Paper long abstract:

This paper discusses the structuring of economic activity among people speaking North Nyanzan languages and examines the nature of the relationship between biological and social reproduction in the region. It argues that the institution of motherhood was central to economic activity, especially to the organization of food production.

The divide most often noted in the literature is between pastoralism, hunting and fishing on the one hand perceived as having been the preserve of men and agriculture on the other hand seen as woman’s work. However, for Baganda, Basoga and Bagwere women and men, as well as for their North Nyanza speaking ancestors, the division of labour was more complicated than this clean distinction depicts. This in turn affected who conducted other types of production and how the proceeds were divided in households and beyond. By tracing some of the key changes in economic activity from the tenth to the nineteenth centuries, this paper sheds light on the role of gender and life stage in its organization. Furthermore, the paper highlights how the interplay between economic life, gender and life stage affected political complexity and the emergence of polities in Buganda, Busoga and Bugwere.

This paper is based on archival- and field-work in central and Eastern Uganda, 2004-05, including Makerere University, the Church of Uganda archives, and local Catholic church archives in Pallisa and Jinja; archival and library work in the Mill Hill Father’s archives in London and the Church Missionary Society in Birmingham; archival work at the White Fathers’ Archives in Rome; and published sources.

Paper long abstract:

Since 1985 four major surveys have been undertaken in Harare which have uncovered major shifts in in-migrants’ attitudes towards the city and increasing vulnerability in their livelihoods. In 2001 one of the surveys investigated in detail recent in-migrants’ perceptions of living in the city. This paper will discuss the results from these elements of the survey and the ways in which gender and age influenced the migrants’ views. While the cost-of-living was the overwhelming problem for women, men, and particularly younger men without direct household responsibilities, proffered a more diverse set of advantages and disadvantages

Paper long abstract:

Author: Justine Dugbazah

Rural women in Ghana confront significant socio-cultural and economic constraints such as lack of access to resources, and relatively lower socio-economic status. This situation is worsened when male members of the household migrate. This results in an increase in women’s productive and unproductive responsibilities. Yet in spite of the increased responsibilities of women, their position in the households and community remains the same. Women mediate this complex situation by aspirations for and participation in new patterns of socio-economic structures. In this article, I examine the negotiations that occur regarding women’s identities, their position and roles within rural migrant households in Ghana. The paper argues that these negotiations serve as important sites of cultural struggle in which women seek to construct new identities and contest their marginalization within the wider society, albeit with conflicting and often ambivalent results. This paper will focus on the experiences of rural women in the Ho District of Ghana.