From Deskilling to Reskilling: The Role of Technical Skills among the Youth in Kagera Region

Lucius R. Mugisha, Huruma L. Sigalla

Abstract


This paper examines the source and role of skills among the youth in Kagera Region. On the one hand, it employs Burawoy (2015)’s concept of excommodification to delineate the context within which agricultural commodities decline in their value given the invention of other nonagricultural commodities. On the other hand, the paper uses the Foucault’s concept of bio-politics to show that technical non-agricultural skills are biopolitical techniques which provide livelihood options but also conceal youth’s precarious conditions of existence. Such bio-political techniques serve to conceal and reproduce precarious conditions of existence among both the youth and the wider agricultural society in Kagera Region. The main findings are that non-agricultural skills are acquired through apprenticeship, primary and secondary schools, public and private technical colleges, training by NGOs, and they combine formal vocational training and apprenticeship. Arguably, such skills are bio-political because, while enhancing livelihood options for the youth, non-agricultural skills conceal and reproduce precarious conditions of existence among the youth in particular and the agricultural community in Kagera Region.

Keywords: Tanzania, Kagera, Youth, Technical Skills, Population

Lucius R. Mugisha, Lecturer, University of Dar es Salaam; Email: mugishapastory@gmail.com
Huruma L. Sigalla Senior Lecturer, University of Dar es Salaam; Email: sigalla@udsm.ac.tz


Full Text:

PDF

References


Amin, S. and Bush, R. 2014. “An interview with Samir Amin”. Review of African Political Economy, 41(sup1):108-114.

Arubayi, D. K. 2015.“Youth in Development: Understanding the Contributions of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to Nigeria’s National Development”.PhD Thesis: University of Manchester.

Asakura, K. 2015.“Theorizing Pathways to Resilience among LGBTQ Youth: A Grounded Theory Study”. PhD Thesis: University of Toronto.

Austin, K. 2017.“Brewing Unequal Exchanges in Coffee: A Qualitative Investigation into the Consequences of the Java Trade in Rural Uganda”.Journal of World Systems Research, 23(2):326-352, jwsr.org. Accessed: 11.05.2019.

Bachwenkizi, B.2009.“Economic Analysis of Organic Farming in Tanzania: A Case Study of Smallholder Coffee Production in Muleba District”.Msc. Thesis: Sokoine University of Agriculture.

Bernstein, H. 2001.“The Peasantry in Global Capitalism”. Socialist Register, 2001:25-21

Burawoy, M. 2015.“Facing an Unequal World”. Current Sociology, 63 (1):534.

Burawoy, M. 2013. “Marxism after Polanyi”. In Williams, M and Sutgar, Eds. Marxism in the 21st Century. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.

Cerpenter, S. and Mojab, S. 2017. [Eds.] Youth as/ in Crisis: Youth, Public Policy and the Politics of Learning. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.

Cook, S. and Binford, L. 1990. Obliging Need: Rural Petty Industry in Mexican Capitalism. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Foucault, M. 2008.The Birth of Bio-politics: Lectures at the College De France, 1978-1979. Edited by Michel Sebellart. Palgrave Macmillan: New York.

Hardt, M. and Negri, A. 2004.Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire. New York: The Penguin Press.

Harvey, D. 2003. A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford University Press: Oxford.

Jorgen, K. And Rald, K. 1975.Rural Organization in Bukoba District, Tanzania. Upsalla: Scandinavian Institute of African Studies.

Kearney, M. 1996.“Reconceptualizing the Peasantry: Anthropology in Global Perspective”. Boulder: Westview Press.

Kristensen, K.S. 2013.“Michel Foucault on Biopower and Bio-politics”. Unpublished Master’s Thesis: University of Helsinki.

Maghimbi, S. 2010.“Cooperatives in Tanzania Mainland: Revival and Growth”. CoopAFRICA Working Paper. Dar es Salaam: ILO.

Michael, P. 2006. “Peasant Prospects in the Neoliberal Age”. New Political Economy, 11(3): 407-418.

Mugisha, L.R. 2019.“Rethinking the Concept of Nutrition among Under-Five Children: A Case of Coastal Communities in Southern Tanzania”.Unpublished PhD Thesis: University of Dar es Salaam.

Polanyi, K. 1994.The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time. Boston: Beacon Press.

Schuren, U. 2003. “Reconceptualizing the Post-peasantry: Household Strategies in Mexican Edijos”, RevistaEuropea de EstudiosLatinoamericanosydel Caribe 75, Octubre de 2003: 47-63.

Standing, G. 2011.The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Shivji, I. G. 2009.Accumulation in an African Periphery: A Theoretical Framework. Dar es Salaam: Mkukina Nyota.

S4YE Coalition. 2014.“Towards Solutions for Youth Employment: A 2015 Baseline Report”,https://www.s4ye.org. Accessed: 10.11.2018.

United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), 2011.“Africa Youth Report 2011: Assessing the Youth Education and Employment nexus in the Global Economy”. Addis Ababa: UNECA.

United Republic of Tanzania, (URT). 2016. “Agricultural Sector Development Programme, Phase Two (ASDP II)’. Dar es Salaam: Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Cooperatives.

United Republic of Tanzania, (URT). 2014. “Economic Bulletin for the Quarter Ending in December, 2014”. Vol. LVII, No. 4. Dar es Salam: Bank of Tanzania.

Wuyts, M. and Kilama, B. 2014. “Economic Transformation in Tanzania: Vicious or Virtuous Circle?” THDR Background Paper No. 2.Dar es Salaam: Economic and Social Research Foundation (ESRF).

Zeleza, P. T. 1997.Manufacturing African Studies and Crisis. Dakar: CODESRIA.


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


 [ISSN 0856-0056 (Print) & ISSN 1821-889X (Online)]