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Abstract
Among the Makonde of Southeastern coastal Tanzania, cassava (Manihot esculenta L.) is a staple and traditional food. Focusing on perspectives regarding cassava from Sinde village in Tanzania, this paper explores how the history and social relations involved in the movement of cassava—also known as manioc, mandioca and yuca—become embodied in the eating experience. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Sinde, this paper examines how cassava was the most commonly named traditional food by exploring what being “traditional” means in local contexts. Local people in Sinde negotiate their position in discourses of development and modernity through their food preferences and local preferences for rice over cassava embody histories of European colonization and Swahili civilization. Understanding local perspectives of cassava is important because it is a focus of international development to alleviate hunger in Africa and local perspectives contribute to the acceptability of cassava-related programs.
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Mai-Lei Woo Kinshella
Mai-Lei Woo Kinshella is finishing her master of arts degree in medical anthropology in the Department of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. Maggie conducts research in coastal, Southeastern Tanzania, where her field of research is food, health and development. Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, 6303 NW Marine Drive, Vancouver, Canada ([email protected]).
