Gender-based division of labour is a system practised throughout the world; in precolonial times the Southern Highlands of Tanzania was no exception. Given that gender-based division of labour was established by tradition, it was feared that breaching cultural norms by transgressing labour boundaries would bring on a curse. Even so, women assumed the extra burden of tasks left by their migrant husbands. This included clearing the land, which was chiefly a man’s duty, and so meant violating cultural norms. Since women traditionally had not been obliged to clear the land, they employed various tactical strategies to facilitate this, such as paying available men to perform the task. We argue in this article that this decision, despite its complexity, promoted women’s decision-making and enabled them to enjoy a degree of autonomy and manage all stages of crop cultivation. In analysing the data, we use the Gender Analysis Framework, which captures the central issues of gender. The results show that, apart from other mechanisms, the phenomenon of male migrant labour boosted the status of women, as well as their decision-making and autonomy. Consequently, women gained more – the situation for them was one of ‘fertility’ rather than a curse.
The ever-growing expansion of Kiswahili as a lingua franca has depreciated the status of other languages in Tanzania and the ethnic verbal arts embedded in them. This includes proverbs. The disappearance of ethnic proverbs is unfortunate because proverbs serve several functions in society, including imparting wisdom and representing a culturally inherited worldview. Efforts to mainstream them into Kiswahili proverbial performances, the practical approach to rescue them from disappearing, have been relatively unsuccessful because translated ethnic proverbs lack proverbiality. Consequently, they cannot be mainstreamed into the Kiswahili proverb repertoire. In this paper, I argue that in order to deal with this problem, existing ethnic proverbs should be collected and translated into Kiswahili and finally fleshed out with aesthetic Kiswahili devices. Kiswahili proverbial features would enable them to gain immediate acceptance among Kiswahili speakers. In so doing, the endangered verbal art will be preserved.
Methali ni utanzu unaotumiwa katika mawasiliano ya kawaida na katika utendaji wa tanzu mbalimbali za fasihi. Yumkini, kutokana na utegemezi wake, pamoja na msisitizo mkubwa kuwa fasihi simulizi hudhihirika katika utendaji, aghalabu, methali zimekuwa zikichambuliwa nje ya muktadha wake wa utendaji. Matokeo yake, nduni nyingi za utendaji wa methali zimeelezwa kiholela, suala linaloleta uvulivuli mkubwa katika fasiri ya methali kwa ujumla. Kwa mfano, kiashiria pekee cha utendaji wa methali kinachoelezwa na wengi ni kile kinachohusisha wahenga, yaani “wahenga walisema…” na vingine vinavyofanana na hicho. Aina hii ya kiashiria hudokeza aina ya utendaji inayoondoa msimamo na hisia za mdondoaji kwa sababu huhusisha maudhui ya methali na wahenga. Kwa kuwa methali ni mali ya jamii, kwa vyovyote vile, kuna uwezekano mkubwa wa kuwa na viashiria vingine vinavyoakisi mazingira ya utendekaji wa methali pamoja na kujumuisha hisia za watumiaji. Kwa kutumia Nadharia ya Utendaji, makala hii inalenga kubainisha na kuchunguza dhima za viashiria vya utendaji wa methali katika nyimbo za muziki wa dansi za Kiswahili. Matokeo yanadhihirisha kuwa, mbali na kiashiria cha “wahenga walisema...” nyimbo za muziki wa dansi zina viashiria mbalimbali vya utendaji wa methali. Baadhi ya viashiria hivyo hudhihirisha mitazamo, misimamo na hisia za watendaji wa methali. Aidha, imebainika kuwa ili kuelewa vizuri maudhui ya methali, uchambuzi wa viashiria vya utendaji haukwepeki.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.