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NYAMWEZI 575
The vast majority of the Nyamwezi (Banyamwezi, when using the Bantu
prefix applied to "people") live by hoe agriculture (see Bantu-speaking Peoples).
The Sukuma occupy an area of steppe country bordering Lake Victoria characterized
by vast rolling plains with huge granite outcrops. Most of this area is
cleared and occupied, and the population seems to have increased since World
War I.
The major cash crop and one which is an important part of Tanzania's economy
is cotton. The growing of cotton is subject to strict controls to prevent the spread
of disease and pests. Its sale takes place through a system of producer cooperatives
to which all cultivators must belong. In the southern and west areas
(Nyamwezi and Sumbwa) much of the land is still quite heavily wooded by
miyombo bush. The entire area has been subject to a series of ecological disasters
since 1890, when a rinderpest pandemic killed 90 percent of the cattle. This was
followed by a plague of jigger fleas and an epidemic of smallpox. The resultant
drop in human and cattle populations allowed the bush to grow over previously
cleared areas, which in turn allowed tsetse flies to breed. Tsetse flies carry
trypanosomiasis, which has been a serious problem to both humans and bovines.
There were severe outbreaks of sleeping sickness in the late 1920s, following
heavy mortality from influenza epidemics in the years 1917-1920, which contributed
to the low population growth in this area.
Tobacco has become another important cash crop in the southwestern wooded
area, as has beeswax, yet another valuable product showing a high profit for a
relatively small amount of labor, important in making high-grade polishes and
lipsticks. The main food crops are maize, sorghum, millet and, to a lesser extent,
rice, sweet potatoes, cassava and peanuts. There are many cattle in all areas and
in Sukumaland in particular; overgrazing has become a problem. Cattle are
important as a sign of wealth and in the payment of brideprice. In many cases,
profits made from cotton have been invested in cattle.
In the nineteenth century, travellers reported that the Nyamwezi lived in large
fortified villages, but with the coming of colonial rule these were abandoned.
By the 1960s, most people lived in isolated homesteads based on some form of
extended family. Since 1974 most of the rural peoples of Tanzania have been
compelled to move into larger village groupings under an official policy of
villagization. These groupings were originally called ujamaa villages. The word
ujamaa means "familyness" and is used to translate the English term "African
socialism." However, there has been little popular enthusiasm for the idea so
that although all rural Tanzanians are now required to live in "registered villages,"
only about a dozen in the entire country are acknowledged to be of the
ujamaa type. The rationale for the policy was to make adult education easier,
to increase access to clean drinking water and other sanitation facilities and to
improve communication and political control. Since most Tanzanians formerly
lived in isolated homestead groupings, the new policy will probably have profound
effects, especially when coupled with a policy of universal primary ed-