What are the Major effects of gender discrimination ?

Major effects of gender discrimination

• There is unequal distribution of power in all sphere of life such in political, economic, social sector

• Women continue to be left out in various area of development.

• Women continue to face violence and aggression as they do not have any economic power base to support themselves. As result, majority of women live in extreme poverty.

• Enrollment of girls and women in various learning institution has not been keeping up the same pace with that of boys and men that is boy and men are many than girl and women in such institutions.

• Women are badly affected by beliefs in witchcraft, poor nutrition and ignorance about health care.

• Unequal distribution of property and wealth between men and women has totally ignored women contribution this economic harassment.

• Women are adversely affected by both early and forced marriages.

• Teaching of initiation which very often urge girls to be submissive to their future husband (boy) and men in general have greatly made girly and women passive to take part in various issues.

• Many women are ignorant of laws and procedure of claiming for their right. This problem has contributed to their discrimination and violence in different areas.

• There are very few women in managerial and decision making level .For example the number of woman in the parliament of Tanzania is one-third that of men

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What are the Institutions which perpetuate gender discrimination

Institutions which perpetuate gender discrimination

1. The family

At the family level there is belief that boys will propagate lineage and support the family, while girls have to get married. Due to this belief many families prefer to educate boy spend more money on them at the expense of the girls, when a choice has to be made between the two. As a result girls have been marginalized in may issues.

2. Religious institution

Some religious doctrine and leader reference to the Quran or Bible on the submissive nature of women tend to deny them of the opportunities to hold position of the leadership and decision making in various levels, For instance in some mosques and to churches decision made by men usually discriminate women.

3. Learning institution

In these institutions it is common practice to find that boys at re offered science subject and mathematics while girl are forced to study subject such as homes than e economic subject and typing. More intelligent than girls, hence, girls are not encouraged to work hard.

4. Traditional initiation institutions

Play a major role in perpetuating gender discrimination. Girl who have undergone initiation ceremonies become passive in school. This is because the traditional counsel and elder who initiate girls have always put more emphasis on submissiveness of women to men. Because of that women are therefore do not fully take part in decision making at home and in other placed.

5. Work places

The socialization process in the community has effects on the gender division of labour between men and women. At work placed, employment of men is given more emphases in other places.

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Which are the Customs which lead to gender discrimination ?

Customs which lead to gender discrimination;

Are those which have their origin from the patriarchal societies

• Patriarchal societies are those societies which are organized and run by men; In these societies it is only men who are the decision maker and holder of the power over the women and resources. Patriarchal systems are common in many African societies including those of Tanzania. The system are now world wide strongly discourage because they favor males over females, and thus perpetuate gender discrimination

• Exclusion of women from decision making; In many patriarchal societies there has always been a common practices to exclude women from making decision on important social, economic, political issues right from the family level to national level. This practices has greatly affected women as most of the decision made by men lead to favor them at the expense of women.

• Paying of bride; The practices of paying bride price to the parents of the girl to be married is considered by men as the condition for buying that girl/ women. Hence the fulfilling of this condition means that the women are put under the control of that mantises.

• Denial of the right to property; In many societies women and girls are not allowed to own property or to inherit any property after the death of their of their husband or parents .As a result women and girl are left with no economic base, hence became dependents to men.

• Initiation ceremonies; Include "Jando" and “Unyango” for men and women .In these ceremonies base the teachings provided to boy are quite different from those given to girls. For example among other things taught to boys one of them is to educate them how to exhibit masculine behavior such as dominance, confidence, strength, competition and rationally while girls and women are taught to exhibit feminine behavior such as submission, caring nurturing, sensitivity and emotionally. As a result, these behavior are used to justify men holing most power position and women reaming in subordinate position

• Habit of food eating; In some tribe, women are forbidden form eating certain types of food. They are not allowed to eat chicken meat, eggs, liver etc, when they are pregnant. This was due to the fear, that the child to be born will grow too big to born in in a normal way .The effect of this was that, the health of the pregnant women and eventually that of the expected baby was affected. Institution which perpetuate gender discrimination.

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What are the most outstanding gender concept among other ?

The most outstanding gender concept among other includes the following;

• Gender discrimination; It is the situation in which one kind of the sex in the society is denied of its right and opportunities simply because of belong to that sex category.

• Gender oppression; It is the situation whereby a certain sexual category is treated harshly or oppressed simply because it belong to that category for example giving heavy tasks and depriving of their important social needs.

• Gender gap; It is an inequality in job accessibility between two different sexes. Culturally, some societies give men the first priority to job opportunities than women. This situation prevails in both public and private sector in many developing countries, including Tanzania where whereby most attractive and highly paying job are occupied by men.

• Gender inequality; Is a situation whereby a certain kind of sex in a society is given priority in all aspect of life at the expense of another sex. For example inmost African societies women are marginalized in all sphere of life while men are favored.

• Gender equity; This is the principle of fairness and justice that advocate gender equality such as principle include making of laws which prevent men from undermining and denying them of their rights.

• Gender equality; This refers to a situation whereby there is no kind of practice which undermines a certain sex. It is the situation whereby there is equal treatment of both male and female in all aspects of their lives.

• Gender analysis; It is the systematic efforts to identify, analyze, document and understand the roles of men and women within a given context. It is about who does what, who has access to and control over what, benefits from what etc.

• Gender sensitive planning; It is the planning that considers both women and men in term of needs. These needs are planned equally. Generally, there are has been some effort for discouraging bad cultural practices that undermine women worldwide. Due to these efforts, the people consciousness about gender equality have been raised hence, made to see the importance of analyzing gender, formulation principle of enhancing gender equality and waged war against the multicultural practices such as child labour and female Genital Mutilation.

• Gender Mainstreaming; This refers to ideas about a given gender that are considered ordinary or normal, hence, accepted by most people in societies. It is a global strategy for promoting gender equality. Mainstreaming involves insuring that gender perspectives and attention to the goal of gender equality are central to all activities, policy development, research resource allocation, planning implementation and monitoring of programmers and project.

• Gender stereo typing; This refer to people perception and attitudes create by the socialization institution

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The impacts of negative aspects of Cultural values

IMPACTS OF NEGATIVE ASPECT OF CULTURAL VALUE

Female genital mutilation this can lead to various effects such as;

• Prolonged bleeding during and after the mutilation.

• Disturbance of the natural vaginal elasticity during delivery due to the scar left after mutilation

• Reduction of sexual pleasure during sexual intercourse

• Spread of sexually Transmitted infection because the instrument used are not sterilized and are used by the whole group being circumcised

• Death because of excessive bleeding and STI’S Such as AIDS/HIV

Gender biases can lead to;

• Unequal distribution of powers in a community

• Women being left out in areas of development

• Lack of spirit of competition hence poor performance

• Few women in managerial and decision making levels

• Violence and aggression.

Belief and practices of witchcraft can lead to;

• Transmission of STI'S

• Despise modern health services

• Family conflict.

• Unnecessary death

Inheritance of spouse (widow) can lead to;

• Contact of STI'S

• Conflicts

Early marriages can lead to;

• Toxemia

• Long difficult labour

• Blocked birth which may damage the bladder, vagina and womb

• Deaths

Polygamy can lead to;

• Rapid population increase

• Transition of STI'S

• Death

• Street dwellers.

Forced marriage may lead to;

• Family conflicts

• Contracting of STI'S

Bride price can lead to;

• Violation of sexual human rights

Forced marriage with its accompanied impact

• Domestic violence

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What are the positive and negative aspects of our cultural values ?

POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE ASPECT OF OUR CULTURAL VALUES

Positive aspects

1) Respect and hospitality; Refer to polite behavior that a person has towards other especially those he/she thinks are older or important to him/ her. For example in many societies the children are taught various way through which they should show respect. Those include greeting, receiving and handling property. How to talk to the elder etc. Through these way children grow up knowing how well they can behave in their families and community at large.

2) Caring for other people and property; Among the people who may need special care in the society are children, old people, disabled, the sick people and other people with special problem. It is a positive cultural value to help people belonging to the mentioned group to get various services because they are the most disadvantages.

3) Proper dressing; As one of the important cultural value proper dressing helps to maintain ones personality. It makes people look smart and acceptable to other member of the society. Currently in many societies there is an increase of parent outcry over the whole issue of indecent dressing among the youth. This problem is associated with the ongoing globalization process which among other things contribute to the decline in moral is the societies and more particular to the youth.

4) Hard working; This is another positive cultural value, certainly because through hardworking the people in the societies are able to produce more and better quality goods and service for the individual and national development.

5) Accountability and transparency; Refer to a situation in which a person is held responsible for a certain task assigned to him/her and she /he may be expected to give satisfactory explanations concerning that task if there is any to need so. Transparency for that matter it means openness or without secret. Accountability and transparency are therefore important cultural value that should be promoted by the society.0nce these are observed the society expectation and wishes can be easily met.

6) Honest; This refer to a state of person being fair and trustful. It is another important cultural value that any society is supported to impart to its member .If this value is successfully imparted to the society member the immoral practices such as corruption, theft, embezzlement of public found etc. can be minimized.

7) Patriotism; This refers to a situation in which one loved his/ her country. Patriotism is an important cultural aspect since it enables the member of a given country to participate fully in the development activities in their country. Because of the love for their country people can even be ready to die for it.

8) Co-operation or participation in various social activities; Is important culture value because it helps to create unity and increase strength towards accomplishment of certain task for the sake of attaining common goals in the society.




Negative Aspects

• Female Genital mutilation; According to the world Health organization is define as all procedure that involve partial or total removal of the external genitalia or other intentional mutilation of the female genital organs, whether for cultural or any other non therapeutic reason.

• In inheritance of widows; This is practice of taking a woman (widow) after the death of her husband. This act has negative effective because it can lead to the contracting of the HIV/AIDS if one of the partners is a victim of HIV/AIDS. This act is also a violation of human right because it turns the woman as object of pleasure and sometimes the property of the inherited widow are taken by the new husband and the humans left with nothing.

• Early and forced marriage; Early marriage is the situation where by a person gets married while he/she is below the legally acceptable age for having marriage i.e below 18 years for a boy, 15 years for a girl. Forced marriage refers to a situation in which a boy or girl is being forced by parents or relatives to get marriage to a person he/she don’t want. This practices is more common to girls than boys. Both early and forced marriages have contributed to several negative effects including marital conflicts which in turn lead to separation and divorce hence leads to an increase of street children.

• Polygamism; this is the situation whereby on man get married to many wives. This practice can also leads to having many children that parents may fails to take care of them thus end up being street children.

• Belief in witchcraft; Is common among some illiterate societies has greatly contributed to various negative effects. The notable effect include the killing of the innocent people include the old women with red eyes due to some allegation that they are the one ones who bewitch other people. This practice is very common in area like Shinyanga and Mwanza in Tanzania.

• The killing of twins and handicapped people, in some tradition societies twins and other people with handicaps such as albino were being killed due to the belief that having such as people in the family or societies was a curse from the God and if such people are left the society will be facing misfortunes. However, in recent years the killing of the albinos has been associated with the belief that some of their body organs bring fortunes to people engaging in various activities such as business, especially in the mining and commercial sector. This belief has contributed much to the killing of albinos in different part of our country.

• Paying of bride price; Is payment made to the parent of daughter or women who is to be marriage by the person or the family of man who want to marry. The paying of bride price has led to misconception that the married women has been bought just like any other items. As a result of this misconception same man in some societies tend to mistreat their wives.

• Food taboos; These refer to practices where by women and girls are restricted or forbidden from taking same kind of food varieties especially those, which are delicious and nutritious such as eggs, liver. Chickens etc. These practices may have negative effects on omen health.

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What are the importance of each Element of Culture ?

THE IMPORTANCE OF EACH ELEMENTS OF CULTURE

1) Language

Is an important in element of culture because it is used as a medium of communication in the society. It can also serve as an identify of a given society in particular or nation in general. For example Kiswahili language in Tanzania.

2) Traditions

Some tradition such as marriages and burial ceremonies play a key role of uniting people together when the meet to conduct or cerebrating the event.

3) Norms

Are social rule that guide behavior they specify the behavior that is appropriate or not in a given situation, norms a given as guideline on how we should act or not act not act on our daily activities.

4) Value

Help society to adopt acceptable behavior shape and individual personalities. A decent dressing for instance, can mark some one look smart and presentable in a certain occasion like wedding ceremony.

5) Ideology

Is important because it enables that society to explain, justify and order several existential condition which would otherwise prove impossible to explain .It also serves as mean for self identification for individual and group that adhere to it.

6) Art and creative

Are used by the people to express their feeling or attitude toward a certain events. The feeling can be expressed through such things like song, drama, picture e.t.c,. Other forms of arts such as painting and drawing are used for decorations.

7) Custom

Used by different societies are very important to the members of that particular society. Among other things are used to represent various object and events to the people.

8) Recreation

Provide household with necessary material such as furniture, pots, which are daily, also some of them can be sold to earn people income

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What are ten (10) elements of Culture ?

ELEMENT OF CULTURE

The following are the element of culture;



Cooperation

Language

Law

Customs

Tradition

Ideology

Recreation

Art and creation

Norms

Fashion




There are ten element of culture

i) Cooperation

These elements manifest themselves in physical and social bond of the society in various activities. It gives chances for members to learn and do things together in community e.g. harvesting, initiation ceremonies

ii) Norms and laws

Law is a deliberately from adopted rules of behavior that are enforced by spend authority.

Are social rules that guide behavior. They specify the behavior that is appropriate or not in a given society. Norms give as guideline an hour we should act so that we can get with our daily activity. Norms have to categories Mores and Folkways.

Mores- Are those norms which society considers them to be of great Moral significance. Those who violate them are defined as sinful, evil, wicked and offender. The punishment to them is various including death, imprisonment torture e.c.t. Such more that may lead to harsh punishment are also called taboos e.g. murder, treason, rape, theft e.c.t.

Folkways- these are customary and habitual ways by which the members of a group do things. Folkways are considered as less important norms in which the violators of them get mild punishment. Example of the common folkways is time for appointment, greetings and washing clothes.

iii) Arts and crafts

As elements of culture arts are expression, which reflect feelings attitude and the level of development of a given society as struggling for existence and survival in a particular environment. These achievements could either be bound, political or economic ones.

Craft- Refers to the objects fashioned or created and used by a particular society example of craft include furniture, clay pots, baskets, sculptures, graphics and many others. Crafts can also reflect the cultural values and technology of the concerned society.

iv) Recreation

Reaction means relaxing and amusing work makes the body and mind to get tired so that mean med a roast. E.g. To participates in sports and games or dance hand: of show ground where sports and games are formed.

v) Ideology

Is a systematized and interconnected set of ideas about the social- economic and political organization of society as a whole. It contains ideals, ends purposes that a society should pursue. Ideology lay down the principle and condition to be followed by given society.

vi) Tradition

Traditions resemble custom they are experienced of the past are inherited by a society and they are unchangeable. Examples Marriage, funeral ceremonies, family care and courtship, sport and game.

vii) Language

Is a socially structured system of sound patterns, written words or signs with specific and arbitrary meaning used by a society for communication. It has a major role of creating interaction between and among people in short it binds the separate human lives together. Language is the most distinctive and complex achievement of human beings it is used to express physical and spiritual wishes.

viii) Customs

Customs these are pattern of habit, transmitted from one generation to another generation such customs include foods, clothes, shelter, argument, education, worship, names, greeting, love another generation such customs include foods, clothes, shelter, argument, education, worship, names, greeting, love and beauty obedience.

ix) Values

Is abstract idea of what is described correct and good that most member of a society share. They are conceptions or standards by which members of a society evaluate people, objects and events as to the relative worth, merit, beauty or morality. Value is used by the member of society to distinguish the desirable from the undesirable, what is good and bad the beautiful from the ugly.

x) Fashion

Are highly passing pattern of behavior fashion allows many change in norms Example Arts dressing etc.

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What are the two aspects of culture ?

ASPECT OF CULTURE



Culture consists of two main aspects;


·         Material culture
·         Intellectual culture/ non material culture

1. MATERIAL CULTURE
Material culture refers to tangible or physical artifacts (objects) made by human being. They include such things like spears, cooking pots, houses, coins, computer, stools, sofa sets and many others. These cultural objects reflect the nature of the society in which they were made. Material culture shows the extent to which man has achieved in mastering the nature. Such achievement include the level reached in the production of the instruments of labour, the technical skills developed, the scientific organization of labour, the availability of everyday needs of human and many others achievements.



2. INTELLECTUAL CULTURE/NON-MATERIAL CULTURE
Non - material culture: These are intangible or abstract creations of human society. They include such things like values, beliefs, symbols, norms, language and institutional arrangements.

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The meaning and importance of Culture

What is culture?

Culture is the total way of life in a given society.

Is a phenomenon that is practiced by all societies in the world. As a universal phenomenon it has bees held as a mankind asset which un-holds and perpetuates his time announced virtues. Culture links the past and present and synthesize man achievement and as nation.




Culture can be defined as a total way of life of particular society in a given time and environment as a total way of life it embraces all that has been created by man excluding all that has been given to him by nature. Therefore it includes thing like art and craft, language, education, politics, beliefs, technology, symbol, value, norms, customs, tradition and many others.

Culture is acquired or absorbed by man through living and participate in the cultural life of his group and changed by contact which outside cultures or inspiration from within.




IMPORTANCE OF CULTURE

• The notable importance of culture include the following;

• First, through culture a society passes on the knowledge, skill and wisdom from the elders to the young generation. Culture for that matter is used as a medium of bringing up the young to become respectable member of their society. Such knowledge and skill are passed on to the young generation through various cultural activities such as initiation ceremonies.

• Another importance of culture is that teaches the youth about various social values such as language, taboos and beliefs of the societies. It can also inculcate political and economic values and beliefs of the societies. It can also inculcates political and economic values of the society

• Third importance of culture is that, it serves as an identity of a particular society. Culture helps one society to be easily identified from other societies, or a nation from other nation. For example people from Tanzania can easily be identified from other people of East Africa simply because of the fluent speaking of Kiswahili language when compared with people from Kenya and Uganda. Maasai people can be identified from other people just because of their style of dressing known as "LUBEGA" and the way they plait or cut hairs which is quite different from other societies.

• Fourthly, culture is importance because it helps to promote unity among the people. It binds people together as one society or nation. This becomes possible because of the same culture value that the member of the particular society share together such value includes things like language, taboos, customs etc.

• The fifth importance of culture is that it exposes the younger to tasks similar those of their elders. This is achieved through such things initiation ceremonies where both the girl and the boys are given special training concerning with proper morals of their societies. Another place where the young ones learn various tasks similar to that of their elder is in the family. Family as the first institution of socialism play a significant role in educating the young ones about various task similar to those of their family member and their society in general.

• Through work of art culture can serve as a means of providing people with enjoyment or entertainment. For examples various kinds of tradition dances, music, sport and games etc. are used for entertainment people after long period of work or passing through hard or difficulties such as war, hunger etc. Cultural traditional dances, music and game are also used to entertain people during various ceremonies such as wedding birthday and many others.

• Lastly, culture equips the young people with insightful knowledge concerning with bad and good cultural practices. This help to refrain them from bad cultural that might have a bad impact to them.

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Why African Resistance against the imposition of colonialism Failed?

Why African Resistance Failed?

• It is true that many societies resisted against Europeans invaders but most of those resistance failed and African were defeated. The failure of Africans reactions was associated with the numbers of factors such as;

• Disunity among the African rulers. The Africans failed to unite together to fight for their enemy. Example in West Africa, Tanganyika, Angola, Namibia and Central Africa.

• Internal political factions in some Africa states contributed towards the defeat. Due to the disarray of many African states there was no time for cohesion to be against the enemy.

• Military and modern technology superiority of Europeans. Due to industrial revolution in Europe they were able to manufacture superior firearms which were used during the war against the Africans who most of them were using poor weapons.

• A disciplined and well-organized army helped to defeat African. The colonial armies were better trained and more experienced in strategy and tactics.

• The Europeans wanted to maintain and preserve their new acquired economic positions and that made them fight at all costs, ruthlessly and untiringly. 

• Instability and public misery of Africans. Most of Africans were fought with bitterness which culminate into greater devastation, villages were burnt, farmland destroyed and animals looted. This ended up with gross loss of property, fear and famine.

• Religious division created serious problems for African unity. Religious disunity poisoned the cohesion of Africans. E.g. antagonism existed between Tijaniyya and Quidirrija brother in Algeria facilitated failure of resistance against the French.

• The unpopularity of some African leaders to their subjects led European victory.

• Natural calamities such as famine, drought and epidemic made it difficult for Africans to maintain stiff resistance.

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What are the Significance of the Early african Resistances

Significance of the Early Resistances.

i. Primary resistances helped to shape the environment of later African politics because of their impacts upon the thinking and action of the colonial authorities. The formation of TANU in Tanganyika had connection with Maji Maji and other associations.

ii. Primary resistances brought about the collapse of the commercial companies, which were at first employed by the German and British to open East Africa spheres of influence. So this forced the two governments to take direct responsibility.

iii. Primary resistances helped to change the early European attitudes of superiority. The thinking of administrators and settlers especially in Tanganyika and Southern Rhodesia after Maji Maji and Shona and Ndebele rising of 1896-1897, were dominated by fear of the repetition of such horrible outbreaks.

iv. Primary resistances showed Europeans that Africans were not willing to be colonized by Europeans. They wanted to remain' with their traditional ways of living.

v. Primary resistances displayed African grievances to the Europeans, e.g. Land alienation, forced cultivation, taxation, and low wages.

vi. Primary resistances forced Europeans to change their methods of ruling Africans. For example, in Tanganyika after the Maji Maji war the Germans made changes in their way of ruling including land ownership, taxation, whipping people in public etc.

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Why Ethiopia was not colonized

WHY ETHIOPIA ESCAPED COLONIALISM 

• Ethiopia was the only country in Africa that escaped colonialism. By 19th century all African nations had been dominated by the colonialists save Ethiopia there are various reasons that explain why Ethiopia managed to escape colonialism, these include the following forces; 

• The defeat of Italy in the battle of Adowa in 1896 made other European countries to fear to colonize Ethiopia; they thought that they might be defeated like Italy.

• The existence of powerful Emperors like emperor Theodore who once proposed to marry the queen of England, Emperor Yahannes 1867-1876, Emperor Menelik, these powerful leaders consolidated Ethiopia and made it strong enough to be colonized.

• The existence of Ahamaric language which promoted solidarity and unity within the Ethiopian society that made it solid able enough to resist the European powers from colonizing her.

• Poor geographical position and bad climatic condition such as- infertile soils; rocky lands and mountains of Ethiopia discouraged many Europeans to colonize it.

• Accessibility the modern weapons from Europe. After the Brussels treaty of 1890 in Belgium, Ethiopia managed to get more weapons from Europe to defend her self.

• The military strategic position of Ethiopia she is a mountainous country which could strategically able to defend her self from any intruder.

• The existence of Christianity ever since even before the advent of colonialist in Africa. Christianity has been adopted as a state religion; it brought awareness, civilization and unity among the Ethiopians which made it impossible to be colonized easily.

• Divisions among European powers during the colonization of Africa, every capitalist country was fighting alone to get more colonies, emperor Menelik used such chance to defend his country.

• The weakness of Italian army. Italy had just unified was not strong enough, this enabled Ethiopia to defeat her at the battle of Adowa in 1896.

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What are the effects of Nama and Herero uprising of 1904-1907

The Effects of Nama and Herero uprising

i. After the uprising, the Nama and Herero lost their cattle and land to Germans. They became very poor and lived in severe life that could not enable to live in conducive environment and good life.

ii. The chief township in Namibia was officially abolished by German government.

iii. Namibia became a Germans colony and German administration continued to be strong. For this reason, the Nama and Herero uprising did not materialize and had very minimal effect compared to that of Majimaji in Tanganyika.

iv. The African communities, such as Herero lost their life, only 16,000 Herero survived out of previous population on 80,000, whereas only 9800 Nama were alive in 1911, compared to 20,000 people who lived in 1892.

v. There was an increasing number of Germans in Namibia. For example up to 1903 the number of German was about 4,640 but after the war the number increased to 14,840 in 1913.

vi. After the uprising, the German government introduced concentration camps where Africans women and children were grouped. In these camps they lived in bad conditions hence many of them died of sun, famine and very cruel condition of forced labour.




After the uprising, the German government introduced concentration camps where African women and children were grouped. In these camps they lived in bad conditions hence many of them died of sun, famine and very cruel condition of forced labour. The Nama-Herero uprising went on until the end of 1905 when the Nama chief Witbooi was killed. Since then the Nama unity began to decline gradually. The Nama leadership was succeeded by Morenga, but he was also killed. He was succeeded by Chief Simon cooper, who continued the resistance until 1907 though the German reasserted their control. At the end of the uprising, the remaining Nama and Herero independence was destroyed by the German forces. They confiscated their cattle and deposed all their chiefs. African communities which survived were subordinated, forced to work in German farms and mines. This created hatred between Germans and African communities up to the period of the First

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what are the Meaning and the Causes of Nama and Herero uprising of 1904-1907

NAMA AND HERERO UPRISING IN NAMIBIA (1904-1907)




The German occupation and imposition of its colonial rule in Namibia met with a limited success in the 1880’s and 1890’s. The region was inhabited by three main ethnic groups, the first and second group comprised Bantu people of Ambo and Herero who engaged in crop cultivation and livestock keeping. The other group comprised the Nama who were Hottentots and engaged in Pastoralism. Both groups depended on land for cultivation and pasture, The history of Namibia in the nineteenth century was characterized by intense conflicts between the Nama and Herero who angered in Pastoralism and hunting. After the arrival of Europeans, the conflict was intensified since this foreigner' s used the rivalry for their benefit. The Herero welcomed Germans who offered them a treaty of-protection and proposed to help them against the Nama. But this German and Herero alliance was opposed by the Nama leader Hedrick Witbooi since he understood the nature and real aims of Germans.




Chief Hedrick Witbooi realized that the Herero Chief could become just a mere subordinate chief under the German government. The Nama and Herero rivalry threatened the German missionaries. Later on, in 1884, the Germans declared a protectorate over Namibia; they also occupied the region effectively. The German government introduced the settler policy between 1884 and 1904, which affected both the Nama, and Herero hence accumulated a lot of grievances which resulted into uprising.




Causes of Nama and Herero uprising

i. Cattle raiding that were done frequently by the German traders and settlers. As cattle was among of the treasured commodity among the Nama and Herero communities, robbing of cattle threatening the economic interest of African commodities.

ii. The imposition of forced labour in 1896. German wanted labour to work in plantations and in construction of infrastructures such as roads, railways as well as public buildings. The German government used force to obtained laborers which discontented the Africans; thus decided to take up arms and against the Germans.

iii. Land alienation. This includes grabbing of the best grazing land in the central plateau of Namibia. German government reserved the land for settler settlement which in turn created hostility between African communities and Germans.

iv. Imposition of taxes. The German imposed tax that had to be paid by Africans, they began to demand tax in 1896 and in order to make effective collection of taxes they use force which led Africans to resist by taking up arms against the Germans.

v. The destruction of traditional authority, after they had established their control over Namibia, Germans did not pay attention to the region. For example they imposed some policies without consulting some traditional chiefs from Africans.

vi. Harassment to the Herero indebted people by German following the credit ordinance of 1903 that all debts had to be collected in one year time, after which the debt would be invalid.

vii. The outbreak of rinder pest diseases, which killed about 90% of Nama and Herero’s cattle in 1903. This affected their economy many sold their land to German settler in order to sustain their life. But the rinder pests diseases was interpreted by religious leaders punishment from God since the Nama and Herero cooperated by the whites, thus the people had to resist against the German so as to get rid of these misfortunes.

viii. The German control over religious beliefs. The Nama believed on their traditional religions and trusted their religious leaders, but when their beliefs were threatened by Germans, chiefs organized and motivated his subjects to resists against the German.

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