Building Relationships - Social Studies - Standard Four
Building Relationships
Introduction of Relationship
Relationship means connection between one person and another or a group of people and another group.
Relationship with other people is very important. One cannot stay without having good relationship with others.
People we can have relationship with are friends, parents, schoolmates, church or mosque mates, business partners and community member.
Relationship can also be between one nation and another.
Ways of building and maintaining good relationship
1. Treating people equally.
2. Respecting people you live with.
3. Being trustworthy.
Relationship among people
Family relationship means link among family members include grandparents, parents, siblings, aunt and grandchildren.
Many families make a clan. Members of a clan have one common ancestor. Most Tanzanian clans follow the side of the father.
Clan tree
A clan tree shows how the members of a clan relate to one another.
MR. ODULLA’S CLAN
NOTE: + Means married to
Relationship during ancient society
Ancient societies are societies that existed in the past. These societies passed various of life to the present.
Communalism
Communalism was a system in life whereby people shared all things equally.
During communalism people produced and shared equally what they produced.
This was the first social mode of production in history of mankind.
Societies which were practising communalism were called communal societies.
Characteristics of communalism
1. Land was owned communally, that is by all.
2. Hunting and farming were done communally.
3. What was produced, for example milk, meat and cattle were divided equally.
4. Making tools, hunting, looking for food, preparing shelters and clothes were done collectively.
5. Tools were crude due to low technology and were not for sale.
6. Everyone was respected and treated fairly.
7. There was no exploitation of man by man.
8. Man used poor and local tools to work with.
9. People lived in small communities.
10. There was no gender or age discrimination.
Communalism today
Because of the sharing nature, some societies still practise some elements of communalism today.
These are Hadzabe of Manyara and Singida regions. These depend on hunting and gathering fruits, roots and honey. Others are Dorobo of Arusha.
Feudalism
Feudalism is a system of production in which all means of production were owned privately. During feudalism properties were owned by few rich people.
The basis or major means of production during feudalism were land, labour and cattle.
Societies which practised feudalism are called feudal societies.
Means of production
(a) Land
During feudalism people who owned land were landlords (land owners). People who had no land were tenants or serfs. Tenants grew crops, then after harvesting, a big part of the produce was given to landlord. Tenants remained with little crops for their families.
(b) Labour
Tenants worked on land and after harvesting land lords had to give them some crops as payment. In some cases, tenants were required to pay rent to work on land. Rent was in form of labour, produce and later money.
(c) Cattle
People were given cattle by cattle owners in order to take care of them. During milking, part of the milk was given to the cattle owner but in the end, the cattle remained the property of the cattle owner.
Forms of feudalism
There were four types of feudalism that existed in various parts of Tanzania.
These were umwinyi, ubugabire, nyarubanja and ntemiship which existed in different societies.
(a) Umwinyi
Umwinyi was a form of feudalism that was based on land ownership. The system existed along the coast of East Africa, especially in Zanzibar where there were coconut farms.
Under this system, people had to work for landlords and submitted much of the produce. They remained with just a little amount for food.
The landlords were called Mwinyi.
Tenants were called Watwana.
The topmost landlord was called Mwinyi mkuu.
(b) Ubugabire
Ubugabire was a system of feudalism that was based on land and cattle.
This system existed among the Waha of Kigoma and some parts of Burundi and Rwanda.
The cattle owners were called Sebuja and the tenants were Bagabire.
Under this system, poor families worked on land and looked after cattle. They were paid a little after harvesting.
(c) Nyarubanja
This type of feudalism was based on land ownership. Under this system, few people owned land and rented it to people who had no land (the landless people).
Rent was in the form of labour on the landlords’ farms. Labour means work, especially physical work like farming and mining.
This system existed along western shores of Lake Victoria among the Haya, Hangaza and Sumbwa of Kagera region and in Uganda.
(d) Ntemiship
Ntemiship existed in central Tanzania. Among the Gogo of Dodoma, Nyamwezi of Tabora and Sukuma of Shinyanga.
Ntemiship was based on land and animals.
The ruler was called Ntemi.