The study aimed to develop and validate a food literacy tool for Tanzanian adults. The Tanzanian nutrition, food, and health promotion experts evaluated the initial 23-question food literacy tool for its relevance to the context, where its content validity was determined. The construct validity involved the analysis of food literacy information collected in a cross-sectional study involving 709 adults (484 females and 225 males) sampled from rural and urban Tanzania. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted to explore the underlying factor structure and identify the number of latent constructs. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using structural equation modeling (SEM) verified the measurement model and confirmed the theoretical model’s validity and reliability. The descriptive statistics summarized the essential characteristics of the study sample. The final tool remained with 14 questions after removing questions with low factor loadings <0.5 and higher uniqueness above 0.60. The model achieved construct validity through convergent and discriminant validity and construct reliability through the composite reliability exceeding 0.60 and a Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.83 and above. The 14-question food literacy tool has been reviewed and evaluated by experts in food, nutrition, and public health; therefore, it is a valid measure of food literacy among adults in Tanzania. It is suitable for designing nutrition education programs and ensures accurate and reliable measurements for effective interventions and policy actions.

Family planning programmes in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) often disseminate the proposition that birth spacing improves child survival. Yet, there are few examinations of this hypothesis that benefit from longitudinal data. This paper addresses this gap using 15 years of prospective data from three rural districts of Tanzania. The effect of birth interval durations on the risk of childhood mortality was estimated by fitting Weibull parametric hazard regression models with shared frailties to a dataset that comprised records of reproductive events and their succeeding survival trajectories of 25,762 mother-child dyads that lived in the sentinel areas of the Ifakara and Rufiji Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems from 2000 to 2015. The analysis was motivated by two hypotheses: First, that relatively short subsequent and preceding birth intervals would be associated with heightened risks of child mortality; however, that the effects of short subsequent birth intervals would be most pronounced among children between 12 and 59 months of age; and second, that the effects of short preceding birth intervals would be most acute during the neonatal and post-neonatal period. Results, which were adjusted for confounder effects at the individual, household, and contextual levels, demonstrated significant associations between subsequent and preceding birth interval durations and childhood mortality risk. Regarding subsequent birth intervals, relative to birth spacing of less than 18 months, durations 24–35 and ≥36 months were associated with 1–5-year-old mortality risks that were 0.29 and 0.21 times lower. Relative to preceding birth intervals of less than 18 months, those of 24–35 months were associated with a neonatal mortality risk that was 0.48 lower. Compared to the same referent group, preceding birth intervals of 18–23, 24–35, and ≥36 months were significantly associated with 12–23-month-old mortality risks that were 0.20, 0.39, and 0.33 times lower. The findings are compared with those from similar studies held in SSA, and the potential for family planning programmes to contribute to improved child survival in settings, such as Tanzania, is discussed.

Increasing electricity access remains a challenge, particularly in rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa. This study examines the case of Tanzania, where connection rates remain low even among rural households residing ‘under the grid’, and this despite substantial government subsidies for household connections. Using data from 1,774 rural households living within reach of the electricity grid, we investigate correlates of the low grid electricity uptake. We find that proxies for wealth are positively associated with connection status, while social network variables are less so. Capacity to pay thus appears to remain a major barrier, and in-house wiring costs emerge as a significant expense unaddressed by the existing subsidy scheme, exceeding grid connection costs sevenfold. Similar mechanisms influence the choice between grid electricity and traditional or solar energy sources. These findings inform the ongoing policy debate on subsidy design and the role of alternative energy sources in expanding access.

This essay is a study in bureaucratic knowledge production using the example of the postal system in German East Africa. There is a great deal of historical literature that focuses on bureaucratic-knowledge-as-power: bureaucracies produced information that was used to quantify and, ultimately, to control populations both in the metropole and the colony. In this piece I want to emphasize another kind of bureaucratic knowledge production: namely, information about the bureaucratic system that was created through bureaucratic practice — what I call “studied bureaucratic knowledge.” Beyond understanding German attempts to translate (linguistically, administratively, and culturally) one understanding of bureaucracy, the historian who pays attention to the users of colonial bureaucratic structures can uncover bureaucratic knowledge created by those who encountered those structures in their daily lives — and how that information in turned shaped their use of the bureaucratic system.

Tourism in Africa was entangled with colonialism from the start. However, after the Second World War it became an integral part of the colonising powers’ development agenda, albeit one that has received little scholarly attention so far. This presented African states with a serious dilemma when most of them gained independence during the 1960s. On the one hand, tourism promised to stimulate economic growth, provide much needed foreign currency, and create employment opportunities. On the other hand, international tourism had the potential to threaten the economic independence of post-colonial states and perpetuate colonial stereotypes, as well as international and local power imbalances and inequalities. The newly elected governments had to deal with this “colonial baggage.” This article focusses on the transition from colonial to post-colonial tourism in two East African countries, Kenya and Tanzania. I explore how the late colonial government pursued tourism as a development strategy for the region. I also demonstrate how Kenya and Tanzania approached tourism and its colonial legacies in different ways after independence. To trace their respective tourism histories, I draw on published reports and newspaper articles, historical research literature, in particular, from tourism scholars of various disciplines, as well as archival sources.

Human–wildlife conflict is a critical and complex challenge in wildlife conservation. It arises when humans and wildlife interact and one or both parties suffer negative consequences from the interaction. This research assessed the extent of damage resulting from human–African buffalo Syncerus caffer conflict and explored mitigation strategies. We used a semi-structured questionnaire-based survey of 131 households randomly selected in Kambi ya Simba, Oldeani and Tloma villages surrounding Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania. Our results revealed that resource competition was the main factor inducing human–African buffalo conflict. The impacts reported most frequently were crop damage (especially during the wet seasons) and human casualties. Crops that were most often damaged included maize, beans, wheat, peas and coffee. To minimize buffalo crop depredation, farmers currently use traditional mitigation approaches such as guarding farms, lighting fires, using torchlight and vocal and other auditory deterrents. In addition, a local coffee estate installed electrified fencing around its plantation. Our findings demonstrate the impacts of human–African buffalo conflict on local communities and the importance of continuing human–African buffalo conflict monitoring to improve conservation action and increase the participation of the local community in conservation activities. To minimize human–African buffalo conflict, we recommend conservation strategies that improve the natural habitat of the African buffalo. Most importantly, providing communities affected by human–African buffalo conflict with modern and more effective mitigation methods, paired with increased community awareness of the use of these methods, could result in significant reductions in the human cost of human–African buffalo conflict.

Schistosomiasis is a neglected tropical disease with significant health implications, particularly among children. A cross-sectional study was conducted among school-aged children (SAC) in Mwanga district, Tanzania, a region known to be co-endemic for S. haematobium and S. mansoni infection and where annual mass drug administration (MDA) has been conducted for 20 years. In total, 576 SAC from 5 schools provided a urine sample for the detection of Schistosoma circulating anodic antigen using the upconverting particle-based lateral flow (UCP-LF CAA) test. Additionally, the potential of the point-of-care circulating cathodic antigen (POC-CCA) and microhaematuria dipstick test as field-applicable diagnostic alternatives for schistosomiasis were assessed and the prevalence outcome compared to UCP-LF CAA. Risk factors associated with schistosomiasis was assessed based on UCP-LF CAA. The UCP-LF CAA test revealed an overall schistosomiasis prevalence of 20.3%, compared to 65.3% based on a combination of POC-CCA and microhaematuria dipstick. No agreement was observed between the combined POC tests and UCP-LF CAA. Factors associated with schistosomiasis included age (5–10 years), involvement in fishing, farming, swimming activities and attending 2 of the 5 primary schools. Our findings suggest a significant progress in infection control in Mwanga district due to annual MDA, although not enough to interrupt transmission. Accurate diagnostics play a crucial role in monitoring intervention measures to effectively combat schistosomiasis.

In the 1890s, the slave and ivory trader Rashid bin Masoud established the settlement Kikole deep in what is now southwestern Tanzania. Kikole was strategically located near Lake Nyasa, a major slaving region. Masoud's followers residing at Kikole were typically referred to as his slaves by German colonists and missionaries. Local oral histories today, however, define these followers as askari (soldiers or guards) or mafundi (technicians or specialists; in this case, in using weaponry). This article considers how recent expanded excavations at Kikole can help us better understand Masoud's followers. Differences in housing investment and material access suggest status differences among residents: any single definition of Masoud's followers may be inadequate. A broader concern addressed in this article is how we define slavery itself.

The year 2022 marked 30 years since Tanzania re-adopted multiparty democracy in 1992. The number of women parliamentarians has increased from 16 per cent after the multiparty elections in 1995 to 37.4 per cent after the 2020 elections. However, a significant share of women parliamentarians emanates from the special seats system, while only a small share of women hold directly elected seats. For example, in 2023, while women account for 37.4 per cent of the Parliament, only 9.8 per cent were elected from constituencies. This article studies the legal challenges facing women's access to directly elected parliamentary seats in light of 30 years of multiparty democracy in Tanzania. It finds that the legal gaps related to candidacy age, political affiliation, the applicable electoral system, governance of political parties, violence against women in political and public life, campaign financing and challenges related to the implementation of the special seats system hinder women's access to elected parliamentary seats.

Two globally threatened tree species, the Critically Endangered Cola porphyrantha (Malvaceae) and the Endangered Gigasiphon macrosiphon (Fabaceae) are narrowly distributed in Kenya and Tanzania. In Tanzania, both species were first located in an isolated, unprotected forest fragment in the East Usambara Mountains in the early 2000s. As no assessment of these subpopulations had been made since then, we surveyed the forest fragment as well as nearby unprotected forest fragments. In contrast to the early 2000s when only five and two mature trees of C. porphyrantha and G. macrosiphon, respectively, were located, we found 18 and five mature trees of these species. We did not find either species in intensive surveys of seven neighbouring unprotected forest fragments but we located a single G. macrosiphon beside a river close to one of the unprotected fragments. Gigasiphon macrosiphon was also previously known from two sites in Amani Nature Reserve in the East Usambara Mountains, but recent surveys, including our own, failed to relocate these subpopulations. Because of heavy anthropogenic disturbance in the one site where the two species still occur and their general absence from adjacent forest, we are working with the local community to protect the isolated fragment. Additionally, in situ planting of locally grown seedlings of both species is being supported by Amani Nature Reserve.