For a woman to live on her own without male protection and control is not only an alien idea to most people in the study area, but it even rebels against prime gen- ‘Prostitutes’ or Modern Women? Negotiating Respectability in Northern Tanzania der notions. Since she lacks male protection, the cultural logic goes, she becomes […]

Disillusioned in their search for an egalitarian and faithful husband, women rather opt for a generous man who is willing to support them. Although some women stick to their lovers, even in times when they have less to offer, most women are likely to terminate such affairs when their temporary lovers or more stable part­ners […]

Based on the life histories of 50 women, and illustrated in the above cases, most women attach themselves to multiple lovers or temporary partners of various types and durations, but frequently they are transient. While they are still young, most women, more or less deliberately, get involved in temporary alliances as a way to test […]

I lived with many men, hut they only messed up my life and gave me problems. At the time I was young and stupid and I therefore accepted men [i. e. sexually] too easily. I met men in bars or along the road; they approached me and I accepted them. That is why I have […]

Rachael and Nora had known each other since the time when they both had been involved in petty-trade, commuting between Arusha town and the Kenyan border in the late 1970s and early 1980s. When Nora introduced me to Rachael in 1991, Rachael was 34 years of age, and had become a relatively well-established shop owner. […]

wanted a child, and although Nora had tried to conceive during their three-year — relationship, Nora had not yet conceived.1 Mal therefore suspected her of not wanting his child, and Nora feared that their relationship would fizzle out and that Mal would take back the land he had bought for her. During this time, however, […]

When I first met Nora, in 1991, she was a 29 years old single mother living at her mother’s place in Meru together with her two children—from different fathers. Ever since Nora, at the age of 14, gave birth to her first born child out of wedlock, she has supported herself and her children through […]

Anna When I became acquainted with Anna, some ten years ago, she was 29 years old and worked as a secretary in a private European coffee company in Arusha town. She was unmarried and the mother of a 10-year-old daughter who lived at her grandparents’ in Meru. When Anna was roughly 19 years old, she […]

The Meru (100,000 to 150,000 people) live on the eastern and southern slopes of Mount Meru some ten km east of Arusha town. Understanding processes of ur­banisation and peoples’ spatial mobility as well as their economic adaptation to modern changes, the close proximity between the Meru land and Arusha town must be understood as a […]

Liv Haram Introduction The migration of women into East African towns has always generated particular moral discourses on women’s life and particularly, their sexual behaviour. Even during colonial times, urbanisation was considered to affect Africans badly by separating them from rural life, family, clan or tribal authority. It also was thought to severely disrupt their […]