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 Periodical article |
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| Title: | 'A Nation of Porters': The Nyamwezi and the Labour Market in Nineteenth-Century Tanzania |
| Author: | Rockel, Stephen J. |
| Year: | 2000 |
| Periodical: | The Journal of African History |
| Volume: | 41 |
| Issue: | 2 |
| Period: | June |
| Pages: | 173-195 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Tanzania |
| Subjects: | Nyamwezi long-distance trade History and Exploration Labor and Employment colonialism Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Economics and Trade |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/183432 |
| Abstract: | From the beginning of the 19th century, Nyamwezi long-distance trading caravans dominated the central routes through Tanzania from the Mrima Coast to Lake Tanganyika. In the second half of the 19th century, market relations emerged as the dominant form of economic organization along the central routes. According to recent histories, Nyamwezi and other up-country traders had been undermined by the 1870s through competition from coastal caravan operators, exposure to the world capitalist system, and changes in the international market for ivory. In this view, the Nyamwezi were progressively impoverished and increasingly relied on wage work for others. In contrast, there is evidence to show that the Nyamwezi remained vigorous traders into the early colonial period. The development of a labour market for caravan porters, which was partly connected to the success of Nyamwezi trading ventures, was crucial in the transition to a more market-based economy. The expansion of Nyamwezi porterage was related to a massive expansion of the labour market, as the overall demand for labour increased at the same time that long-distance trade remained viable. Explanations for the eventual decline of up-country traders and porterage must therefore be sought through analysis of change in the early colonial political economy. Notes, ref., sum. |
