Department of Sociology and Anthropology
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Item Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Rangeland Governance in Northern Tanzania. Tanzania Journal of Population and Development, Vol 23, No 1& 2, 2018.(Tanzania Journal of Population and Development, 2018-09-02) Saruni, KisiayaThe article examines the role of indigenous knowledge (IK) systems in the governance of common-property rangeland resources among pastoral communities in Northern Tanzania. It draws on the political ecology approach to examine the role and state of indigenous knowledge on rangeland governance in the changing socio-cultural, political and ecological context. It employs qualitative methodology to capture the narratives from the indigenous people. Using purposive (non-probability strategy) technique the study obtained a sample of 50 interviews and life histories combined, and four focus group discussions from four research sites. Findings indicate that forms of indigenous knowledge—such as rangeland rituals and cosmologies, rangeland zonation, livestock taxonomy, water communism and pastoral mobility—regulate and maintain a harmonious relationship between indigenous people and the wider ecosystem. The article concludes that IK should be recognized as an integral component of local resource governance. Also, indigenous rangeland cooperatives should be formed to help the sustainability of IK systems and settling emerging rangeland disputes.Item Indigenous Institutions and Rangeland Sustainability in Northern Tanzania(Tanzania Journal of Sociology, 2018-06-01) Saruni, KisiayaThis study attempts to underscore the role of indigenous institutions on rangeland governance and sustainability among pastoral communities in northern Tanzania. Ostrom’s institutional approach to governance of common-property rangeland resources is used as a conceptual framework to analyse indigenous institutional arrangement in relation to rangeland sustainability. Qualitative methodology is employed to capture narratives from indigenous people. A sample of 54 interviews and life histories as well as four focus group discussions from four research sites were obtained using a purposive sampling technique. There is strong evidence to substantiate that indigenous institutions play key roles as custodians of rangeland governance and are responsible for instituting norms and rules governing access and withdrawal of common-property resources and solving rangeland disputes. Therefore, Indigenous institutions should be recognized as an integral component of local resource governance. Furthermore, indigenous rangeland cooperatives should be formed to help preserve indigenous traditional institutions, which are crucial for sustainable rangeland governance.Item Factors influencing adoption of facility-assisted delivery-a qualitative study of women and other stakeholders in a Maasai community in Ngorongoro District, Tanzania(BioMed Central, 2020-02-14) Saruni, KisiayaTanzania’s One Plan II health sector program aims to increase facility deliveries from 50 to 80% from 2015 to 2020. Success is uneven among certain Maasai pastoralist women in Northern Tanzania who robustly prefer home births to facility births even after completing 4+ ANC visits. Ebiotishu Oondomonok Ongera (EbOO) is a program in Nainokanoka ward to promote facility births through a care-group model using trained traditional birth attendants (TBAs) as facilitators. Results to date are promising but show a consistent gap between women completing ANC and those going to a facility for delivery. A qualitative study was conducted to understand psychosocial preferences, agency for decision-making, and access barriers that influence where a woman in the ward will deliver. In-depth interviews, focus group discussions and key-informant interviews were conducted with 24 pregnant and/or parous women, 24 TBAs, 3 nurse midwives at 3 health facilities, and 24 married men, living in Nainokanoka ward. Interviews and discussions were transcribed, translated, and analyzed thematically using a grounded theory approach. Most women interviewed expressed preference for a home birth with a TBA and even those who expressed agency and preference for a facility birth usually had their last delivery at home attributed to unexpected labor. TBAs are engaged by husbands and play a significant influential role in deciding place of delivery. TBAs report support for facility deliveries but in practice use them as a last resort, and a significant trust gap was documented based on a bad experience at a facility where women in labor were turned away. EbOO project data and study results show a slow but steady change in norms around delivery preference in Nainokanoka ward. Gaps between expressed intention and practice, especially around ‘unexpected labor’ present opportunities to accelerate this process by promoting birth plans and perhaps constructing a maternity waiting house in the ward. Rebuilding trust between facility midwives, TBAs, and the community on the availability of health facility services, and increased sensitivity to women’s cultural preferences, could also close the gap between the number of women who are currently using facilities for ANC and those returning for delivery.Item The Impact of External Institutions on Kuria Marriages in Tanzania(University of Dar es Salaam, 2014) Mhando, Nandera ErnestThis article provides an ethnographic attention to the interface between traditional Kuria marriages, socio-economic changes, and consequences of interventions by institutions of the state, foreign religions and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) explicating themes of agency and lineage perpetuation. Attention is paid to continuities and changes happening in the described relationships, and how the changing market economy and new forms of economic interaction in Tarime District have given some women access to wealth, thereby enabling them to arrange their marriages. Additionally, other forms of marriage that are prohibited by law and religious institutions, such as marriage of young daughters still continue, and unmarried daughters continue to experience structural control. Overall, the current article points to the fact that, despite adopting foreign beliefs such as Christianity and Islam, Kuria tradition still plays a key role as a way of life.Item Helping Tanzanian Teenage Girls Avoid Pregnancy(2012) Pfeiffer, Constanze; Sambaiga, Richard F.; Ahorlu, Collins; Obrist, BrigitItem Ethnographic Study on Maternal and Neonatal Deaths in Dodoma, Tanzania.(Mkuki na Nyota, 2011) Lugalla, J. L. P.; Nyoni, J.; Sambaiga, Richard F.Item Between Condemnation and Resignation: A Study on Attitudes towards Corruption in the Public Health Sector in Tanzania(Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016-08-26) Camargo, Claudia B.; Sambaiga, Richard F.Item A Quantitative Analysis of Co-Management Success Across the Indo-Pacific(International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade, 2010) Rabearisoa, Ando; Sambaiga, Richard F.; Wamukota, Andrew; Daw, Tim; Cinner, JoshuaThroughout the Indo-Pacific region, communities are increasingly empowered with the ability and responsibility of working with national governments to make decisions about their marine resources. In some instances, co-management arrangements have been successful at conserving marine resources by developing locally appropriate rules to limit overexploitation. These examples have often prompted widespread replication by governments, conservation groups, and sometimes communities themselves. However, this replication is often done without a fundamental understanding of why co-management may be successful under some conditions but unsuccessful under others. Thus a question of crucial importance to resource managers, stakeholders, and common property theorists alike is what factors enable some of these institutions to succeed while others fail? Drawing on common property and adaptive governance theories, we examine relationships between socioeconomic conditions, institutional design, and the effectiveness of collaborative management in 5 countries throughout the Indo-Pacific region. This innovative project takes a big picture comparative approach to a subject that has often been studied at a local scale.Item A Critical Review on the Major Conceptual Strands/debates on the Reduced Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) and Improved Social Livelihoods(Macrothink Institute, 2016-03-11) Mukono, Danstan; Sambaiga, Richard F.The problem of climate change has attracted different approaches on how best to tackle it. Equally, at the level of theorization and conceptualization, it has attracted a fierce debate on how to interpret, analyze, and suggest the best approach which seems to improve the social livelihoods of the main actors who directly depends on forest resources. This paper intends albeit in a brief manner to synthesis various theoretical and conceptual issues which explicitly or implicitly inform REDD+ as a new sustainable intervention in conserving forest and improving people’s social livelihoods. At the same time, each approach is critically analyzed to see its strength and weakness in addressing the key issue of improving social livelihood taking into account power dynamics. And lastly, it points out the conceptual framework which at least illuminates the manner in which to apprehend the power dynamics and agency play out in REDD+ interventions.Item Globalisation, Coastal Resources and Livelihood in Tanzania(Trauner Verlag, 2012) Sambaiga, Richard F.; Sigalla, H. R.Item Global Markets and Coastal Resource Management in Tanzania(University of Dar es Salaam, 2011) Sambaiga, Richard F.; Sigalla, L. H.; Lema, G.; Simon, V.; Shemaghembe, E.Item Determinants of the Duration of Birth Intervals in Tanzania: Regional Contrasts and Temporal Trends(ICF Macro/USAID, 2013) Sambaiga, Richard F.; Yoder, S.; Lugalla, J. L. P.Item Helping Tanzanian Teenage Girls Avoid Pregnancy. Evidence for Policy Series(NCCR North-South, 2012) Pfeiffer, Constanze; Sambaiga, Richard F.; Ahorlu, Collins; Obrist, BrigitAdolescence can be a tricky period in our lives. But for teenage girls it is especially fraught with risk. If they become pregnant, they may be ostracised by their families or spurned by society. They also have a high risk of dying during childbirth. And many are condemned to live in poverty as single mothers. That makes the sexual and reproductive health of adolescents an important public health issue. To design better policies and interventions that will steer young people towards responsible parenthood, it is necessary to know more about how adolescents learn about and deal with sex. This edition of evidence for policy examines this issue, based on research in Tanzania.Item Theoretical Tendencies in Anthropological Research on HIV/AIDS: Is There Room for the Human Agency(University of Dar es Salaam, 2015) Sambaiga, Richard F.Item Religion, State and Adolescent Sexuality in Tanzania: an Anthropological Perspective(LIT Verlag, 2014) Sambaiga, Richard F.Item Globalization and Women in Coastal Communities in Tanzania(2008) Sambaiga, Richard F.; Mzuma, M.; Marilyn, P.; Mwaipopo, R.Item Friend or Foe? Private Sector Sales of Anti-Malarial Drugs in Rural Tanzania(2005) Goodman, Catherine; Kachur, Patrick S.; Abdulla, Salim; Mwageni, Eleuther; Nyoni, Joyce E.; Schellenburg, J.; Mills, A.; Bloland, PeterItem The Pervasive Triad of Food Security, Gender Inequity and Women's Health: Exploratory Research from Sub-Saharan Africa(2005) Hyder, Adnan A.; Maman, Suzanne; Nyoni, Joyce E.; Khasiani, Shaniysa A.; Teoh, Noreen; Premji, Zul; Sohani, SalimThis study was designed to explore the interactions between food securing activities, health and gender equity from the perspective of rural east African women. The specific objectives were to document the critical interaction among these three issues-food security, gender inequity, women's health within the context of sub-Saharan Africa; to describe the nature of this triad from the perspective of women farmers in Africa; and to propose a framework for linking available interventions to the vicious nature of this triad. In-depth interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with rural women farmers in Kwale District, Kenya and Bagamoyo District, Tanzania. A total of 12 in-depth interviews and 4 focus group discussions have been included in this analysis. Transcribed text from interviews and focus group discussions were coded and thematic conceptual matrices were developed to compare dimensions of common themes across interviews and settings. A thematic analysis was then performed and a framework developed to understand the nature of the triad and explore the potential for interventions within the interactions. The vicious cycle of increasing work, lack of time, and lack of independent decision making for women who are responsible for food production and health of their families, has health and social consequences. Food securing activities have negative health consequences for women, which are further augmented by issues of gender inequity. The African development community must respond by thinking of creative solutions and appropriate interventions for the empowerment of women farmers in the region to ensure their health.