Fipa - Economy

Subsistence and Commercial Activities. Finger millet ( Eleusine corocana ) is the basic subsistence crop, supplemented by maize. The Fipa also grow lima beans, cassava, tomatoes, onions, and a wide range of green vegetables and tobacco for domestic consumption. Small livestock raised by most families include sheep, goats, poultry, and pigeons; a minority of wealthier householders raise cattle and pigs. The plateau dwellers supplement their diet with small game and with fish trapped in the numerous rivers. The Lake Tanganyika and Rukwa Valley Fipa subsist largely on fish, which they also dry and sell on the plateau. Maize and finger millet are the main cash crops of Ufipa. Before 1974, most cultivation was done with a hoe, using a form of compost mounding that is peculiar to the Fipa. With the enforced concentration of villages, however, plowing with oxen was introduced by the government and has since become the dominant means of cultivation.

Industrial Arts. Precolonial Ufipa supported flourishing ironworking and cotton-weaving industries, but these were virtually extinguished by competition from imported manufactured goods during the colonial period. Fipa women still produce pottery, woven baskets, and mats for local use.

Trade. Meat, fish, and vegetable markets are held in a few major villages. The sale of cloth, kerosene, and a variety of manufactured items is dominated by immigrant merchants, mainly East Indians, coastal Swahili, and Kikuyu from Kenya.

Division of Labor. The Fipa still generally adhere to the traditional sexual division of labor: men do the heavier work of cultivation, which today means ox plowing, and threshing, whereas women sow, weed, and winnow. Women also cook, draw water, pound and grind grain, wash clothes, and watch over children. Men build the frameworks of huts and granaries, and women plaster them. Women also brew millet beer.

Land Tenure. Before 1974, plots of land were cultivated by nuclear families and inherited by elder sons or uterine nephews upon a householder's death. With enforced villagization and the introduction of the ox-drawn plow, there has emerged a new class of rich peasants who employ wage labor.