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This paper identifies the curative and preventive roles of Catholic missionaries in the development of health services in Kihanja and Ihangiro chiefdoms in Tanzania from 1904 to 1961. The study is based on historical design and qualitative approach. The documentary, in-depth interviews and observation methods were employed in data collection. In disagreeing to traditional scholars, the paper advocates that missionaries did not only offer curative health services but also provided a variety of preventive services mainly in rural areas where up to the 1930s government hospitals and dispensaries were either very few or non-existent. The curative services provided by Catholic missionaries consisted of surgical and non-surgical treatments as well as nursing care activities. The preventive roles included Maternal and Child Health (MCH), health education, training of midwives, vaccination, and leprosy and tuberculosis services. The paper emphasizes that missionary health services not only complemented government’s services in the colony but also pioneered medical provision in the rural areas where the colonial state lacked resource to invest. Missions’ efforts to collaborate with the government was not made to perpetuate colonialism but rather to facilitate the availability of more health services.

This paper discussed the history of Iringa Dipping Scheme in Mufindi during the British colonial administration in the post Second World War period. Different schemes were introduced in Tanganyika. Among them were Sukumaland Development Scheme 1947, Uluguru Land Usage Scheme 1949, the Mbulu Development Scheme 1949 and Iringa Dipping Scheme 1951 to mention just a few. Most of these schemes were established with the main concern of land improvement and soil conservation which apparently was the result of colonial policies of overexploitation of resources. The colonial government claimed that Iringa dipping scheme was introduced to prevent cattle against tick borne diseases but the implementation was associated with compulsory state repression. Forceful implementation of the dipping scheme in Mufindi prompted peasant resentment to the scheme. However, the findings of this paper revealed that the establishment and development of Iringa Dipping Scheme was a response towards the economic crisis which was manifesting in the growing demands of beef and other raw materials in Britain and Tanganyika in the meat and related industries. The intensification of peasant resentment to the exploitative scheme through fees which they were forced to pay and the bother entailed in bringing their cattle to the dips. Peasant’s resistance and resentment culminated into the collapse of the dipping scheme of Mufindi in 1958. Should be grasped within the context of peasant struggle against exploitative system which was developed in post-war period. This paper employed historical research design utilizing qualitative approach. Primary and secondary sources were integrated together. Archival data were generated from Tanzania National Archives, University of Dar es Salaam, Sokoine University of Agriculture and Mufindi District. Oral histories were generated from the indigenous people to corroborate the archival data. Political economy theory was used to inform the study.