From Subsistence Farmers to Guardians of Food Security and Well-Being: Shifts and Continuities in Female Labor Relations in Tanzania (1800–2000)

Abstract

This paper combines quantitative and qualitative evidence to provide a long-term analysis of the major shifts in the history of female labor relations in Tanzania from the late precolonial period to 2000. The first part of the paper focuses on the nature and quality of the available sources on the history of the population of Tanzania. The sources’ problems and limits are presented along with data on the population and its composition. The second part of the paper is devoted to analyzing the shifts and continuities in female labor relations for four cross-sections (1800, 1900, 1950, and 2000) in connection to major historical processes, such as the development of long-distance caravan trade, the establishment of the colonial economy, and post-independence Ujamaa policy (Tanzanian socialism). The main aim of the article is to investigate the main shifts and continuities in female labor relations and understand what has been historically distinctive about the work that Tanzanian women performed in different epochs. The article employs the methodology and taxonomy developed by the “Global Collaboratory on the History of Labour Relations 1500–2000” at the International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam.