Testimonies from researchers, prospering coffee farmers, and members of the Christian faith serving as illustration of how closely related hunger and shame truly are. The author has exhibited through her diary, an emotional picture of the lives of hungry families, the death of young children, and harsh realities of a rule-bound culture. Observations from two time periods bring readers closer to issues at hand by way of anecdotes and pictures.

Having spent years in this Tanzanian community, Howard may be considered an authority on the subjects of child malnutrition and Chagga society. Her efforts began in agriculture, and then expanded to helping indiv

Through the book, the impact of colonialism, socialism, capitalism, and Christianity are fully realized. The influence of how Germany and Great Britain led to the rise of the cash economy, resulting in the disposal of the chiefdom system is reviewed. It is expressed that such a change initiated the shift from subsistence farming to cash crops, giving rise to capitalism.

Howard analyzed the impact of schooling policies on the poor. She implied the government's decision to spread schooling opportunities across Tanzania increased poverty. According to Howard, the farmer's union was a means for better-educated, more knowledgeable farmers to be subsidized by the poor. In essence, the government made it impossible for the poor to advance themselves. She proves this by reviewing Francis Lema's many appeals for help from the union - he never received aid as he was ruled to be a high risk. Such institutional discrimination, conflict within families, and child favouritism were reflected on in detail.

Howard's style of writing is both helpful, and perplexing. While illustrating her points clearly with true life examples, her jumping back and forth through time often makes the book hard to follow. Her own weakness was the inability to step aside from her emotions. Strong emotions sometimes created unpleasant situations - as when she attempted to educate Fatima on preparing a baby bottle. Another weakness is the lack of information on food-sharing practices. It is described how children ate from a common bowl, but little else is written.

Some Chagga also believe that infants with large rounded bellies may be receiving too much food, and may reducing feeding to prevent obesity. This notion produces a terrible situation for the malnourished child who is showing obvious signs of kwashiorkor. With the signs being misinterpreted, the child receives even less nourishment when if fact more is required.

Fatima Ruaha moved on to Howard's cooperative farm having been childless after eight pregnancies. She was a husky, outgoing, self-assured woman who later brought her sister Anna to live with her. Anna had a five-year-old daughter, and a baby boy named Roberto. She was in the unfortunate position of not having breastmilk, and frequently made trips to town to tend to her business of making and selling banana/millet beer. Fatima was left to take care of the infant while Anna was at work, and often relied on Howard for childcare.

"Chagga entry into the cash economy blew the lid off the precolonial system. Capitalism and individualism allowed people to reduce aid to poor kin without necessarily being branded immoral." (Howard and Millard 1997: 52)

uld be helpful in making them more mindful cultural practices. It would be difficult to adopt a different system of land inheritance when the current patrilineal system has guided Chagga society for so long. However; this is a root cause of forcing women into the workforce, and would be beneficial if the system did transform over time.

Howard took a very subjective and personal approach to writing this book about a society based on patrilineage and gender roles. In efforts to help the hungry, she employed qualitative and quantitative methods - most information came from participant observation, key informants, and semi-structured interviews. Statistical data was used in reference to childbirth and death rates. Her understanding of hunger and shame came from her experiences on her cooperative farm, and her work in nutrition at the Nutrition Rehabilitation Unit (NURU).

1993. Women, work and breastfeeding: Everybody Benefits. Malaysia: World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action.

iduals in a nutrition clinic where she integrated her own life into their culture. Her intentions were to discover causes of child malnutrition and hunger, aid in intervention and education strategies, and to support her argument that the interaction between external forces and customar

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Approximate Word count = 2939
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)