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Custodians of the Land: Ecology and Culture in the History of Tanzania
Farming and pastoral societies inhabit ever-changing environments. This relationship between environment and rural culture, politics and economy in Tanzania is the subject of this volume which will be valuable in reopening debates on Tanzanian history.
In his conclusion, Isaria N. Kimambo, a founding father of Tanzanian history, reflects on the efforts of successive historians to strike a balance between external causes of change and local initiative in their interpretations of Tanzanian history.
He shows that nationalist and Marxist historians of Tanzanian history, understandably preoccupied through the first quarter-century of the country's post-colonial history with the impact of imperialism and capitalism on East Africa, tended to overlook the initiatives taken by rural societies to transform themselves.
Yet there is good reason for historians to think about the causes of change and innovation in the rural communities of Tanzania, because farming and pastoral people have constantly changed as they adjusted to shifting environmental conditions.
In his conclusion, Isaria N. Kimambo, a founding father of Tanzanian history, reflects on the efforts of successive historians to strike a balance between external causes of change and local initiative in their interpretations of Tanzanian history.
He shows that nationalist and Marxist historians of Tanzanian history, understandably preoccupied through the first quarter-century of the country's post-colonial history with the impact of imperialism and capitalism on East Africa, tended to overlook the initiatives taken by rural societies to transform themselves.
Yet there is good reason for historians to think about the causes of change and innovation in the rural communities of Tanzania, because farming and pastoral people have constantly changed as they adjusted to shifting environmental conditions.
285 pages, Paperback
First published April 15, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 12, 2012
While most of the articles in “Custodians of the Land” are dreadfully academic and don't make very compelling reading, they have shed a lot of light on Tanzanian history for me. Having read only a few books on Tanzania and seen only small bits of the country for a short period of time, Tanzania remains a historical “black-box” to me that I imagine, as the authors point out, as relatively speaking, a sort of idyllic ecological utopia (they call this “Merrie Africa”), which was abruptly and maliciously destroyed by evil European colonizers. Gradually, these articles work out the moving parts that made Tanzania what it is today. The interior has gone from a homogenous mass of “indigenous” peoples, to a complex patchwork of often fluid ethnic groups with complex interrelations – the Wambugu pastoralists and their agricultural counterparts, the Washambaa; the Wachagga on Kilimanjaro, trading with the Pare to receive iron and pottery; the Zigua, who were marginal once but gained prominence by acting as middlemen for the expanding Zanzibari trade in slaves and ivory.
A narrative of historical changes has emerged gradually and irregularly across the articles (perhaps due to their more specific foci). More mountainous and therefore moist and agriculturally productive areas (which seem to be the main focus of the book) were organized in loose big man or chiefdom set-ups in which cattle or other food stores were used by patrons to mobilize labor. In return, patrons maintained their dependents in times of famine.
As trade expanded on the coast, with Arab outposts in Zanzibar and increasing foreign demand, interior populations learned new agricultural techniques and obtained new crops; experienced some economic growth as investment capital became available from passing caravans carrying ivory and slaves; and experienced the cultural and demographic shocks of slave trading. Things changed much more drastically with the installation of the colonial regime, of course. The Wambugu were evicted from much of their land by the creation of forest reserves, forcing them to overuse nearby environments. Taxation demands strained the patron-client relationship by expropriating the surpluses chiefs formerly used to accumulate stock for times of need. Political clashes strained chiefs' resources and often cost them greatly in punitive raids. Finally, colonial administrators paid the salaries of their indirect rule chieftains, greatly reducing accountability of patrons to their communities. These factors effectively broke the patron-client relationship.
The patron-client relationship had not only maintained food security in times of crisis. By doing so, it allowed farmers to remain on their land, keeping it clear of brush and vegetation that harbored tsetse fly and ticks that literally plagued livestock and humans. When the relationship was broken, famines caused vast migrations away from drought stricken areas, to urban places and to places with more water. These migrations left farms untended, so they became choked with bush and harbored tsetse flies that spread sleeping sickness and ticks that spread other diseases. Thus, each colonial era famine was followed by an outbreak of these diseases, which amplified the demographic impact.
Discussion of demography leads back into the very interesting discussion in Part One of the book: Population (which is unfortunately exceedingly dry). The authors don't present much trustworthy data in these two articles (census figures from the early 1900s in rural East Africa are pretty sketchy) but their conclusions are interesting. Population is among the most important and controversial aspects of the global environmental disaster. The size of the world's population and the extent it has overshot carrying capacity already precludes a just future in which most of the world enjoys a developed-world lifestyle (though that is of course not the only possible just future). Since population growth is concentrated in the ex-colonies, they are often blamed for this issue – if the brown people would just stop breeding, we could give them all a rich lifestyle provided with sustainable techniques. The implications of this story, though not always stated explicitly, is that the colonial subjects have misused the great gifts Westerners bestowed on them. That is, they were dirty, plagued savages who routinely died of famine and disease until we brought them soap and feed corn and taught them to wash their hands. But all they did was have more babies – they didn't realize that they were supposed to limit fertility to increase per capita wealth!
Like most racist narratives, this one is pretty harmful and inaccurate. It ignores the fact that most parts of most colonies saw no benefits from healthcare or food distribution until very recently, and that mortality is still very high in many places. Most importantly, it obscures the key role that colonial economic policies played in changing fertility in colonies.
The demand for economic surplus through taxation made more labor desirable. Higher mortality and migrations due to exacerbated famine and inhibited disease control reduced the chance that any child would survive and be productive for their parents. These economic factors encouraged cultural erosion by missionaries who spread the “be fruitful and multiply” bit and scorned traditional practices that moderated fertility by spacing births and accepting childlessness (and potentially through polygamy). Of course, in all of these cases the authors make their argument through a particular case study, and note that Tanzania as a country with many ethnic groups and ecosystems has vast internal variation. This increased fertility was later unleashed as healthcare and food aid reached more parts of the country and removed those a-cultural brakes on population.
A narrative of historical changes has emerged gradually and irregularly across the articles (perhaps due to their more specific foci). More mountainous and therefore moist and agriculturally productive areas (which seem to be the main focus of the book) were organized in loose big man or chiefdom set-ups in which cattle or other food stores were used by patrons to mobilize labor. In return, patrons maintained their dependents in times of famine.
As trade expanded on the coast, with Arab outposts in Zanzibar and increasing foreign demand, interior populations learned new agricultural techniques and obtained new crops; experienced some economic growth as investment capital became available from passing caravans carrying ivory and slaves; and experienced the cultural and demographic shocks of slave trading. Things changed much more drastically with the installation of the colonial regime, of course. The Wambugu were evicted from much of their land by the creation of forest reserves, forcing them to overuse nearby environments. Taxation demands strained the patron-client relationship by expropriating the surpluses chiefs formerly used to accumulate stock for times of need. Political clashes strained chiefs' resources and often cost them greatly in punitive raids. Finally, colonial administrators paid the salaries of their indirect rule chieftains, greatly reducing accountability of patrons to their communities. These factors effectively broke the patron-client relationship.
The patron-client relationship had not only maintained food security in times of crisis. By doing so, it allowed farmers to remain on their land, keeping it clear of brush and vegetation that harbored tsetse fly and ticks that literally plagued livestock and humans. When the relationship was broken, famines caused vast migrations away from drought stricken areas, to urban places and to places with more water. These migrations left farms untended, so they became choked with bush and harbored tsetse flies that spread sleeping sickness and ticks that spread other diseases. Thus, each colonial era famine was followed by an outbreak of these diseases, which amplified the demographic impact.
Discussion of demography leads back into the very interesting discussion in Part One of the book: Population (which is unfortunately exceedingly dry). The authors don't present much trustworthy data in these two articles (census figures from the early 1900s in rural East Africa are pretty sketchy) but their conclusions are interesting. Population is among the most important and controversial aspects of the global environmental disaster. The size of the world's population and the extent it has overshot carrying capacity already precludes a just future in which most of the world enjoys a developed-world lifestyle (though that is of course not the only possible just future). Since population growth is concentrated in the ex-colonies, they are often blamed for this issue – if the brown people would just stop breeding, we could give them all a rich lifestyle provided with sustainable techniques. The implications of this story, though not always stated explicitly, is that the colonial subjects have misused the great gifts Westerners bestowed on them. That is, they were dirty, plagued savages who routinely died of famine and disease until we brought them soap and feed corn and taught them to wash their hands. But all they did was have more babies – they didn't realize that they were supposed to limit fertility to increase per capita wealth!
Like most racist narratives, this one is pretty harmful and inaccurate. It ignores the fact that most parts of most colonies saw no benefits from healthcare or food distribution until very recently, and that mortality is still very high in many places. Most importantly, it obscures the key role that colonial economic policies played in changing fertility in colonies.
The demand for economic surplus through taxation made more labor desirable. Higher mortality and migrations due to exacerbated famine and inhibited disease control reduced the chance that any child would survive and be productive for their parents. These economic factors encouraged cultural erosion by missionaries who spread the “be fruitful and multiply” bit and scorned traditional practices that moderated fertility by spacing births and accepting childlessness (and potentially through polygamy). Of course, in all of these cases the authors make their argument through a particular case study, and note that Tanzania as a country with many ethnic groups and ecosystems has vast internal variation. This increased fertility was later unleashed as healthcare and food aid reached more parts of the country and removed those a-cultural brakes on population.
May 11, 2017
Nice use of anecdotal evidence. I respect that.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews