DOCSLIB.ORG

Table of Contents

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Table of Contents Table of contents Table of contents....................................................................................................i Acknowledgements..............................................................................................iii Maps of the fieldwork area ..................................................................................ix Introduction: The invention by tradition ..............................................................1 Introducing the Iraqw..........................................................................................29 Article abstracts ..................................................................................................45 Some reflections on the fieldwork experience....................................................49 Article I: Money, milk and sorghum beer: Change and continuity among the Iraqw of Tanzania, Africa, 66(3):367-386 (1996) ..................55 Article II: When hypothesis becomes myth: The Iraqi origin of the Iraqw, Ethnology, 37(1):17-38 (1998)......................................................85 Article III: “We are as sheep and goats”: Iraqw and Datoga discourses on fortune, failure and the future, in David Anderson and Vigdis Broch-Due (eds.): “The poor are not us”: Poverty and pastoralism in Eastern Africa, London: James Currey (Co- author: Astrid Blystad, in press, 1999)...................................................117 Article IV: Cross-cultural healing in East African ethnography, to appear in Medical Anthropology Quarterly, (1999)...............................151 Article V: Creativity and invention in Iraqw ritual, (submitted to Anthropos, February 1999).....................................................................183 Epilogue ............................................................................................................249 References.........................................................................................................251 Acknowledgements First of all I would like to thank all the people who welcomed me, took care of me, and assisted me in various ways during three periods of fieldwork carried out in the southern Mbulu and northern Hanang areas of northern Tanzania. I am particularly indebted to the people of Maghang, Dang’eida, and Getanyamba, the villages where I lived for almost two years. I am extremely grateful to more individuals than it is possible to mention here; nevertheless, specific thanks goes to Bura Tua, Alphonsi Erro and his family, Gaseri Nanagi, Herman Fabiano, Barhe and Kilay in Maghang, Isaki Bayi, Joeli Bayi, John Qamlali, Elias Mao, William B. Naman, Ezra B. Naman, Akonay Nade, Stephano E. Daudi, Peter Lulu, Ruben Lema, Herman Malleyeck, Bayanga Gurenda, Petro Gasheka, and the late Tua Masay, Iana Tua, and Gurenda Madey. A special thanks also goes to John Bolora and his family who welcomed me to stay with them during the preparatory phase of language studies in Arusha. I am grateful to Haydom Lutheran Hospital and the people working there, especially Ole Halgrim Evjen Olsen and his family, Ester Madsen, Naftali B. Naman, Isaki Gidamalish, and Sven Gudmund Hinderaker. Sincere thanks also go to the various officials in Hanang and Mbulu Districts who allowed me to conduct fieldwork in their areas of jurisdiction, and to the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology which granted the necessary research permits. Members of the staff at Department of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen, have all contributed in various ways to my development as an anthropologist. My supervisors, Jan Petter Blom and Georg Henriksen, have been deeply involved in the Cand. Polit. and PhD iv projects respectively. Both of them were always there when I needed them, giving valuable advise and encouragement. Various others at the Department and at the University of Bergen have left their marks on the thesis or the other writings that constitute a part of the PhD program. I would like to mention Reidar Grønhaug, Anders Molander, Frode Jacobsen, Frode Storås, Nils Gunnar Songstad and Ørnulf Gulbrandsen in particular. Some of the most valuable criticism, advise, and encouragement came from fellow students during seminars of the “Africa group” at the Department of Social Anthropology. I am immensely grateful to Yusufu Q. Lawi, himself an Iraqw and a historian, who has critically reviewed earlier versions of all five articles that constitute this thesis. His suggestions, corrections, and encouraging comments have been invaluable in the write-up of the thesis. I have benefited greatly from the contact and co-operation with other researchers who have been working on related issues in the area of study, in particular the anthropologists Ellen Selvik, Katherine A. Snyder and Lars Hagborg, and the linguists Maarten Mous and Roland Kiessling. I would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers of Africa, Ethnology, and Medical Anthropology Quarterly, as well as David Anderson and Vigdis Broch- Due, who have all provided valuable criticism and encouragement in connection with the publishing of the first four articles in this thesis. The responsibility for any remaining errors and short-comings is entirely my own. I thank Tom Johnsen and his colleagues at the Social Sciences Library, University of Bergen, for having been helpful throughout the project. I would also like to express my gratitude to the staff at Department of Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and in particular Kristian v Heggenhougen, for providing an inspiring milieu during the year my family and I spent in Boston. The staff at the Centre for Development Studies, the Centre for International Health, and the Norwegian Research Council have been very supportive in various ways; I would like to mention and thank Gunnar Kvåle, Rune Nilsen, Solfrid Hornell, Terje Halvorsen, Eyolf Juul Larsen, and Ellen S. Aa. Vollebæk in particular. The PhD Scholarship was granted by the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Bergen, whereas the fieldwork periods and a one year stay in the U.S.A. were financed by the University of Bergen, the Norwegian Research Council, the Scandinavian Institute for African Studies, Ludwig Meltzers Høyskolefond, and Lise og Arnfinn Hejes fond. Sincere thanks go to these institutions. The individual who has had the greatest impact on the present thesis is beyond doubt my wife and fellow anthropologist, Astrid Blystad, who is also the co-author of one of the articles. When we married shortly after both of us were granted PhD scholarships, we were informed that 50 per cent of married Norwegian PhD students get divorced before they complete their degrees. One of our more mathematically gifted colleagues calculated that this would imply that a marriage between two PhD students would have a 100 per cent chance of being terminated before either of the projects are completed. My suspicions that there was something wrong with these estimates were confirmed in the years that followed. It is hard to try to imagine what the fieldwork experience and the suffering and joy of writing this thesis would have been like without Astrid, and I feel immensely lucky and privileged to have had an individual with whom I could share the many good and the very few bad times of both the Cand. Polit. and the PhD project. vi One of the finest memories of my life was to see my father and my parents-in-law attending the initiation of their grandson in Dang’eida village. At that point of time my father was 76 years old and he had spent at least fifty of them as a travelling evangelist for one of the most conservative, some would say fundamentalist, church denominations in Norway. The gidahalaghweanga of our son, Håvard, who was born during our second fieldwork, involved the engagement of several hundred Iraqw and Datoga, the brewing of numerous calabashes of honey mead and several drums of sorghum beer, the highly unbiblical slaughter of an ox and a goat, and lengthy prayers to a god that was not my father’s. The central part of the ritual was the strangulation of the gidahalaghweanga goat in front of the baby, and the sprinkling of urine from the dying animal on Håvard’s forehead. My father was not, however, abhorred by the “pagan” ritual procedures in which he was one of the main protagonists by virtue of being the senior elder of Håvard’s clan. On the contrary, he was highly impressed by both the scale and the content of the event, and he shared our own strong emotional experience of seeing Håvard being introduced to the world. My father later referred to the event as the “baptism” of his grandson, and I believe that he had captured one of the main messages that anthropology has to bring to the world. Finally, I would like to dedicate the fourth of these articles, which focuses on the tendency to attribute healing and ritual powers to the culturally distant, to Fremskrittspartiet. Just days after I submitted this particular article to Medical Anthropology Quarterly, the leadership of this right-wing Norwegian political party launched a party platform in which they introduced a new concept for what they perceive to be a major threat to Norwegian society: Fremmedkulturelle. This may be translated as “culturally alien/distant”, and happened to be one of the key concepts in vii the article I had just completed. The party, which soared to 25 per cent support in the polls at the time, thus provided further evidence of the human inclination to attribute supernatural power to the culturally distant, and illustrated yet again that a potential
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Rift Valley Bibliography Version 1.3
    Griscom, Richard, Andrew Harvey, and Anne Kruijt (eds.). 2020. Rift Valley Bibliography Version 1.3. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4300224 Rift Valley Bibliography Version 1.3 December 1st, 2020 1 Introduction This document is a bibliography of the languages of the Rift Valley Area of Tanzania, which is home to dozens of distinctive ethnic groups and languages. Uniquely, it is the meeting place of languages from three of the largest language families in Africa—Nilo-Saharan, Niger-Congo, and Afro-Asiatic—as well as Sandawe, a language with possible affinity with the so-called 'Khoisan' group, and Hadza, a language isolate, which means that it is not known to be related to any other languages currently spoken. The Rift Valley Bibliography is compiled by members of the Rift Valley Network and is hosted on the network website at the Rift Valley Bibliography page. This is a text version of the bibliography, but other formats of the bibliography are available on the website for those who use reference manager software (e.g. Zotero, EndNote, or Mendeley), and a Zotero Group is used to make additions and changes to the bibliography. A PDF Collection of selected entries is available for members of the Rift Valley Network only, and release notes are made available for each release. For comments or questions related to this bibliography, please send an email to [email protected]. 1 2 Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 Introduction.............................................................................................................................................1
    [Show full text]
  • The Integration of Bantu Loans Into Burunge (Southern Cushitic)*
    ,,-- - I Spraehe und Gesehiehte in Afrika 16/17: 213-238 / THE INTEGRATION OF BANTU LOANS INTO BURUNGE (SOUTHERN CUSHITIC)* Roland Kiessling Universitdt Hamburg 1 Introduction 2 Areal situation: Burunge, its regional status and the neighbouring languages 3 Bantu loans into Burunge 3.1 Phonological adaptation 3.2 Morphological adaptation 3.2.1 Nouns: gender and plural 3.2.2 Verbs 4 Periods of contact 4.1 Transfers from Swahili and Rangi 4.2 Transfers between East African Bantu and West Rift 4.3 Transfers between Sandawe and Burunge 5 Result Notes References 1 Introduction :\ This article deals with Bantu loanwords in Burunge, a Southern Cushitic language in Tanzania, and examines how these loans, taken from a Bantu source, are integrated into the grammatical structure of the receiver language. This is of some typological interest in two ways. First, the principles of assign- ing gender to a Bantu loan and forming its plural in a Southern Cushitic framework gives us some vital information about the way the Burunge noun system works. Second, Burunge uses a somewhat unusual channel to adapt foreign verbs to its structure. Several layers of loans from different sources can be recognized in Burunge. The article closes with an appendix including -----------------~----, 214 ROLAND KIESSLING several comparative word lists as a preliminary outline of lexical transfers in the Rift area of Tanzania. 2 Areal situation Burunge is a Southern Cushitic language spoken in the Burunge hills in the southeastern part of Kondoa district of Dod oma region in central Tanzania. The last decades have seen many Bantu-speaking Rangi immigrants moving into the Burunge country.
    [Show full text]
  • The Case Study of Three Villages in Karatu District Tanzani A
    SOUTHERN NEW HAMPSHIRE UNIVERSIT Y & THE OPEN UNIVERSITY OF TANZANI A MASTER OF SCIENCE IN COMMUNITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMEN T (2005-2007) PERFORMANCE EVALUATION O F COMMUNITY BASED ENVIRONMENTA L CONSERVATION PROJECTS THE CASE STUDY OF THREE VILLAGES IN KARATU DISTRICT TANZANI A THE PROJECT REPORT SUBMITTED I N PARTIAL FULFILMEN T FO R THE REQUIREMENTS O F THE MASTER OF SCIENCE DEGREE IN COMMUNITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMEN T (MSc-CED). SALUSTIN N . HALL U i SUPERVISOR'S CERTIFICATIO N I, D r Jame s Lweikiz a Kisoza , I certify tha t I have thoroughly rea d this projec t report o f Salusti n Nicola s Hall u title d PERFORMANC E EVALUATIO N O F COMMUNITY BASED ENVIRONMENTA L CONSERVATION PROJECTS . And found it to be in an acceptable form for submission ii COPYRIGHT: All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced, copied or transmitted in any form or by any means of electronic retrieval or mechanical, without prio r permission of the author. iii DECLARATION I, Salusti n Nicola s Hallu , d o hereb y declar e t o th e SENAT E o f th e Ope n University o f Tanzania that this projec t pape r i s the resul t o f m y original findings , and tha t i t ha s no t bee n submitte d fo r th e simila r degre e awar d i n an y othe r University. iv DEDICATION I extend m y appreciatio n to m y family fo r thei r understanding , when the y misse d my ful l fatherl y car e when I was bus y undergoin g schedule s for m y MS c CED degree programme.
    [Show full text]
  • A History Under Siege
    A History under Siege Intensive Agriculture in the Mbulu Highlands, Tanzania, 19th Century to the Present Lowe Börjeson Department of Human Geography Stockholm University 2004 Abstract This doctoral thesis examines the history of the Iraqw’ar Da/aw area in the Mbulu Highlands of northern Tanzania. Since the late nineteenth century this area has been known for its intensive cultivation, and referred to as an “island” within a matrix of less intensive land use. The conventional explanation for its characteristics has been high population densities resulting from the prevention of expansion by hostility from surrounding pastoral groups, leading to a siege-like situation. Drawing on an intensive programme of interviews, detailed field mapping and studies of aerial photographs, early travellers’ accounts and landscape photographs, this study challenges that explanation. The study concludes that the process of agricultural intensification has largely been its own driving force, based on self-reinforcing processes of change, and not a consequence of land scarcity. Keywords: Landscape, environmental history, geography, land use change, population pressure, incremental change, landesque capital, self-reinforcing processes, detailed mapping, participatory mapping, oral history, farming practices, aerial photographs, landscape photographs, Iraqw. Copyright The Author and the Dept of Human Geography, 2004. All rights reserved. Department of Human Geography Stockholm University ISBN 91-22-02095-0 ISSN 0349-7003 Printed by Intellecta DocuSys AB, Sollentuna,
    [Show full text]
  • Local Knowledge of Soils Among the Iraqw in Selected Villages in Mbulu and Karatu Districts: Implications for Research Interventions
    Mwaseba D. et al.: Local knowledge of soils among the Iraqw in Mbulu 150 LOCAL KNOWLEDGE OF SOILS AMONG THE IRAQW IN SELECTED VILLAGES IN MBULU AND KARATU DISTRICTS: IMPLICATIONS FOR RESEARCH INTERVENTIONS Mwaseba1, D., Msanya1, B.M., Ole-Meiludie 2, D.J. and Massawe 3, A.W. 1Sokoine University of Agriculture, P. O. Box 3022, Morogoro, Tanzania 2 Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, TOSCA, P.O. Box 1056 Morogoro, Tanzania 3 Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Rodent Control Centre, P.O. Box 3047 Morogoro, Tanzania ABSTRACT This article reports on some findings from an on-going study in seven villages in Mbulu and Karatu Districts. These are Kainam, Gunyoda and Moringa (Mbulu District) and Kambi ya Simba, Kilima Tembo, Rhotia Kati and Kansay (Karatu District). The selected villages are predominantly inhabited by the Iraqw who are Afroasiatic or Hamitic- Cushitic speaking people. They form 65% of the people in the two districts. Using a combination of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and formal surveys the study found that there is a wealth of knowledge with regard to soil classification in the area. On the whole farmers use various criteria to classify their soils that also guide land use decisions. However, reliance on local knowledge in the classification of soils, landforms and land use is more common with small-scale agriculture, wh ereas large-scale farmers particularly in Karatu District rely more on research recommendations communicated to them through the public extension service or by researchers themselves to improve productivity in the area. While acknowledging the wealth of local knowledge in the area, the study recommends for scientific research interventions in partnerships with the local people in order to address existing land use limitations.
    [Show full text]
  • Élémentsde Description Du Langi Langue Bantu F.33 De Tanzanie
    ÉLÉMENTS DE DESCRIPTION DU LANGI LANGUE BANTU F.33 DE TANZANIE MARGARET DUNHAM Remerciements Je remercie très chaleureusement tous les Valangi, ce sont eux qui ont fourni la matière sur laquelle se fonde cet ouvrage, et notamment : Saidi Ikaji, Maryfrider Joseph, Mama Luci, Yuda, Pascali et Agnès Daudi, Gaitani et Philomena Paoli, M. Sabasi, et toute la famille Ningah : Ally, Saidi, Amina, Jamila, Nasri, Saada et Mei. Je remercie également mes autres amis de Kondoa : Elly Benson, à qui je dois la liste des noms d’arbres qui se trouve en annexe, et Elise Pinners, qui m’a logée à Kondoa et ailleurs. Je remercie le SNV et le HADO à Kondoa pour avoir mis à ma disposition leurs moyens de transport et leur bibliothèque. Je remercie les membres du LACITO du CNRS, tout le groupe Langue-Culture- Environnement et ceux qui ont dirigé le laboratoire pendant ma thèse : Jean-Claude Rivierre, Martine Mazaudon et Zlatka Guentchéva Je remercie tout le groupe bantu : Gladys Guarisma, Raphaël Kaboré, Jacqueline Leroy, Christiane Paulian, Gérard Philippson, Marie-Françoise Rombi et Serge Sauvageot, pour leurs conseils et pour leurs oreilles. Je remercie Jacqueline Vaissière pour ses conseils et sa disponibilité. Je remercie Sophie Manus pour la traduction du swahili du rapport de l’Officier culturel de Kondoa. Je remercie Ewen Macmillan pour son hospitalité chaleureuse et répétée à Londres. Je remercie mes amis à Paris qui ont tant fait pour me rendre la vie agréable pendant ce travail. Je remercie Eric Agnesina pour son aide précieuse, matérielle et morale. Et enfin, je ne saurais jamais assez remercier Marie-Françoise Rombi, pour son amitié et pour son infinie patience.
    [Show full text]
  • SECLUSION, PROTECTION and AVOIDANCE: EXPLORING the METIDA COMPLEX AMONG the DATOGA of NORTHERN TANZANIA Astrid Blystad Ole Bjørn Rekdal Herman Malleyeck
    Africa 77 (3), 2007 SECLUSION, PROTECTION AND AVOIDANCE: EXPLORING THE METIDA COMPLEX AMONG THE DATOGA OF NORTHERN TANZANIA Astrid Blystad Ole Bjørn Rekdal Herman Malleyeck This article deals with metida avoidance practices as they exist in daily and ritual practice among the Southern Nilotic, agro-pastoral Datoga- speaking peoples of the Mbulu/Hanang districts of northern Tanzania.1 The avoidance practices are particularly elaborate in connection with death or death-like events and birth or birth-like events, but are also set in motion by many other events that are experienced as abnormal or threatening. Metida implies the seclusion of people, animals and parts of land perceived to be temporarily highly ‘infertile’ in order to contain and control their inherently ‘dirty’ and ‘contagious’ elements and prevent them from affecting fecund elements or segments. Through diverse forms of seclusion, metida also aims to protect the potential of particularly fertile people, animals and parts of land from ‘dirt’ (ririnyeanda) or from unlucky events perceived to be contagious and dangerous. All Datoga who believe in and practise metida may be liable to protection or seclusion at particular times in their lives, but women of procreative age are regarded as particularly susceptible to the threats and consequences caused by death and misfortune, and thus commonly experience the most severe restrictions. We are talking about a set of avoidance practices where in some instances women may spend years of their lives with severe restrictions on their conduct in terms of movement and socialization. In this article we shall explore the metida complex as a domain of meaning, experience and power that affects large spheres of Datoga lives, and guides and guards Datoga conduct in particular ways.
    [Show full text]
  • Thesis HUMA 2009
    A Phonetic Study on Implosives in China by Cun Xi A Thesis Submitted to The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Degree of Doctor of Philosophy In Division of Humanities April, 2009, Hong Kong i HKUST Library Reproduction is prohibited without the author’s prior written consent UMI Number: 3365904 INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. ______________________________________________________________ UMI Microform 3365904 Copyright 2009 by ProQuest LLC All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. _______________________________________________________________ ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346 Acknowledgements At this exciting and momentous time, the first person I would like to thank is my supervisor Prof. Zhu Xiaonong. Many years ago, when I was a newcomer to linguistics, he introduced me to the possibilities along that path and encouraged me to explore them. Reading and correcting every detail of my thesis is not his style, but his comments often hit the nail on the head. He likes to talk to students in an open-hearted way, as our friend, and invite us to meals at his home.
    [Show full text]
  • Waache Wasome Let Them Learn
    Waache Wasome Let Them Learn TANZANIA Quarterly Progress Report Y 3 Q1 October 1, 2018 – December 31, 2018 Cooperative Agreement AID-OAA-A-17-00001 Submitted by the Bantwana Initiative of World Education, Inc. (WEI/Bantwana) Waache Wasome Let Them Learn Tanzania | Y3 Q1 Progress Report 1 Table of Contents Acronyms ....................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................................... 4 A. Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 5 B. Project Activities .......................................................................................................................................... 8 Objective 1: Build the agency, knowledge, and protective assets of girls in secondary school ..... 8 Objective 2: Increase family commitment and capacity to invest in girls’ education...................... 10 Objective 3: Foster a girl friendly and supportive school environment ............................................ 20 Objective 4…………………………………………………………………………….……….30 C. Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning ................................................................................................. 35 D. Project Management .................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • The Classification of the Bantu Languages of Tanzania
    i lIMFORIVIATION TO USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document h^i(^|eeh used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the qriginal submitted. ■ The following explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markings or patterns which may appear on this reproduction. I.The sign or "target" for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is "Mining Page(s)". IfJt was'possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are^spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting thru an image and duplicating adjacent pages to insure you'complete continuity. 2. When an.image.on the film is obliterated with li large round black mark, it . is an if}dication that the photographer suspected that the copy may have moved during, exposure and thus cause a blurred image. You will find a good image of the page in the adjacent frame. 3. When a map, drawing' or chart, etc., was part of the material being V- photographed the photographer ' followed a definite method in "sectioning" the material. It is customary to begin photoing at the upper left hand corner of a large sheet and to .continue photoing fronTleft to right in equal sections with a small overlap. If necessary, sectioning is continued, again — beginning below the first row and continuing on until . complete. " - 4. The majority of usefs indicate that the textual content is, of greatest value, ■however, a somewhat higher quality reproduction could be made from .'"photographs" if essential to the understanding of the dissertation.
    [Show full text]
  • Safeguarding Practices for Intangible Cultural Heritage in Tanzania: National Vs Local
    Safeguarding Practices for Intangible Cultural Heritage in Tanzania: National vs Local Perspectives Richard Nandiga Bigambo A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Ironbridge International Institute for Cultural Heritage School of History and Cultures College of Arts and Law University of Birmingham 2019 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. I dedicate this work to my parents Mr and Mrs B. Nandiga ‘All that I am, I owe that to you’ ABSTRACT Recent decades have seen a growing interest by individuals, government, and international organisations to safeguard Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). Such efforts arose from the perceived impact of globalisation and modernisation towards this form of heritage among different communities in the world. Most of the previous research has focused on why ICH is in danger and ways that can be used to remedy the situation. Few efforts have been directed towards understanding how the local community ‘cultural practitioners’ have traditionally been safeguarding their ICH, and how such knowledge can be integrated into the present-day safeguarding initiatives.
    [Show full text]
  • Exploring the Growth of the Iraqw People in Colonial and Post-Colonial Times
    Propagation Under Pressure Exploring the Growth of the Iraqw People in Colonial and Post-Colonial Times by Julia Daniel Parks and Peoples: Dilemmas of Protected Area Conservation in East Africa P r o f e s s o r Bill Durham and Susan Charnley Sophomore College 2014 2 A Brief History of the Iraqw People and Land The Iraqw people are agropastoralists living on the Mbulu Plateau above the Great Rift escarpment in northern Tanzania (Bartul 1969: 18). Unlike the surrounding Bantu and Nilotic peoples, the Iraqw are a Cushitic-speaking people with a unique culture and history. Their relationship to the land also differs profoundly from neighboring groups’, due to both traditional Iraqw cultural values and the unusual historical interactions between the native Iraqw and European colonizers and missionaries. The Iraqw are a southern Cushitic group, tracing their roots back two millennia to Yemen, Jordan, and Ethiopia (Langay 2014). As Cushites, their lighter skin, facial structure, and language set them apart from their Bantu and Nilotic neighbors. According to local oral tradition, the Iraqw people came south via Kenya and arrived in the Serengeti, in northwestern Tanzania. They were pushed east, however, first by the pastoralist Sukuma of the Serengeti to the Ngorongoro highlands, and then by the Ngorongoro Datoga (also spelled Datooga) to the Mbulu area (Langay 2014). During this time, the Iraqw people established themselves at sites such as Engaruka, a once-thriving agricultural settlement with complex irrigation and intercropping systems whose stone ruins Figure 1: Mbulu Highlands and Iraqw settlement areas 3 remain today. There is evidence that the Iraqw settled in the Kainam area, southeast of the modern town of Mbulu, by the beginning of the 18th century (Lawi 1999a: 2).
    [Show full text]