Fipa - Settlements

A characteristic feature of Fipa settlements is that they are strongly nucleated and widely separated from one another. Until the enforced concentration of villages that was instituted nationwide by Tanzania in 1974, the average size of Fipa settlements was about 250 inhabitants. About 700 smaller settlements, away from the major road though Ufipa, disappeared in the 1974 administrative action. In precolonial times, Fipa huts were circular, with a concentric inner corridor; today they are nearly all rectangular, although still of the same mud-and-wattle construction. Each hut is typically occupied by a nuclear family, usually with two or more children and often including one or more dependent elder kin. In 1967 the average household size was 4.9 persons.