Pottery and Poverty Reduction among Kisi Households in Ludewa District, Tanzania

Abstract

The study investigated the impact of pottery trade in reducing poverty among the Kisihouseholds in Ludewa district which is located very close to Lake Nyasa..The role ofpottery industry in breaking the vicious cycle of poverty among the Kisi began during the Iron Age in the first millennium A.D. The Kisi people live in Ludewa District and afew have spread to neighbouring districts like Kyela and Mbinga. The main economicactivity of the Kisi is fishing but after trade liberation in the 1980s fishing is overtakenby pottery industry. The data for calculation of poverty index was collected from threevillages which are Lumbila, Nkanda and Nsele which had abudant raw materials forpottery making along Lake Nyasa. The calculation of various indicators of poverty andtheir relationship to pottery industry indicated that pottery has a reasonable impact onpoverty alleviation among the Kisi in Ludewa District. This is verified by theimprovement of housing whereby people involved in pottery industry had slightlybetter housing than others. The same was applied to income poverty where villageslike Lumbila and Nkanda had a higher per capita income when compared to NseleVillage which depends more on crop marketing than pottery. As far as household assetownership is concerned there were small differentials among the villages and this wasalso reflected on the utilization of improved power, health and sanitation. The mainbottleneck in the alleviation of poverty among the Kisi people was lack of reliableinland transport which was hindered by steep slopes close to the Lake and unreliablemotorboats which ply along the lake. Some villages like Lumbila have managed topurchase a boat but in the case of Nkanda due to management problems the boat hasbeen abandoned. The overall indicator shows that Lumbila village with morediversified economy had higher per capita income than the other villages. Besides thisthe villages were vulnerable to environmental degradation and disasters related tohealth.