Amoníaco

Social roles and responsibilities shape the way different people in Naiti village perceive risk and how they manage it. And because these roles are different according to gender and age, exposure to animals – and arguably susceptibility to zoonoses – varies. Certain people are more exposed than others. Unsurprisingly, perceptions of disease risk, and how people seek to mitigate this, also varies by gender and age.

The gender-based division of labour provides a framework for understanding the allocation of tasks and resources and how this may affect who gets sick from zoonoses. Recent anthropological studies in other parts of Africa which employ this framework show that zoonotic health risks are not equally distributed in a society, and that it is often the poorest who come into contact with zoonotic pathogens (see for example Dzingirai et al., 2017; Leach et al., 2017; Ladbury et al., 2017).

convex profile and short thick horns varying from 15 to 46 cm in length. Zebus are a preferred breed because they are adapted to live under semi-arid climatic conditions. They can be managed in times of inadequate water supply and can trek long distances in search of water (ILRI, 2012; Ole-Miaron, 2003).

52 Focus group discussion, Naiti, 12 May 2017. The amount of milk obtained was estimated by respondents using a milking gourd as a reference measure, and quantities were estimated rather than accurately measured.

As noted by Woldenhanna and Zimmick (2015), exposure to zoonotic risks is not purely conditioned by biological processes. It also depends on what people do, with what animals, for how long and where. Therefore, to help explore the nature of gender-based exposure to animals in Naiti, I drew on Grandin et al.’s (1991) approach to quantify labour outputs of different groups in relation to livestock. This involved a survey of individuals (from the survey sample) to recall and record their activities in the preceding 24 hours and whether they would categorise these hours as typical of their average day or not. This was carried out via a survey questionnaire using descriptive open-ended questions, for example, “Can you list the activities that you undertook in the last 24 hours, please?” I then aggregated the total number of hours per week spent with animals either directly or indirectly by different groups and quantified the outputs to help identify groups that spent the most time with livestock, or those whose exposure may present critical contact points for transmission of zoonotic pathogens. The results are shown in Table 4.1 below. Table 4.1: Gender-Disaggregated Weekly Aggregates of Hours Spent in Contact with Livestock and/or Livestock Products per Household.

As this table shows, risk of exposure to livestock disease is uneven. Because different activities carry different levels of exposure to animals, different people may be more or less at risk depending on the pathogen in question.

Task (hours per week)

Adults Children (7-15)

Male

Female Male Female

Senior men Warriors

Milking (& processing) 0 0 35 0 14

Grazing/herding 9 10 14 21 7

Watering & supervision 4 6 7 18 7

Spraying 6 3 0 3 0

Treating 15 8 1 7 0

Caring for sick animals 1 0 10 2 7

Assisting with birth 3 3 0 7 0

Slaughter/butchering 6 6 0 7 0

Clearing fresh/dried dung 0 0 17 0 8

Women and pubescent boys spend on average more time with livestock than men and girls. Pubescent boys spend most of their time herding livestock, mostly close to the homestead, especially during the wet season when pasture and water are plentiful. Herding forms an important part of socialisation for WaArusha boys turning into young men. Like Grandin et al. (1991) found to be the case among the neighbouring Maasai, WaArusha boys from the age of three are involved in livestock routines. They herd together with older siblings or help care for sick livestock under the supervision of an older herder. At the age of six or seven years old, they become full-time herders, beginning with small stock and, following circumcision, graduating onto cattle.

Figure 4.4: Herder Boys in Naiti.

In Naiti, I observed that herding was prioritised over schooling, and the boys preferred herding to attending school because, as one parent told me, “the value of livestock is far more than education”.54 Sometimes the boys apprenticed with an older herder, usually a father, an uncle or a brother, for some time, before they started herding independently. Sheep and goats are difficult to herd, one young herder told me, as they easily wander off and can get lost or taken by wild animals such as leopards.Consequently, goats and sheep are grazed in and around the family compound where there are more people and more domestic activity, and where leopards are less likely to hunt, and these small stocks are periodically taken to water by women and girls.

After circumcision, the boys graduate into warriors, and their responsibilities also increase to include livestock management and finding pasture for livestock during periods of drought (see similar findings among the Maasai by Caudell et al., 2017). Unmarried warriors in Naiti are mainly responsible for transferring livestock to seasonal grazing camps during the drought season or in the period immediately after the onset of long rains, when wildebeest graze in the open fields of the village. Wildebeest are locally perceived to host Iingati ( Maa), a syndrome that mainly affect cattle, and is characterised by symptoms ranging from “teary eyes, mucous from the nose and mouth and heavy breathing”, according to a local elder who described this sickness to me. Upon further probing and investigation, I found that these symptoms were closely associated with clinical symptoms of malignant catarrhal fever (MCF)55(illustrated in table 4.2 further below), which can transmit to cattle through shared grasslands in the village. Therefore, transferring domestic livestock was a means of avoiding overlap between domestic herds and wildebeest, constituting a risk avoidance strategy employed by the locals (for further information on MCF in this region, see Lankester et al., 2015a; 2015b; 2016).

Warriors are also involved in resource management, including maintaining water points and livestock plunge dips. They manage communal resources, including the cattle dip in the village, although the dip was not operational at the time of fieldwork. I was told that the cattle dip was a local government initiative to help control tick-borne diseases, but it was only operational for two years (2007–2009) before lack of funds forced it to close. It is also the warriors’ duty in Naiti to find the best pasturelands and water for communal livestock. They also look after the animals’ health, using their networks of friends and kin to obtain information on animal disease in the area, including reported animal illness, and to help prepare therapies in case their own stock fell ill. Warriors graduate into senior men whose roles and responsibilities are fairly similar to those of warriors, except that they are overall managers and controllers of herds within the family.

However, although Table 4.1 show that adult men (both senior men and warriors) spend less time in contact with livestock compared to women and herder boys, their contact often involves handling fresh carcasses and blood, inhaling aerosols and sprays when treating animals, assisting with animal abortions, and inspecting animal internal organs

55 This was confirmed by the local community animal health worker, and from the official animal health records at the Naiti village office.

when slaughtering. They also manage castration, vaccination and slaughter, when they are likely to be exposed to sick animals and possibly to zoonoses which can cause fever. As managers of stock health, the men inspect entire herds and separate the sick animals from the healthy each morning before the herds leave the compound, and in the evenings when they return from grazing. Warriors and senior men either administer treatment (mainly veterinary) or slaughter sick animals for family consumption, depending on the type and severity of illness. Men routinely conduct preventative measures (such as spraying ticks and inoculations) and curative measures (administer injections, oral medicine, skin incisions) with their herds. Where a decision is made to slaughter cattle due to severe sickness, experienced elderly men examine the carcass and internal offal for signs of infection and advise on whether to consume the meat or to bury the entire carcass. Animals that die during grazing, as often happened in the dry season, are handled by the men.

As I frequently observed in Naiti, sick animals, not destined for slaughter, are nursed close to home by women and girls, while healthy stock graze on communal grazing fields away from home, where livestock from across the neighbourhood are herded together by a group of boy herders from various olmareis or enkangs.

As illustrated in Table 4.1, women in this study were in some form of contact with livestock, either directly or indirectly, almost every waking hour. Direct contact includes herding, inspecting milking cows for signs of ill health, caring for sick animals, milking, cleaning cow teats and removing ticks from udders (by hand) before milking (see Figure 4.5). Women’s milking routines were standard across many households. At the kraal (Maa for “animal enclosure”) during the milking process, calves and kids are lifted, carried, petted and spoken to, while the cows are stroked, pushed, sometimes beaten and sung to during milking. Kohn (2013) links intimacy between herders and their stock to broader animal-human relationships that involve material and emotional experiences shared between the animals and their keepers.

Figure 4.5: Woman Milking Cows in Naiti.

From around seven o’clock in the morning, once milking is complete, women and older girls occupy themselves in making fire, distributing the milk to household members, and preparing loshoro ( a porridge starch mixed with fresh milk) for the herder boys who take the animals to herd in the fields for the entire day and only return home in the evening. They also prepare and ferment milk in specialised gourds, where they sometimes add herbal additives to conserve the flavour of the milk. Fermented milk or mtindi (in Swahili) is a staple in many households and is consumed as an accompaniment to maize-meal starch or on its own. Milk used in fermentation is typically not boiled (implies cooking, as explained in Chapter Three), because, as I was informed, cooking milk interferes with the fermentation process including altering the natural taste of milk. After the herds leave their kraal in the morning, women and girls clean their dwellings, clearing dung and mud into heaps and then disposing of it in the fields. Fresh cow dung is used in constructing huts and dry dung is converted into manure used in cropping.

As these findings demonstrate, women also have important roles in managing young livestock and small stock, especially sick calves, sheep and goats. They graze the animals around the family compound whilst performing other chores in the home such as cooking, cleaning, caring for the sick (both people and animals), and bringing water and firewood

from the forest. In the afternoon, they take the animals to water at the communal waterpoint. When these animals fall sick, women and girls nurse them in the family hut, where they also sleep and watch over them at night. They administer veterinary medicine, but also traditional therapies, depending on whether the illness is perceived as internal or external. For instance, external illnesses such as skin inflammation, known locally as “rough coat sickness”, is treated by rubbing hot coal on the inflamed area of the skin, while other illnesses such as fever are treated with an antibiotic injection.

Women are also involved in the sale of livestock products, including selling milk at the local trading centre in Naiti and in nearby markets such as in Makuyuni. They also take care of livestock that are expected to calve imminently and, together with the men, assist at birth.

Chicken farming is also a big part of women’s livelihood in Naiti, because chickens are typically perceived as a woman’s asset, and women enjoy significant control over income from chickens (sales and eggs), although this is meagre compared to income from the sale of cattle, for example. Some women also work outside the home, and they engage in petty trade selling beads they have made, or milk at the village trading centre (both fresh milk and fermented milk or mtindi). These activities are important for women as they accrue a small income that is an important determinant of healthcare-seeking behaviour, as discussed in Chapter Six.

Other sources of women’s livelihoods involve small home gardens that provide access to medicine, food and fuel wood. Forest land is a critical source of medicinal plants, which families frequently forage and use to treat febrile illness and other commonly occurring illnesses such as diarrhoea. These home gardens are broadly divided into two categories, a forest portion, left alone to grow wild plants and trees which are used as food, firewood and medicine, and a portion for subsistence farming, where families grow maize, beans, relish, beans and vegetables.

Communal land is also set aside in the village for grazing and for surface water points. These resources are communally managed by a select committee of men and women from the village. The surface water point comprises an artificial pond (see Figure 4.6) where water is pumped from a borehole to a large surface area for domestic and livestock use in the village.

This pond provides the only source of water for the village. The water point is sustained by small fees charged per olmarei. Herders take turns to water their stock several times a week on a rotational basis. Wildlife that roams the village, particularly during night-time, also drinks from the pond. The waterpoint is therefore a perfect site for human-animal- wildlife interaction and can potentially put people and livestock at a risk for zoonoses, with the whole village at risk of exposure. Indeed, many people desired to have separate clean water source for domestic use, and they decried the fact that the only water available was shared with animals. They were aware that this posed health threats to them but had few options for obtaining clean water for domestic use.

Figure 4.6: Artificial Pond that is Communally Used for All Water Supply Needs in the Village. Boy Herders Can be Seen Watering the Animals.

The division of labour described above is not static or universal, and there are cases where women perform what would traditionally be men’s work and vice versa. As Morton and Meadows (2001) noted, as herder societies become more sedentary (as the WaArusha in Naiti are), social roles and responsibilities for groups and individuals also change. For example, Catley and Akilu (2013) researching among herder communities in Kenya found that, women’s roles are changing to include breadwinner responsibilities for households that lose livestock to droughts and famine, while at the same time some

women have benefited in terms of economic advancement as they obtain access to new forms of income (see similar findings by Wangui, 2008 among Kenyan Maasai).

As such, understanding this division of labour and the impact on potential exposure to zoonotic pathogens can help in targeting interventions to the most at-risk groups, especially in resource-poor settings such as in northern Tanzania.

Having detailed livelihoods and livestock, and how they impact and are impacted by social roles and gender-based divisions of labour, the discussion now turns to how they shape the understanding and management of risks by herders in Naiti.