The Shehe You Need Me to Be: Worlds of Misrecognition in Tanzanian Development

ABSTRACT

Religious leaders have become a vital part of public health projects in developing countries like Tanzania. Development organisations seek them as implementers who can provide access to populations and amplify their messages. Yet, at least in Tanzania, the type of religious leaders (viongozi wa dini in Kiswahili) sought by these public health projects rarely exists in rural areas. Therefore, projects have to construct them through training programmes. The making of rural Muslim religious figures into project implementers entails ‘misrecognition,’ a process where their existing roles and identities as healers, marriage counsellors, and Quran teachers are pushed to the margins for the priorities of public health development organisations. Viongozi wa dini involved in health projects rarely correct their misrecognition, and at times capitalise on it. This dynamic suggests misrecognition can offer a productive space of various possibilities for rural Muslim religious figures.

KEYWORDS:

• Islam
• religious leaders
• misrecognition
• public health
• participatory development

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Bruce Grant, Todd Meyers, Sherine Hamdy, Felicitas Becker, Derek Sheridan, Mike Degani, Hannah Wheatley, Megan Cogburn, Mathew Senga, Andreas Romero, Wossen Ayele, Zachary Enumah and the two anonymous reviewers for their structural and conceptual comments. Any limitations in this article remain my own.

Ethics Approvals: We obtained ethical approval from Tanzania National Medical Research Institute (NIMR/HQ/R.8a/VOL.IX/1203), Columbia University Medical Center Protocol (AAAF3452), Ifakara Health Institute (IRB/No.16–2010), and Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH/No.2014-59-NA-2013–214).

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by Wenner Gren Foundation, Fulbright Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad and Transparency for Development Fellowship (T4D).