Research paper, No. 11) (Copenhagen, 1987).
7. Michelle Wagner, 'Environment, community and history: "Nature in the mind"', in Gregory Maddox et al., Custodians of the Land: Ecology and Culture in the History of Tanzania (London, 1996), 175-99.
8. The oral evidence used in this article was mostly collected during extended field research conducted during 1997/8. All interviewees were older people selected on the basis of their demonstrated knowledge of culture and history in eastern Iraqwland. All of them experienced Operation Vijiji and could articulate its social and ecological implications.
9. This is an upland plateau area (altitude 6,500-7,500 ft), overlooking the section of the great East African Rift Valley located south of Lake Manyara. Its largely open terrain of low hills punctuated by numerous but narrow and wet valleys is surrounded by an almost continuous rim of higher land and partly covered by montane forests. The Iraqw people, believed to have lived in this area since the beginning of the eighteenth century, and now numerically dominant in four administrative districts in north central Tanzania, are a southern Cushitic-speaking group.
10. John Illife, A Modern History of Tanganyika (Cambridge, 1979), 436-64
11. Andrew Coulson, Tanzania: A Political Economy (Oxford, 1982), 50-9.
12. See, for instance, Alemayehu Lirenso, 'Villagization: Policy and practice', in Siegfried Pausewang et al. (eds.), Ethiopia: Rural Development Options (London, 1990)
13. Scott, Seeing Like a State, 247-52
14. Otto Roesch, 'Peasants and collective agriculture in Mozambique', in Jonathan Barker (ed.), The Politics of Agriculture in Tropical Africa (Beverly Hills, 1984), 291-316
15. and James McCann, People of the Plow: An Agricultural History of Ethiopia, 1800-1990 (Madison, 1995), 253-5.
16. According to Fortmann, Peasants, Officials and Participation, viii, these collectives first started in the southern region of Ruvuma. They then expanded to about 1,000 voluntary schemes spread around the country.
17. The first postcolonial development plan, a three-year programme (1961-4), mainly consisted of recommendations by European experts and the World Bank, and comprised of a 'shopping list of projects' largely dependent on external funding. See Coulson, Tanzania, A Political Economy, 121.
18. Ujamaa is a Swahili word deriving from the stem -jamaa, meaning family members or close relatives, and the prefix U-, which converts the stem into a noun that roughly translates as 'relatedness' or 'family-hood'. For a formal articulation of this concept and its linkage to the precolonial and colonial history of Africa, see, for instance, J. K. Nyerere, 'Ujamaa, the basis of African socialism', in Nyerere, Freedom and Unity (Oxford, 1966), 162-71.
19. See, for instance, J. K. Nyerere's article, 'Rural socialism', published as part of Ujamaa, Essays in Socialism (Dar es Salaam, 1968), 106-44.
20. Africa Digest, cited by James L. Brain, 'Less than second class', in Nancy J. Hafkin and Edna G. Bay (eds.), Women in Africa: Studies in Social and Economic Change (Stanford, 1976), 281. Note that, according to a 1978 census, Tanzania Mainland had 17,048,329 people.
21. Daily News (Tanzania), 23 Aug. 1974.
22. Helge Kjekshus, Ecology Control and Economic Development in East African History: The Case of Tanganyika (Berkeley, 1977), 168-76.
23. Fortmann, Peasants, Officials and Participation, 35-6
24. John Grimond, 'Two routes to Eldorado', The Economist (11 Mar. 1978), 8.
25. Scott, Seeing Like a State, 2.
26. Ibid. 9-84.
27. Coulson, Tanzania: A Political Economy, 257
28. Scott, Seeing Like a State, 237-47.
29. Fortmann, Peasants, Officials and Participation, 94-101.
30. These are Mbulu, Hanang, Babati and Karatu.
31. Gabriel Tlemai, Muray, 3 Feb. 1998
32. Gwandu/Awaki, Kwermuusl, 5 Feb. 1998.
33. Swalehe Mtagwa, 6 Mar. 1998. Note that in colonial Mbulu the authority of ritual leaders, who came from the Manda do Bayo clan, was not interfered with even by the chieftainship introduced by the British.
34. Gabriel Tlemai, Muray, 3 Feb. 1998. The boys referred to here were teams of militias brought from town or other villages. These were young people who had attended a three-month paramilitary training course to become part of a national reserve army. Local government officials often used them as police personnel to carry out all kinds of coercive operations. These included arrests of suspected criminals, tracking tax evaders and, now, manning the compulsory resettlement campaigns. Although young men were generally preferred for these kinds of assignments, the villagization campaigns in eastern Iraqwland utilized a few girls as well. According to Gabriel Tlemai (Muray, 4 Feb. 1998), one of the girls involved was just as cruel as a man could be. All the translations from Iraqw were carried out by the author using the free, rather than verbatim, style.
35. Fortmann, Peasants, Officials and Participation, 47.
36. Leander Schneider, 'Freedom and unfreedom in rural development: Julius Nyerere, ujamaa vijijini and villagization', Canadian Journal of African Studies, 38 (2004), 344-92.
37. Gabriel Tlemai Muray, 3 Feb. 1998.
38. Shauri Akona/ay, Muray, 30 Jan. 1998
39. Martha Yaame, Kwermuusl, 4 Feb. 1998
40. Gabriel Tlemai, Muray, 3 Feb. 1998.
41. Shauri Akona/ay, Muray, 30 Jan. 1998.
42. Brain, 'Less than second class', 272-6.
43. Martha Yaame, Kwermuusl, 4 Feb. 1998
44. Maria Oswaldi, Kwermuusl, 28 Feb. 1998.
45. Maria Oswaldi, Kwermuusl, 28 Feb. 1998
46. Gabriel Tlemai, Muray, 3 Feb. 1998
47. Martha Yaame, Kwermuusl, 4 Feb. 1998.
48. Ibid.
49. Gwandu/Awaki, Kwermuusl, 30 Dec. 1997
50. Awaki Ami, Muray, 13 Apr. 1998.
51. Gwandu/Awaki, Kwermuusl, 9 Feb. 1998.
52. Shauri Akona/ay, Muray, 30 Jan. 1998.
53. See, for instance, Simeon Mesaki, 'A history of traditional healing in Tanzania', in Yusufu Lawi and Bertram Mapunda (eds.), History of Diseases and Healing in Africa: Proceedings of the Workshop Held at the University of Dar es Salaam (Dar es Salaam, 2003), 66-70.
54. Shauri Akona/ay, Muray, 30 Jan. 1998.
55. For instance in Dabil, a sublocation in the neighbouring district of Babati, a ward secretary was speared by an angry villager during the relocation campaigns, but survived.
56. Gwandu/Awaki, Kwermuusl, 30 Oct. 1997.
57. John Iliffe, Tanganyika Under German Rule, 1905-1912 (Cambridge, 1969), 162-3.
58. See, for instance, Astrid Blystad, 'Precarious procreation: Datoga at the late 20th century' (Ph.D. thesis, University of Bergen, 2000), 59-61.
59. See, for instance, James C. Scott, Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Resistance (New Haven, 1987).
60. Friis-Hansen, 'Changes in land tenure and use'
61. Idris S. Kikula, The Tanzania Villagization: Policy Implications on Environment (Dar es Salaam, 1996).
62. Scott, Seeing Like a State, 246-7.
63. Michael Sheridan, 'The environmental consequences of independence and socialism in Northern Pare, Tanzania, 1961-88', Journal of African History, 45 (2004), 81-102.
64. Steven Feierman, Peasant Intellectuals: Anthropology and History in Tanzania (Madison, 1990).
65. Jamie Monson, 'Claims to history and the politics of memory in southern Tanzania, 1940-1960', Journal of African History, 41 (2000), 543-65
66. Thaddeus Sunseri,' Statist narratives and Maji Maji ellipses', International Journal of African Historical Studies, 33 (2000), 567-84.
67. The concept 'ideology' is used here in its broader sense of a system of beliefs and values.
68. It is also notable that in his 'Agricultural Notes', Tanganyika Notes and Records, 36 (1936), 52-3, D. Sturdy noted that migrant Iraqw had carried on this practice outside eastern Iraqwland.
69. Maria Oswaldi, Kwermuusl, 28 Feb. 1998
70. Shauri Akona/ay, Muray, 30 Jan. 1998.
71. Lowe Borjeson, 'History of Iraqw intensive agriculture, Tanzania', in Widgren and Sutton (eds.), Islands of Intensive Agriculture, 68-104.
72. F. Jaeger, Das Hochland der Riesenkrater und die umliegenden Hochlander Deutsch-Ostafricas (Berlin, 1911), 99.
73. Henry Fosbrooke, 'The Mbulu highlands: Problems of people, land and cattle' (unpublished manuscript, 1955), 60-1.
74. Robert J. Thornton, Time, Space and Culture among the Iraqw of Tanzania (New York, 1980), 57-9.
75. Fortmann, Peasants, Officials and Participation, 59-60.
76. Gabriel Tlemai, Muray, 3 Feb. 1998.
77. Jean Drezen, Amartya Sen and Hussain Athar (eds.), The Political Economy of Hunger (Oxford, 1995), ch. 2.
78. Gwandu/Awaki, Kwermuusl, 30 Oct. 1997.
79. Fosbrooke, 'The Mbulu highlands', 35-40, established in great detail how these principles worked in terms of cattle ownership and transfer.
80. Scott, Seeing Like a State, 2, 246.
81. By this time house styles in eastern Iraqwland had undergone two notable changes. In the first instance, in response to constant Maasai raids, the Iraqw had abandoned the traditional round hut, replacing it with a flat, earth-covered dwelling, locally referred to as asmo. With the establishment of the colonial order the Maasai raids declined significantly, permitting the Iraqw to revive the traditional round huts. D. Sturdy noted in 1936 that by this time the houses in eastern Iraqwland were 'of round structure with tall, thatched roof, long lasting reed being used'. 'Agricultural Notes', 52. This was about 30 years after regular Maasai raids on Iraqw villages had ended.
82. Gabriel Tlemai, Muray, 3 Feb. 1998.
83. Ibid.
84. Gabriel Tlemai, Muray, 8 Feb. 1998.
85. Gwandu/Awaki, Kwermuusl, 7 Aug. 1997.
86. Shauri Akona/ay, Muray, 30 Jan. 1998
87. Martha Yaame, Kwermuusl, 4 Feb. 1998
88. Gabriel Tlemai, Muray, 3 Feb. 1998.
89. Carolyn Merchant, Ecological Revolutions: Nature, Science and Gender in New England (Chapel Hill, 1989), 19-26.
90. On p. 20, Merchant refers to Clifford Geertz, 'Religion as a cultural system', from The Interpretation of Cultures (New York, 1973), 87-125
91. and Charles Tailor, 'Neutrality in political science', in Alan Ryan (ed.), The Philosophy of Social Explanation (London, 1973), 144-6; 154-5.
92. Investigations conducted by anthropological researchers in the 1980s and 1990s have invariably shown that, although Iraqw cultural perceptions and related practices had been changing, up till the late 1990s the Iraqw clearly retained the core of the practices they followed at the turn of the twentieth century. Most relevant in this respect are works such as Thornton's Time, Space and Culture Among the Iraqw
93. Ole Bjorn Rekdal's 'Endring og kontinuited i Iraqw samfunn og kultur' (Cand. Polit. thesis, Bergen, 1991)
94. Catherine Snyder's 'Moral ideology and construction of community among the Iraqw of Northern Tanzania' (Ph.D. thesis, Yale University, 1993)
95. and Ellen Selvik's 'Channeling flows of blood and water among the Iraqw of Northern Tanzania' (Ph.D. thesis, University of Oslo, 1998).
96. Among others, Thornton recorded and interpreted a version of this vital section of the Iraqw traditional prayer. Time, Space and Culture, 45.
97. Maria Oswaldi, Kwermuusl, 8 Feb. 1998
98. Gwandu/Awaki, Kwermuusl, 7 Aug. 1997
99. Gabriel Tlemai, Muray, 3 Feb. 1998.
100. Martha Yaame, Kwermuusl, 4 Feb. 1998
101. Shauri Akona/ay, Muray, 30 Jan. 1998
102. Gabriel Tlemai, Muray, 3 Feb. 1998.
103. Gwandu/Awaki, Kwermusl, 10 Aug. 1998
104. Gabriel Tlemai, Muray, 5 Feb. 1998
105. Shauri Akona/ay, Muray, 30 Jan. 1998.
106. Gwandu/Awaki, Kwermuusl, 5 Feb. 1998
107. Shauri Akona/ay, Muray, 30 Jan. 1998.
108. See also Thornton, Time, Space and Culture
109. Selvik, 'Channeling flows of blood and water'.
110. Paul Berger, Iraqw Texts, collected by Paul Berger, and trans., revd. and ed. by Roland Kiessling (Cologne, 1998), 225.
111. Snyder, 'Moral ideology', 185-95
112. Jonathan Baker and Hege Wallevik, 'Poverty and wealth at the urban interface: An actor-centered perspective from northern Tanzania', Environment and Urbanization, 15 (Oct. 2003), 240-1.
113. Gwandu/Awaki, Kwermuusl, 13 Aug. 1997.
114. Gwandu/Awaki, Kwermuusl, 12 Aug. 1997.
115. No empirical records are available on religious affiliations of people in eastern Iraqwland during the villagization campaign. However, Baker and Wallevik's study 'Poverty and wealth', 236-8, conducted in three sample villages in Mbulu District in 2000, showed that the number of people who were neither Christians nor Muslims ranged across villages from 30 to 53 per cent of the population. It is certain that in the 1970s the proportion of non-followers of the world religions in eastern Iraqwland was well over 50 per cent.
116. Most adult Iraqw, born and raised in Iraqwland, commonly know these traditions even today.
117. Wilbaldi Muchuno, Karatu, 5 Feb. 1998.
118. Gwandu/Awaki, Kwermuusl, 7 Aug. 1987.
119. Most of them moved either westwards and established themselves among the pastoral Tatoga or eastwards into the Rift Valley to live among the Bantu-speaking Mbugwe.
120. Gwandu/Awaki, Kwermuusl, 30 Dec. 1997.
121. Leodgard Lalla, Karatu, 20 Dec. 1997.
122. Sometimes offerings were put on the graves at the prescription of a ritual expert. This happened after the expert had been consulted by the family in question following an episode of illness or fertility-related problems in the household.
123. Wilbaldi Muchuno, 5 Feb. 1998
124. Gwandu/Awaki, Kwermuusl, 1 Feb. 1998.
125. See also Baker and Wallevik, 'Poverty and wealth', 232.
126. Gwadayshi Bosta, Dar es Salaam, 5 Sept. 2004.
127. Thomas, 'Baseline information', 19-20.
128. Scott, Seeing Like a State, 1-8.
129. See, for instance, Nyerere's 'Rural socialism'.
130. Feierman, Peasant Intellectuals, 3-5.