ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that because it placed the individual in the position of navigating through a multitude of relationships and loyalties, family life gave the Njombe debate its irresolute quality. Studies have shown that labour migration economies relied on women to maintain households and farms and ensure the reproduction of labour power while men were away from home. Njombe began to provide substantial numbers of migrant labourers to colonial enterprises shortly after the Maji Maji war, when men and some women began undertaking long journeys to work along the new Central Railway and on European sisal plantations in Tanga Region. Studies have shown that labour migration economies relied on women to maintain households and farms and ensure the reproduction of labour power while men were away from home. Also contributing to gender inequity were conceptions held by both genders about differences in the nature and social roles of men and women.
