ABSTRACT
Tanzania rarely gets noticed in the Western press, yet it is one of the few countries in Africa that has remained politically stable and peaceful since its independence in 1961. In the global political economy, Tanzania is certainly a marginal participant, an identity it is keenly aware of. In Tanzania, Mbulu District is an area with a fascinating history. Throughout the country, Tanzanians associate certain places and the people who inhabit them with either modernity or with traditional ways of life. It is believed the Iraqw came into Tanzania from Ethiopia centuries ago. According to well-known oral history, the Iraqw arrived in Irqwa Da'aw or Mama Issara, the place they call their homeland, from a place called Ma/angwatay to the southwest. As William Arens observed in Mto wa Mbu, a rapidly growing town at the foot of the Rift Wall on the road entering Iraqw territory, Iraqw and Maasai are disdained as watu wa kabila (tribesmen) and wapagani (pagans).
