Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0364/03647.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 37KB | 588 lines

$Unique_ID{COW03647}
$Pretitle{262}
$Title{Tanzania
Chapter 3B.   Ethnic Groups}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Margarita Dobert}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{groups
ethnic
colonial
group
local
often
chiefs
political
chaga
degree}
$Date{1978}
$Log{}
Country:     Tanzania
Book:        Tanzania, A Country Study
Author:      Margarita Dobert
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1978

Chapter 3B.   Ethnic Groups

     Tanzania's 1967 census recognized some 120 ethnic groups (often called
tribes, particularly in the older literature), each of which differs in
varying degrees from the others in culture, social organization, and language.
Only the smallest groups are homogeneous, however; most groups are marked by
some internal variation in language and culture. Further most of them are
characterized by traditions of varied origin, and very few had a clear sense
of themselves as ethnic entities before the colonial period (see ch. 1).

     Roughly a dozen ethnic groups make up half of Tanzania's population, and
none is large enough to be dominant. The largest, the Sukuma, constitutes
nearly 13 percent of the population, the remaining large groups under 5
percent each (see table 3, Appendix A). Ethnicity coincides substantially with
locality (see fig. 5). Some members of many groups have pushed outward from
the core areas, however, and others have moved even further in search of
opportunity.

     In colonial times administrative subdivisions were often drawn along
ethnic lines, and these have persisted into the modern period despite the
government's desire to minimize ethnic considerations, largely because the
boundaries of ethnic groups coincide with features of the terrain or with the
boundaries of ecological zones. Terms for the loci of ethnic groups are in
common use in historical sources and even in modern times in some contexts.
For example, one may refer to Sukumaland, Gogoland, or Chagaland (in Swahili
they become Usukuma, Ugogo, and Uchaga).

Language

     About 95 percent of Tanzania's population is commonly referred to as
Bantu or more accurately, as Bantu speaking-the term has no racial meaning
(see ch. 1). The most important Bantu language for interethnic communication
is Swahili, the mother tongue of Zanzibaris, Pembans, and some coastal people.
It became a lingua franca in some areas even before the colonial period, and
its use was encouraged by both German and British colonial authorities. In
1963 it became Tanzania's national language (see The Role of Swahili in
Nationbuilding, this ch.).

     Nilotic, including Paranilotic, languages are spoken by about half a
dozen groups. There has been a good deal of disagreement about the nature and
degree of the relationship between the languages called Nilotic (represented
in Tanzania by the Luo) and those called Paranilotic (represented in Tanzania
chiefly by the Masai). In 1966 a work on the non-Bantu languages of eastern
Africa by Archibald N. Tucker and Margaret A. Bryan recognized the link
between the two groups of languages but considered them sufficiently distinct
to warrant the term Paranilotic (as opposed to their simple inclusion in
Nilotic or their exclusion under the term Nilo-Hamitic). The term Paranilotic
was adopted in 1973 for use in a survey of East African languages.

     A few groups, of which the largest are the Iraqis, speak Southern
Cushitic languages otherwise found chiefly in Ethiopia and Somalia. Two
groups, the Sandawe and, less certainly, the Hadzapi (or Kindiga) speak
Khoisan languages, related to those spoken by people in southern Africa who
are commonly called Bushmen and Hottentot by Europeans.

Major Ethnic Groups

     Given the very large number of groups only the five largest (constituting
more than one-quarter of the population in 1967) are briefly mentioned here.
They are, however, sufficiently different to suggest the range of variation of
the Bantu-speaking population.

     The Sukuma (the name means "people to the north") living just south of
Lake Victoria constitute by far the largest ethnic group in the country, but
their ethnic consciousness is relatively recent and by no means pervasive.
Quite varied in origin, they were organized in a large number of small
chiefdoms in the precolonial period. Although some chiefdoms were affected by
nineteenth-century trade, they were not strongly influenced by missionary
activity, modern education, and cash cropping until well into the twentieth
century. Most of them practice mixed agriculture-cultivation and cattle
herding. Until the development of cotton cultivation the Sukuma engaged
chiefly in subsistence cropping, although they produced a good many cattle
for sale at a fairly early period. Colonial efforts to change their
agricultural techniques and to impose a consolidated form of chieftainship on
them led to their substantial support for Nyerere's movement toward
independence.

      The Makonde, relatively isolated on the Makonde Plateau in the
southeastern section of the mainland, are also represented in Mozambique where
they constituted the major portion of the rank and file in the anti-Portuguese
guerrilla forces. Of the five largest groups they have been perhaps least
influenced by colonial and postcolonial developments, and they have a
reputation for cultural conservatism and a willingness to defend their
territory and way of life fiercely. That territory, in part dense jungle
lowland, in part more densely populated escarpment and high plateau, is
penetrated only with the greatest difficulty.

     Perhaps because of their isolation and resistance to outsiders the
Makonde have developed a substantial degree of ethnic self-consciousness. This
has not been associated with a unified political system, however; their
traditional political units encompass no more than a few villages. The Makonde
are famous for their imaginative woodcarvings, which are sold internationally.

     The Chaga whose core area is the southern slope of Mount Kilimanjaro
constitute the third largest group. Benefiting from very fertile, well-watered
soil and generally healthful conditions their population has grown to the
point where it is one of the densest in the country; they have been forced to
spill over into the land below the 1,000 meter (3,500 foot) mark. The Chaga
were among the earliest groups affected by Roman Catholic and Lutheran
missionary activity, modern education, and cash cropping (chiefly coffee), and
they achieved a comparatively substantial level of income through both their
sales of coffee and their involvement in wage labor, much of it better
compensated than that of other ethnic groups because of the Chaga's high level
of education.

     In the precolonial period the Chaga were divided into roughly thirty
chiefdoms of varying size. Influenced in part by competition for trade with
the coast several chiefs sought to establish hegemony over larger areas, and
some achieved a degree of temporary success. The process was interrupted by
the arrival of the Germans who, like the British after them, sought to
consolidate these chiefdoms for administrative convenience.

     Chaga involvement in relatively rapid social change led to substantial
internal conflict and the emergence of local political activity, particularly
after World War II. That activity and the Chaga participation in a cooperative
union in connection with coffee production generated a clear sense of ethnic
indentity among them, although it has not precluded continuing internal
conflict.

     Like the Sukuma, their northern neighbors, the Nyamwezi are heterogeneous
in origin and were formerly divided into a great many very small chiefdoms.
In the mid-nineteenth century and later, however, several of their chiefs,
stimulated by the trade route through the newly established town of Tabora in
the heart of Nyamwezi territory, attempted to dominate larger areas (see ch.
1). Although primarily cultivators (with some cattle) the Nyamwezi early made
a reputation as traders, an