ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the way scholars and development practitioners have tended to treat the concept of uncertainty. Several anthropological and sociological studies have shown that in Africa it is quite common to consult witchdoctors or their equivalents to find an explanation to phenomena that people do not understand. In a general sense, uncertainty refers to a situation in which an actor lacks explanation of the forces that determine his or her destiny. Different paradigms have evolved in response to whether the emphasis should be laid on cultural or material factors, and the macro or micro level of analysis or action. Modernisation theory laid the basis for what was subsequently referred to as 'developmentalism', that is, the ideology based on the premise that change can be engineered in a preferred direction by the choice of the right methods and techniques. Tanzania provides a particularly interesting illustration of the efforts in the 1970s to reduce uncertainty through the means of neo-marxist theories.
