A History Under Siege

A History under Siege Intensive Agriculture in the Mbulu Highlands, Tanzania, 19th Century to the Present Lowe Börjeson Department of Human Geography Stockholm University 2004 Abstract This doctoral thesis examines the history of the Iraqw’ar Da/aw area in the Mbulu Highlands of northern Tanzania. Since the late nineteenth century this area has been known for its intensive cultivation, and referred to as an “island” within a matrix of less intensive land use. The conventional explanation for its characteristics has been high population densities resulting from the prevention of expansion by hostility from surrounding pastoral groups, leading to a siege-like situation. Drawing on an intensive programme of interviews, detailed field mapping and studies of aerial photographs, early travellers’ accounts and landscape photographs, this study challenges that explanation. The study concludes that the process of agricultural intensification has largely been its own driving force, based on self-reinforcing processes of change, and not a consequence of land scarcity. Keywords: Landscape, environmental history, geography, land use change, population pressure, incremental change, landesque capital, self-reinforcing processes, detailed mapping, participatory mapping, oral history, farming practices, aerial photographs, landscape photographs, Iraqw. Copyright The Author and the Dept of Human Geography, 2004. All rights reserved. Department of Human Geography Stockholm University ISBN 91-22-02095-0 ISSN 0349-7003 Printed by Intellecta DocuSys AB, Sollentuna, Sweden 2004. Cover picture: Landschaft in Iraku (Iraqw landscape). From Baumann 1894, p. 119. 1 Contents Figures ___________________________________________________ 5 Tables ____________________________________________________ 6 Acknowledgements _____________________________________________ 7 1 Introducing the study _______________________________________ 11 1.1 Main themes and problems______________________________ 13 History and development _______________________________ 13 Population pressure theory as a development narrative ________ 15 The problem with nineteenth century Iraqw historiography ____ 16 The landscape as method _______________________________ 18 1.2 The concern for sustainable agricultural intensification________ 19 Agricultural intensification and development _______________ 19 1.3 Agricultural intensification – definitions and terminology _____ 22 Intensity and productivity_______________________________ 27 1.4 Population pressure, determinism and synergies _____________ 29 The importance of space________________________________ 30 The importance of history_______________________________ 31 Questioning the principle of diminishing returns_____________ 32 Population pressure, market forces and urbanisation __________ 33 The direction of causation in population pressure theory_______ 35 1.5 Iraqw’ar Da/aw – the study area__________________________ 37 Physical geography____________________________________ 39 Agriculture __________________________________________ 41 History _____________________________________________ 47 Iraqw’ar Da/aw and the settlement expansion during the twentieth century_____________________________ 49 1.6 Intensive agriculture in nineteenth century East Africa ________ 50 The significance of intensive farming in nineteenth century Tanzania___________________________ 51 Rain-fed intensification and wet valleys ___________________ 53 The siege hypothesis___________________________________ 54 1.7 The empirical investigations_____________________________ 56 2 A ridge and its landscape ____________________________________ 58 2.1 Detailed participatory landscape mapping __________________ 59 Fieldwork ___________________________________________ 60 Listening to the land ___________________________________ 69 2.2 Landesque capital, labour intensity and incremental change_____ 79 The tyranny of monuments______________________________ 80 The morphology of the Iraqw intensive agriculture ___________ 83 Incremental investments ________________________________ 91 2.3 Land use and settlement history __________________________ 94 3 Mapping oral history___________________________________ 95 Land use change ______________________________________ 96 Settlement change ____________________________________ 101 Negotiating land rights ________________________________ 109 3 Land use and settlement pattern in 1958 and 1988 _______________ 115 3.1 Starting points _______________________________________ 115 3.2 The aerial photographs ________________________________ 116 3.3 The interpretation ____________________________________ 117 3.4 Analysis and results __________________________________ 122 Land use changes ____________________________________ 122 Settlement change ____________________________________ 124 4 The regional context and colonial source material________________ 127 4.1 Questioning the siege hypothesis ________________________ 127 The extent of Iraqw settlement in the late nineteenth century __ 127 Coercion or cohesion?_________________________________ 128 Relief and opportunity ________________________________ 132 A gendered historiography _____________________________ 133 4.2 Population and landscape change ________________________ 134 Agricultural intensity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries____________________________ 134 Estimates of population density _________________________ 147 Intensification and expansion ___________________________ 153 5 Final discussion __________________________________________ 157 5.1 Misreading agricultural intensification ____________________ 157 5.2 Explaining Iraqw intensive agriculture____________________ 160 Iraqw’ar Da/aw and the synergies of agricultural intensification 166 Returning with results _________________________________ 171 Appendix ___________________________________________________ 173 Comments on the use and processing of interview data on settlement and landscape change in the mapped area ___________ 173 References __________________________________________________ 175 4 Figures 1.1. Iraku Leute (Iraqw people) ___________________________________ 17 1.2. Schematic illustration of the process of agricultural production ______ 23 1.3. The classical pattern of changes in labour productivity _____________ 28 1.4. Hypothetical marginal product(ivity) curves _____________________ 28 1.5. The Mbulu Highlands and Iraqw’ar Da/aw ______________________ 38 1.6. Overlooking the southern parts of the Iraqw’ar Da/aw area__________ 40 1.7. Preparing a field for planting _________________________________ 43 1.8. House platform on top of the ridge in the mapped area _____________ 43 1.9. A pile of manure in the mapped area ___________________________ 44 1.10. Field in the mapped area, with manure laid out in piles ____________ 44 1.11. A green valley bottom field in between dry hills _________________ 45 1.12. Grazing field in a valley, during dry season _____________________ 45 2.1. A part of the detailed mapped area looking towards the south________ 62 2.2. The author while mapping with the theodolite. ___________________ 63 2.3. Agricultural landscape of a ridge in Hhay Geay___________________ 64 2.4. Section of field-map. Drawn with pencil on grid paper _____________ 65 2.5. The relief of the detailed mapped area __________________________ 66 2.6. Steps leading down to a well in the mapped area __________________ 71 2.7. Hoeing a field in the mapped area______________________________ 75 2.8. Discussing agricultural practices with a farmer ___________________ 77 2.9. Water channel leading water away from a house platform___________ 82 2.10. Contour lines measured by local soil conservation advisors ________ 82 2.11. Slope with cultivation ridges_________________________________ 84 2.12. Clearance cairn in the mapped area ___________________________ 84 2.13. Fence in Iraqw’ar Da/aw____________________________________ 85 2.14. A typical cut (approximately 1 m high) ________________________ 86 2.15. Illustration of a slope with cuts _______________________________ 86 2.16. Crops growing on an old terrace ______________________________ 87 2.17. Valley bottom field in the mapped area ________________________ 88 2.18. Newly dug ditch __________________________________________ 91 2.19. Schematic illustration of how a valley bottom is transformed _______ 93 2.20. Estimated land use changes (pre-1900 to 1960) __________________ 98 2.21. Estimated land use changes (1961 to 1998) _____________________ 99 2.22. Arable land that has mainly been under fallow__________________ 101 2.23. Settlement change (pre-1920 to 1960) ________________________ 102 2.24. Settlement change (1961 to 1998)____________________________ 103 2.25. Abandoned house sites (1996–1998) _________________________ 105 2.26. A. Rights to land (1996–1998). B. Land loans (1996–1998) _______ 110 5 3.1. Land use in 1958 __________________________________________ 120 3.2. Land use in 1988 __________________________________________ 121 3.3. Diagrammatic representation of land use in 1958 and 1988_________ 121 3.4. Slope cultivation in 1958 and 1988____________________________ 123 3.5. Valley-bottom cultivation in 1958 and 1988_____________________ 123 3.6. Stands of trees in 1958 and 1988______________________________ 124 3.7. Houses in 1958 and 1988 ___________________________________ 125 4.1. Landschaft in Iraku (Iraqw landscape) _________________________ 136 4.2. The Guwangw mountain in 2002 _____________________________ 137 4.3. Ausblick von

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