Rural development in Tanzania : what exists behind institutions?

Some pockets of modern economy and society have evolved in Sub Saharan African countries. The Tanzanian economy and society have responded positively to reform, but the country has not yet reached the level of a star performer and neither has it reached middle income level. Inefficiencies, bribery and corruption are widely reported. Now and then hunger is reported in a country where sixty five percent of the population are occupied in farming in rural villages. The article advances the argument that market-supporting and other institutions are not sufficiently grounded for these institutions to assist the country to advance in rural development. Jean- Philippes Platteau’s idea of Where Real Societies Exist is used to show how, what takes place in institutions has led to poor performance of the rural sector

Village land politics and the legacy of ujamaa

The paper explores the legacies of ujamaa for Tanzanian village land management through the analysis of ethnographic data. The first section considers the ujamaa legacies for Tanzanian village administrative and political institutions and the weight of past top-down politics. In the second section, village land politics are investigated in the light of the reform of the land laws in order then to underline the role of village authorities in collective land claims and to illustrate how village land allocations occur in practice. The third section analyses data from three villages to reflect on the salience of village land politics and Village Land Use Plans. Ujamaa leaves its legacy in the continuity of a potential for democratisation from below resisting the continuity of authoritarianism and centralised decision making from above

Iron Production in North Pare, Tanzania : Archaeometallurgical and Geoarchaeological Perspectives on Landscape Change

Archaeology, archaeometallurgy and geoarchaeology are combined in this research to examine the chronology and development of iron metallurgy and its environmental repercussions in North Pare, Tanzania. Pare was a prominent centre for iron production from at least the second half of the first millennium AD, and it has been assumed that this technologywith its demand for wood charcoalhad a significant and detrimental effect on local forest cover. This research sought to examine this claim by exploring the spatial, chronological and technological characteristics of iron production in Pare in conjunction with geoarchaeological evidence. Contrary to older assumptions, our results demonstrate that erosion processes were well established in North Pare before the documented intensification of smelting and smithing activity, and that iron production continued despite environmental changes. We suggest that although iron production may well have contributed to deforestation and erosion in Pare, it is unlikely to be the sole causal factor

Green economy, Scandinavian investments and agricultural modernization in Tanzania

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