The Berlin curse in Tanzania:(re)making of the selous world heritage property

ABSTRACT

Pervasive border-making processes continue to produce territories and new borders within independent African states. Yet, current African border scholarship does not pay enough attention to the ongoing colonial dominance in post-independence practices in sub-national borders. This paper examines both colonial and post-independence mechanisms that support the creation and governance of the Selous Game Reserve: a World Heritage Property of significant ecological and economic importance within Tanzania’s national jurisdiction. The paper draws attention to how past and present border processes depend on both top-down and bottom-up mechanisms. It argues that there are similarities between the way borders in Selous Game Reserve are being redrawn and colonial-style border making practices sanctioned at the Berlin conference. The case study of Selous Game Reserve challenges the current pre-occupation of African scholars and technocrats with state borders and their artificiality by highlighting the material impact of internal border-making processes. The paper calls for a critical analysis of sub-national borders in post-independence Africa, especially the ways in which internal and external forces produce them.

KEYWORDS:

• Berlin Curse
• Tanzania
• borders
• colonialism
• conservation

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to the University of Cambridge’s Centre for African Studies that provided fellowship to facilitate writing of the draft of this paper among other things. I am also grateful to the participants of the African borders symposium at the University of Cape Town in July 2017 for their constructive comments. Special thanks go to my two anonymous reviewers for reading the initial drafts.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. A minor modification is defined as one which has not a significant impact on the extent of the property nor affects its Outstanding Universal Value .

2. This implies Tanzania’s membership to the World Heritage Commission.

3. Whereas the latter is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, it was purchased by Rostaom in 2013/2014.

4. With funding from the Germany government and Global Environmental Facility (GEF).

5. https://www.iucn.org/theme/protected-areas.