City Work in a Time of AIDS: Maasai Labor Migration in Tanzania

Abstract

Around 1997 Tanzanian Maasai began seeking city jobs in noticeable numbers due to intensifying poverty. Having limited knowledge of cities elders were ill-equipped to advise their brothers wives and sons about migration which has ostensibly diminished “traditional” elder authority. Ethnographic research between 1999 and 2001 revealed confusion and lack of accurate knowledge about the mechanisms of HIV/AIDS. Perceptions of Maasai “backwardness” perpetuate negative reactions and there is little assistance or support in cities. Increasing impoverishment and migration from some areas and misunderstandings about HIV/AIDS are combined with customary Maasai polygyny and inability to rely on elders’ guidance. This suite of circumstances puts Maasai labor migrants at particular risk for contracting HIV/AIDS. Health-education programs are critically needed to avert a catastrophe in Maasai communities. (authors)