Transition to capitalism and reproduction: the demographic history of lake Nyasa region 1850s-1980s.
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Date
1999
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Dar es Salaam
Abstract
African countries are passing through a period of economic crisis and reforms. While the economy is in crisis, population has been increasing in most of the states, thus reducing further incomes of the people. Given this imbalance between economic and population growth, a number of African states have adopted population policies whose aim is to limit population growth as a way to economic growth. Tanzania is one of the states that has developed a population policy whose intention is to create a balance between income and population growth. This study examines this position and shows that it is historical and mechanical. It argues that population dynamics are historically determined by the dominant mode of production. Africa's economic and population dynamics at current conjuncture are historically related to the International capitalist system which is the dominant mode of production. Using Lake Nyasa region as a case study, and historical sources, such as: parish registers, hospital registers, oral and archival sources, the study shows how the capitalist integration of the area from mid nineteenth century to 1980s, led to the disintegration of the domestic mode of production, i.e. clan fishing. This integration into the world system through slave trade transformed both social and biological reproduction. More importantly, it reduced population in the area and affected generational stability. By mid 1920's colonialism had succeeded in restoring generation stability with the result that by mid 1940's and 1950's the population had doubled. Both the emerging capitalist exchange economy and cultural intervention, such as Christianity, had by the 1940's not only eroded pre-capitalist controls but also activated increase in population. Evidently population dynamics are directly linked to the socio-economic and political process characteristics of the dominant of the mode of production. Capitalist as the dominant mode of production under the current epoch has shaped production, death, disease, birth, food and migration patterns in Lake Nyasa. In the final analysis capitalist relations are, in fact the main rational explanation for the demographic features currently found in Lake Nyasa area.
Description
Available in print form, East Africana Collection, Dr. Wilbert Chagula Library, Class mark (THS EAF HB3714.T34M5)
Keywords
Demography, Tanzania
Citation
Mihanjo, E. P. A. N. (1999). Transition to capitalism and reproduction: the demographic history of lake Nyasa region 1850s-1980s. Doctoral dissertation, University of Dar es Salaam.