Vilimani (Social History of Africa)

Vilimani is an examination of the social and environmental consequences of labor migration in early colonial Tanzania. Sunseri relies on a number of case studies to explore transformations in slavery and porterage, social and work life on plantations and railways, gendered conflict at the household and village level, and how rural social change intersected with the Maji Maji rebellion of 1905.

Perhaps half a million men and women entered colonial wage labor circuits during German rule in Tanzania. Framed within the context of industrialization in Germany, this study looks at some of the social consequences of labor migration, the motivations of colonial wage workers, and how labor migrants came to shape many aspects of the colonial economy. Changes in the rural environment that resulted from labor migration are given as much attention as labor struggles at the work site. Case studies examine transformations in slavery and porterage, patterns of labor recruitment, social and work life on plantations and railways, and gendered conflict at the household and village level. This is one of the first studies of this period to examine the consequences of colonial conservation policies, and how rural dwellers transformed their environments in response to constraints on labor, land, and resource use.