Browsing by Author "Venance, Rasimu"

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    Trends in the development of social safety nets in Luguru society from the pre-colonial period to 2000
    (University of Dar es Salaam, 2014) Venance, Rasimu
    This study was conducted to investigate trends in the development of social safety nets in Luguru society. It sought to establish the kinds and causes of social vulnerability which existed in Luguru society, the responses to such forms of vulnerability and the forces which informed the dynamic nature of these responses. The study employed historical methodology. It deployed secondary sources in the process of analysis of primary information. Some primary data were gleaned from the East Africana section of the main library of University of Dare es Salaam, Tanzania National Archives (TNA) and other special archives in Morogoro. More information was collected through oral interviews. This study indicates that vulnerability was a part and parcel of the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial Luguru society and that the forces of nature and human agency were responsible for occurrence of different forms of vulnerability. The post-colonial period was associated with more critical challenges, mainly posed by malaria and the HIV and AIDS pandemic which led to an increase in the magnitude of vulnerability. Furthermore, this study reveals that the Luguru employed different mechanisms to mitigate vulnerability. These mechanisms evolved from traditional mechanisms, in which the matrilineal clan was the central actor, to new mechanisms coordinated outside the family sphere. Traditional social safety net mechanisms, which were efficient in the pre-colonial and early colonial periods, progressively became weak following the undermining of the influence of matrilineal clan system by the colonial and post-colonial governments. Parallel to the weakening traditional mechanisms there evolved alternative social protection mechanisms introduced by the state and nongovernmental actors. These developments, however, did not provide comprehensive and efficient systems of social safety nets comparable to the one based on the matrilineal clan networks.