A History under Siege : Intensive Agriculture in the Mbulu Highlands, Tanzania, 19th Century to the Present

• 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 siegelike 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.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Social och ekonomisk geografi -- Kulturgeografi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Social and Economic Geography -- Human Geography (hsv//eng)

Keyword

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

Human geography

Kulturgeografi

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

dok (subject category)