When Deliberate Killing of Infants Is Justified: Reflections on Infanticides among the Ngoni of Tanzania from Late Pre-Colonial to German Colonial Period

Andrew Kasambala, University of Dar es Salaam

When deliberate killing of infants is justified: Reflections on Infanticides among the Ngoni of Tanzania from late Pre-colonial to German Colonial Period Andrew Kasambala Abstract This paper investigates changes and continuities in the way the Ngoni handled infanticide practices in Ungoni from the late pre-colonial to the German colonial period. It examines historical justifications behind infanticides among the Ngoni, reasons for increased infanticide during German colonial period, and the role of Europeans’ intervention against it. By relying on primary and secondary sources, this paper argues that infanticides were primarily practiced as a survival strategy against all sorts of physical and psychological threats. It is important to look at the history of infanticides because the continuation of African generations is the result of the development of babies into grown-ups. Findings from this study may be of the great use by various agents who are currently parting in interventions against infanticide.