Livelihood, malaria and resilience : a case study in the Kilombero Valley, Tanzania.

In various parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, malaria is endemic in areas where rain-fed agriculture implies seasonal mobility from villages to paddy fields. Contributing to the small but growing literature on livelihood and malaria, this article examines the ways in which social actors mobilise, combine and transform capitals on the household and community levels to obtain malaria treatment. It emphasises the structuring force of cultural capital and argues that farmers of the Kilombero Valley in Tanzania develop a remarkable resilience to malaria. However, in spite of all their efforts, the web of resilience they are able to create remains rather weak and should be strengthened through intersectoral collaboration between government and civil society organisations and innovative interventions.