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| Title: | Machambas in the City: Urban Women and Agricultural Work in Mozambique |
| Author: | Sheldon, Kathleen |
| Year: | 1999 |
| Periodical: | Lusotopie |
| Pages: | 121-140 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Mozambique |
| Subjects: | women's work urban agriculture Women's Issues Labor and Employment Urbanization and Migration Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment colonialism Economics and Trade agriculture Cultural Roles Family Life economics urbanization Sex Roles |
| External link: | http://lusotopie.sciencespobordeaux.fr/sheldon.pdf |
| Abstract: | Urban agriculture in Africa is usually presented as a new activity taken up in response to economic crisis. This paper investigates the past and present practice of agricultural labour by urban women in Mozambique in order to demonstrate that they have cultivated urban gardens for many decades, and that women from a broad range of socioeconomic groups do this work. After an overview of women and urban agriculture in eastern Africa, the paper focuses on the history of women and urban agriculture in Mozambique, particularly in Beira, where the author conducted interviews in the early 1980s and in August 1989. In the 1980s, Beira was noted for its extensive fields and gardens ('machambas'), which were cultivated initially in response to the shortages of food caused by the war. However, in the city's suburban neighbourhoods women continued to be involved in agricultural labour. This work was not only the province of women who were otherwise unemployed; the majority of women who worked full time in the garment or cashew factories also invested time and energy in urban family agriculture. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English, French and Portuguese (p. 584-585). |
