Browsing by Author "Mgaya, Edward Simon"

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    From investors to Do-it-All: Chinese Immigrants, their Activities and Local People's Perceptions in Tanzania, 1990s to the Present
    (Journal of Sino-African Studies, 2022) Mgaya, Edward Simon
    Since the 1990s, there has been an unprecedented rise in the number of Chinese immigrants across Africa. In Tanzania, the influx of Chinese people forming social-economic clusters—‗Chinatowns‘ is springing. The new individual Chinese quest for achievement, necessitating new waves of migration to Africa, is not yet well researched. This paper examines this new trend as it manifests in the Tanzanian context. It looks at the motivation for Chinese migration to Tanzania, their networks, activities, and the local people‘s perceptions of those engagements. Using information gathered from surveys, and written and oral sources, the paper establishes that since the 1990s, Chinese migrants have increasingly turned from investors to engage in almost every small business they come across. Because of Tanzania‘s generally small local economies, these relatively new entrants to the market have undoubtedly caused mixed perceptions among the locals. While the Sino-African relationship is generally viewed positively by the Tanzanians, the Chinese residing in the country are perceived less positively, as exemplified by perceived hostility and rudeness from the Chinese migrants.
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    The Meaning, Spiritual Foundation, and Mythology of African Sacred Landscapes: The Case of Sacred Forests among the Bena of Njombe, Tanzania
    (Journal of Religion in Africa, 2023) Mgaya, Edward Simon
    In various cultures around the world, past and present, many natural and cultural sites are deemed sacred. What are sacred landscapes? What are the spiritual foundations for their formation? How are they formed? How are they protected? The answers to these questions help frame a discussion of sacred landscapes within the context of their meaning, origin, and management processes as lived experiences of specific societies. In Tanzania, the linkages between biodiversity and the worldview of a society have partly been acknowledged but remain unexplored. This paper applies a mixed research approach to studying sacred forests among the Bena community of Njombe in Tanzania. Rather than looking exclusively at the sacred forests in themselves as places, the paper underscores the linkage of human-nature-spirituality as key in explaining the history of sacred forests. It establishes that, among the Bena, the sacredness of a place was founded on the relationship between the visible and the invisible worlds – relations that led to the formation of various mystical-religious homelands’ sacred places that are protected through mythologies.