RESISTANCE AND CHANGE IN THE SISAL PLANTATION SYSTEM OF TANZANIA

Abstract

The cultivation of sisal in Tanzania was first established under a plantation system and exhibited most of its characteristics. Thus, the plantations were foreign owned and managed, the holdings were large, and cheap labor was Extensively used to produce only a primary raw material. The process by which the main characteristics pf the Tanzanian sisal. Plantation-System were retained-and perpetuated has not previously been adequately explained. This is especially true for the period when the sisal industry reached its zenith during British rule of Tanganyika. The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate and explain the factors affecting changes in the system. Research was conducted in Tanzania, mainly, between April 1966 and September 1969. The fundamental picture of the industry was obtained through library research. Then for the early period the process of change or of stagnation in the characteristics of the industry was interpreted through a study of the interactions of plantations owners with people and institutions