From protective lions to angry spirits: environmental degradation and the authority of elders in the Kilombero Valley, Tanzania

Abstract

Along the route of the TAZARA railway in southern Tanzania, the increased circulation of people, goods and ideas has led to changes in the utilization of environmental resources. The settlement of newcomers in the Kilombero Valley, who not only plant crops but also fish in the Kilombero river floodplain, has led to concern among those who consider themselves to be “local” that outsiders have simultaneously brought both development and degradation. Changes in landscape use are framed not only in terms of demography, ethnicity and locality but also as a threat to the authority of ritual elders. Declining respect for ritual authority is blamed for specific environmental problems, for example the changes in rainfall and flooding patterns known as El Niño.

Keywords:

• environmental degradation
• development
• fisheries
• ritual authority
• Tanzania
• TAZARA Railway

Notes

1. A comprehensive study of these “multi-spatial livelihoods” can be found in Monson, Africa's Freedom Railway.

2. For a discussion of the political role of history in constructing origins and resource rights in this area, refer to Monson, “Memory, Migration and the Authority of History.”

3. Charles Songo, interview, Mlimba, July 20, 2000.

4. Josephine Jackson Mwasulama, interview, Dar es Salaam, May 12, 2001.

5. Josephine Jackson Mwasulama, interview, Dar es Salaam, April 2001.

6. Mr Manusa and Mrs Abdalla, District Development Office, interview, Ifakara, April 20, 2000.

7. Sheridan, “Environmental and Social History.” See also Giblin, The Politics of Environmental Control, for a discussion of memories of pre-colonial relationships of harmony between people and nature in Handeni District, Tanzania.

8. Wagner, “Environment, Community and History,”175–99; Lawi, “Tanzania's Operation Vijiji,” 69–93; Lawi, “The De-harmonization of the Man–Nature Relationship,” 45–58.

9. Mayombo, “Economic Structural Changes,” 61–78.

10. Interviews; Haule, “Wildlife Prospects,” 50.

11. Josephine Jackson Mwasulama, interview, April 2001.

12. Tripp, Changing the Rules.

13. Booth, “Why Tanzanian Society is not Experiencing Structural Adjustment,” 250–71.

14. Haule, “Wildlife Prospects,” 124; Benedict Ngakuka, interview, May 4, 2000. While most adults did not speak openly about this illegal activity, I witnessed a load of buffalo meat being transported by bicycle from Merera to Chita on July 12, 2000. I was also told by children in Mngeta in July 2000 that they eat hippo and have also eaten elephant meat. Kennedy Haule also used interviews with children to determine frequency of bush meat (manda) consumption.

15. Interview with Edward Temba, fisheries officer for Mlimba ward, by journalists from Journalists Environmental Association of Tanzania, quoted in Mfugale, “Special Report.”

16. WWF, Kilombero Valley Conservation and Development Project.

17. Haule, “Wildlife Prospects,” 123–5.

18. Charles Songo, interview, Mlimba, July 20, 2000.

19. Julius Ngenza, interview, Ifakara, May 9, 2000.

20. Jenkins et al., Kilombero Fishery, 6.

21. Mfugale, “Special Report.”

22. Mombo et al, “Ratification to Ramsar Convention.”

23. Atupele Mwakapala, interview, Ifakara, May 3, 2000.

24. Jenkins et al., Kilombero Fishery. The KVIEMP study examined the relationship between different types of fishing gear and the size of fish catches. Volunteers measured and recorded the fish catches in four permanent fishing settlements. Conversation with Richard Jenkins, Dar es Salaam, August 2000.

25. Atupele Mwakapala interview, Ifakara, May 3, 2000.

26. Venance M. Lyapembile, interview, Mchombe, July 16, 2000.

27. Venance M. Lyapembile, interview, Mchombe, July 16, 2000.

28. Jenkins et al., Kilombero Fishery, 22–3.

29. Jenkins et al., Kilombero Fishery, 11.

30. Jenkins et al., Kilombero Fishery.

31. In a study that shows many similarities to this one, Carola Lentz documented conflicts between earth priests from the ancestral lineage responsible for the productivity of fishing waters on the border between Ghana and Burkina Faso at the village of Kyetuu in the late 1990s. In this case young Ghanaian commercial fishermen from across the border were fishing out of season, without the permission of elders, and individually rather than communally. This led to tensions and border conflicts. Lentz, “This is Ghanaian Territory!,” 273–89.

32. Joseph Haule, interview, Ifakara, May 21, 2000.

33. Petro Kazibure, interview, Lipangalala, May 2000.

34. Joseph Haule, interview, Ifakara, May 21, 2000.

35. Petro Kazibure, interview, Lipangalala, May 2000. Personal observations at Mikeregembe, July 1999.

36. Benedict Ngakuka, interview, May 4, 2000. Personal observations at Mikeregembe, July 1999 and Kihopa/Fibwe, July 2000.

37. Petro Kazibure, interview, Lipangalala, May 2000.

38. Interview with anonymous Ukindu weaver, on the bike trip to the river. Despite the rhetoric about Ndamba custom in arguments over these two fishing camps, I observed many people drinking alcohol at Kihopa and found that women were sleeping overnight there when I visited in July 2000.

39. Leonard Likweti, interview, Ifakara, May 5, 2000.

40. Leonard Likweti, interview, Ifakara, May 5, 2000.

41. Leonard Likweti, interview, Ifakara, May 5, 2000; Jenkins et al., Kilombero Fishery, 21.

42. Haule, “Wildlife Prospects,” 116.

43. Hassan Njohole, interview, Lipangalala, Ifakara, July 17, 1999.

44. Hassan Njohole, interview, Lipangalala, Ifakara, July 17, 1999.

45. Peter Mwilenga, interview, July 4, 2000.

46. Siraj Mbarouk, interview, Ifakara, June 2001.

47. Petro Kazibure, interview, Lipangalala, May 2000.

48. Peter Mwilenga, interview, July 4, 2000.

49. Petro Kazibure, interview, Lipangalala, May 2000.