"Ancient and backward or long-lived and sustainable?" The role of the past in debates concerning rural livelihoods and resource conservation in Eastern Africa

World Development

Volumn 38, Issue 9, 2010, Pages 1251-1262

  Stump, Daryl ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF YORK   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Archeology; East Africa; Historical ecology; Indigenous knowledge; Intensive agriculture

Indexed keywords

ARCHAEOLOGY; EXPLOITATION; HISTORICAL ECOLOGY; INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE; INTENSIVE AGRICULTURE; NATURE CONSERVATION; RESOURCE MANAGEMENT; RURAL AREA; RURAL ECONOMY; RURAL HISTORY; SUSTAINABILITY;

EAST AFRICA;

EID: 77952932690     PISSN: 0305750X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2010.02.007     Document Type: Article

References (110)

1. Adams W.M. Irrigation, erosion and famine: Visions of environmental change in Marakwet, Kenya. The Lie of the Land: Challenging received wisdom on the African environment 1996, 155-167. James Currey, London. M. Leach, R. Mearns (Eds.).
2. Anderson W.M., Adams D.M. Irrigation before development: indigenous and induced change in agricultural water management in east Africa. African Affairs 1988, 87:519-535.
3. Irrigation in tropical Africa - Problems and problem-solving 1984, African Studies Centre, Cambridge. W.M. Adams, A.T. Grove (Eds.).
4. Alteiri M.A., Koohafkan P. Enduring farms: Climate change, smallholders and traditional farming communities 2008, Third World Network, Penang.
5. Amborn H. Agricultural intensification in the Burji-Konso cluster of south western Ethiopia. History of African Agricultural technology and field systems 1989, Vol. 24:71-83. Azania.
6. Anderson D.M. Depression, dust-bowl, demography and drought: The colonial state and soil conservation in east Africa during the 1930s. African Affairs 1984, 83:196-210.
7. Anderson D.M. Eroding the commons: The politics of ecology in Baringo Kenya 1890-1963 2002, James Currey, Oxford.
8. Anderson D., Grove R. Introduction: The scramble for Eden: Past, present and future in African conservation. Conservation in Africa: People, policies and practice 1987, 1-12. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. D. Anderson, R. Grove (Eds.).
9. Balée W. The research program of historical ecology. Annual Review of Anthropology 2006, 35:75-98.
10. Barker G., Gilbertson D. Living at the Margin: Themes in the archaeology of drylands. The archaeology of drylands: living at the Margin 2000, 1-17. Routledge, London. G. Barker, D. Gilbertson (Eds.).
11. range ecology and disequilibrium: New models of natural variability and pastoral adaptation in African Savannahs 1993, Overseas Development Institute, London. R.H. Behnke, I. Scoones, C. Kerven (Eds.).
12. Beinart W. Soil erosion, conservation, and ideas about development: A Southern African exploration, 1900-1960. Journal of Southern African Studies 1984, 11:52-83.
13. Boerma P. Assessing forest cover change in Eritrea - A historical perspective. Mountain Research and Development 2006, 26(1):41-47.
14. Börjeson L. Boserup backwards? Agricultural intensification as 'its own driving force' in The Mbulu Highlands, Tanzania. Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography 2007, 89(3):249-267.
15. Boserup E. The conditions of agricultural growth: The economics of Agrarian change under population pressure 1965, Allen and Unwin, London.
16. Boserup E. Population and technology change: Study of long-term trends 1981, Blackwell, Oxford.
17. Briggs J. The use of indigenous knowledge in development: Problems and challenges. Progress in Development Studies 2005, 5(2):99-114.
18. Brockington D., Homewood K. Degradation debates data deficiencies: The Mkomazi Game Reserve, Tanzania. Africa 2001, 71(3):449-480.
19. Brooks T.M., Mittermeier R.A., Mittermeier C.G., Da Fonseca G.A.B., Rylands A.B., Konstant W.R., et al. Habitat loss and extinction in the hotspots of biodiversity. Conservation Biology 2002, 16:909-923.
20. Brush S.B. Farmers' rights and protection of traditional agricultural knowledge. World Development 2007, 35(9):1499-1514.
21. Burra, R., & van den Heuvel, K. (1987). Traditional Irrigation in Tanzania. Historical analysis of irrigation tradition and government intervention (Vol. 1). Dar es Salaam: SNV-TIP.
22. Butzer K.W. Ecology in the long view: Settlement histories, agrosystemic strategies, and ecological performance. Journal of Field Archaeology 1996, 23(2):141-150.
23. Chambers R.J.H. The Perkerra irrigation scheme: A contrasting case. Mwea: An irrigated rice settlement in Kenya 1973, 344-364. Weltforum Verlag, Munich. R. Chambers, J. Moris (Eds.).
24. Carswell G. Farmers and fallowing: Agricultural change in Kigezi District, Uganda. Geographical Journal 2002, 168(2):130-140.
25. Carswell, G. (2007). Cultivating success in Uganda: Kigezi farmers and colonial policies. Nairobi: BIEA; Oxford: James Currey; Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press.
26. Conelly W.T. Population pressure, labour availability, and agricultural disintensification: The decline of farming on Rushinga Island, Kenya. Human Ecology 1994, 22(2):145-170.
27. Constanza R., Graumlich L., Steffen W., Crumley C., Dearing J., Hibbard K., et al. Sustainability or collapse: What can we learn from integrating the history of humans and the rest of nature?. Ambio 2007, 36(7):522-527.
28. Conte C.A. Highland sanctuary: Environmental history in Tanzania's Usambara Mountains 2004, Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio.
29. Curry J.R. Elusine cultivation by the Wachagga on Kilimanjaro. The East African Agricultural Journal 1939, 5(2):386-390.
30. Dearing J.A. Integration of World and Earth Systems: Heritage and Foresight. The world system and the earth system. Global socioenvironmental change and sustainability since the neolithic 2007, 38-55. Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek. A. Hornborg, C. Crumley (Eds.).
31. Devenne F. On 'The Mountain of Waters', the furrows are running dry: Rethinking Mount Kilimanjaro's irrigation system. Kilimanjaro. Mountain, Memory, Modernity 2006, 201-214. Mkuki na Nyota Publishers Ltd., Dar es Salaam. F. Bart, M.J. Mbonile, F. Devenne (Eds.).
32. Erickson, C. L. (1998 [1992]). Applied archaeology and rural development: archaeology's potential contribution to the future. In M. B. Whiteford, & S. Whiteford (Eds.), Crossing currents: Continuity and change in Latin America (pp. 34-45). Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall. Reprinted from Journal of the Steward Anthropological Society, 20(1-2), 1-16.
33. Erickson C.L. Intensification, political economy, and the farming community: In defence of a bottom-up perspective of the past. Agricultural Strategies 2006, 334-363. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles. J. Marcus, C. Stanish (Eds.).
34. Eshetu Z., Högberg P. Reconstruction of a forest site history in the Ethiopian Highlands based on 13-C natural abundance in soils. Ambio 2000, 29(2):83-89.
35. Fairhead J., Leach M. Rethinking the forest-savannah mosaic: Colonial science and its relics in west Africa. The Lie of the Land: Challenging received wisdom on the African environment 1996, 105-121. James Currey, London. M. Leach, R. Mearns (Eds.).
36. FAO [Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations]. (1990). The conservation and rehabilitation of African lands: an international scheme. Rome: FAO. Available online at: (accessed in December 2008). http://www.fao.org/docrep/z5700e/z5700e00.HTM.
37. FAO [Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations]. (2004). Globally-important ingenious agricultural heritage systems GIAHS project. Report of the second international workshop and steering committee meeting, Rome, 7-9 June 2004. Rome: FAO. Available online at: (accessed in March 2010). http://www.fao.org/nr/giahs/meetings-events/second-international-workshop-and-steering-committee-meeting/en/.
38. Feierman S. Peasant intellectuals, anthropology and history in Tanzania 1990, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison.
39. Ferguson J. The anti-politics machine: 'Development', depoliticization and bureaucratic power in Lesotho 1990, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
40. Gillson L., Sheridan M., Brockington D. Representing environments in flux: Case studies from east Africa. Area 2003, 35(4):371-389.
41. Grove A. Water use by the Chagga on Kilimanjaro. African Affairs 1993, 92:431-448.
42. Grove A.T., Sutton J.E.G. Agricultural terracing south of the Sahara. History of African agricultural technology and field systems 1989, Vol. 24:114-122. Azania.
43. Håkansson N.T. Irrigation, population pressure, and exchange in precolonial Pare, Tanzania. Research in Economic Anthropology 1995, 16:297-323.
44. Håkansson N.T. The decentralized landscape: Regional wealth and the expansion of production in Northern Tanzania before the eve of colonialism. Economies and the transformation of landscape 2007, 239-265. AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek. L. Cliggett, C. Pool (Eds.).
45. Harrop S.R. Traditional agricultural landscapes as protected areas in international law and policy. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 2007, 121:296-307.
46. Hoben A. Paradigms and politics in Ethiopia. The Lie of the Land: Challenging received wisdom on the African environment 1996, 186-208. James Currey, Oxford. M. Leach, R. Mearns (Eds.).
47. Holling C.S., Berkes F., Folke C. Science, sustainability and resource management. Linking social and ecological systems 1998, 242-263. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. F. Berkes, C. Folke (Eds.).
48. Ingold T. The perception of the environment: Essays on livelihood, dwelling and skill 2000, Routledge, London.
49. Johnston H.H. The Kili-manjaro expedition; a record of scientific exploration in Eastern Equatorial Africa 1886, Keegan P., Trench and Co, London.
50. Kanthack F.E. Report on the control of the natural waters of Tanganyika and the framework of the water law on which such control should be based 1938, Government Printer, Dar es Salaam.
51. Kaswamila A.L., Masuruli B.M. The role of traditional irrigation systems in poverty alleviation in semi-arid areas: The case of Chamanzi in Lushoto District, Tanzania 2004, Mkuki Na Nyota, Dar es Salaam.
52. Kendall A. Applied archaeology: Revitalising indigenous agricultural technology within an Andean community. Public Archaeology 2005, 4:205-221.
53. Kimambo I.N. A political history of the Pare of Tanzania, c. 1500-1900 1969, East African Publishing House, Nairobi.
54. Kimambo I.N. Penetration and protest in Tanzania: The impact of the world economy on the Pare, 1860-1960 1991, James Currey, London.
55. Kerio valley: Past, present and future 1983, University of Nairobi Press, Institute of African Studies, Nairobi. B.E. Kipkorir, R.C. Soper, J.W. Ssennyonga (Eds.).
56. Kjekshus H. Ecology control and economic development in east African history: The case of Tanganyika 1977, University of California Press, Berkeley.
57. Kodalo J.T. An archaeological reconnaissance of the Marakwet irrigation furrows: A case study from the Embotut and Arror Rivers, Kerio Valley, Kenya. Nyame Akuma 2000, 53:12-21.
58. Koponen, J. (1988). People and Production in Late Pre-Colonial Tanzania. History and Structures. Helsinki: Finnish Society for Development Studies; Finnish Anthropology Society; Finnish Historical Society; Scandinavian Institute of African Studies.
59. Kuper A. The return of the native. Current Anthropology 2003, 44(3):389-402.
60. Lambin E.F., et al. The causes of land-use and land-cover change: Moving beyond the myths. Global Environmental Change 2001, 11:261-269.
61. Leach M., Mearns R. Challenging received wisdom in Africa. The Lie of the Land: Challenging received wisdom on the African environment 1996, 1-33. James Currey, Oxford. M. Leach, R. Mearns (Eds.).
62. Lein H. Traditional versus modern water management systems in Pangani river basin, Tanzania. Looking at Maps in the Dark. Directions for geographical research in land management and sustainable development in rural and urban environments of the Third World 1998, 52-64. Royal Dutch Geographical Society & Faculty for Environmental Sciences, University of Amsterdam, Utrecht. L. de Haan, P. Blaikie (Eds.).
63. Malthus, T. R. (1985) [originally published anonymously in 1798]. An essay on the principle of population, and a summary view of the principle of population. Edited with an Introduction by A. Flew. London: Penguin.
64. Masao F.T. The irrigation system in Uchagga: An Ethno-historical Approach. Tanzania Notes and Records 1974, 75:1-8.
65. Mbaga-Semgalawe Z., Folmer H. Household adoption behaviour of improved soil conservation: The case of the North Pare and West Usambara Mountains of Tanzania. Land Use Policy 2000, 17(4):321-336.
66. McCann J.C. A Dura revolution and frontier agriculture in Northwest Ethiopia, 1898-1930. Journal of African History 1990, 31:121-134.
67. Moore H. Anthropology and development: Some illustrations from the Marakwet of Kenya. Kerio valley: Past, present and future 1983, 132-138. University of Nairobi Press, Nairobi. B.E. Kiporir, R.C. Soper, J.W. Ssennyonga (Eds.).
68. Morrison K. Typological schemes and agricultural change: Beyond Boserup in precolonial South India. Current Anthropology 1996, 37:583-608.
69. Murton J. Population growth and poverty in Machakos, Kenya. Geographical Journal 1999, 165(1):37-46.
70. Netting R. Smallholders, householders. Farm families and the ecology of intensive, sustainable development 1993, Stanford University Press, Stanford.
71. New C. Life, wanderings and labours in eastern Africa. With an account of the first successful ascent of the equatorial snow mountain, Kilima-Njaro and remarks upon east African Slavery 1873, Hodder and Stoughton, London.
72. Niemeijer D. The dynamics of African Agricultural History: Is it time for a new development paradigm. Development and Change 1996, 27:87-110.
73. Nygren A. Local knowledge in the environment-development discourse: From dichotomies to situated knowledges. Critique of Anthropology 1999, 19(3):267-288.
74. Oldfield F. Toward developing synergistic linkages between the biophysical and the cultural: A palaoenvironmental perspective. The world system and the earth system. Global socioenvironmental change and sustainability since the neolithic 2007, 29-37. Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek. A. Hornborg, C. Crumley (Eds.).
75. Redman, C. L. & Kinzig, A. P. (2003). Resilience of past landscapes: Resilience theory, society, and the Longue Durée. Conservation Ecology 7(1), p. 14, http://www.consecol.org/vol7/iss1/art14.
76. Sustaining the soil. Indigenous soil and water conservation in Africa 1996, Earthscan, London. C. Reij, I. Scoones, C. Toulmin (Eds.).
77. Richards P. Indigenous agricultural revolution: Ecology and food production in West Africa 1985, Hutchinson and Co, London.
78. Rocheleau D.E., Steinberg P.E., Benjamin P.A. Environment, development, crisis, and crusade: Ukambani, Kenya, 1890-1990. World Development 1995, 23(6):1037-1051.
79. Sheridan M.J. An irrigation intake is like a uterus: Culture and agriculture in precolonial North Pare, Tanzania. American Anthropologist 2002, (1):79-92.
80. Shetler J.B. Imagining serengeti. A history of landscape memory in Tanzania from earliest times to the present 2007, Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio.
81. Siedenburg J. The Machakos case study: Solid outcomes, unhelpful hyperbole. Development Policy Review 2006, 24(1):75-85.
82. Sillar, B. (2005). Who's indigenous? Whose archaeology? In B. Sillar & C. Fforde (Eds.), Conservation, identity and ownership in indigenous archaeology. Special issue of Public Archaeology, 4, 71-94.
83. Sillitoe P. The development of indigenous knowledge: A new applied anthropology. Current Anthropology 1998, 38(2):223-252.
84. Sillitoe, P. (2006). Ethnobiology and applied anthropology: Rapprochement of the academic with the practical. In E. Roy (Ed.), Ethnobiology and the science of humankind. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Special Issue 2006, S119-142.
85. Sokoni C.H., Shechambo T.C. Changes in the upland irrigation system and implications for rural poverty alleviation: A case of the Ndiwa irrigation system, West Usambara Mountains, Tanzania 2005, Mkuki Na Nyota, Dar es Salaam.
86. Spear T. Mountain farmers: Moral economies of land and agricultural development in Arusha and Meru 1997, James Currey, Oxford.
87. Ssennyonga J.W. The Marakwet irrigation system as a model of a systems-approach to water management. Kerio valley: Past, present and future 1983, 96-111. University of Nairobi Press, Institute of African Studies, Nairobi. B.E. Kipkorir, R.C. Soper, J.W. Ssennyonga (Eds.).
88. Stahl A.B. Making history in Banda. Anthropological visions of Africa's past 2001, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
89. Stahl K.M. History of the Chagga people of Kilimanjaro 1964, Mouton & Co., London.
90. Stocking M., Perkin S. Conservation-with-development: An application of the concept in the Usambara Mountains, Tanzania. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 1992, 17(3):337-349.
91. Development from above or below? The dialectics of regional planning in developing countries 1981, Wiley, Chichester. W.B. Stöhr, D.R.F. Taylor (Eds.).
92. Stump D. The soils of Engaruka: preliminary soil exhaustion tests on a pre-colonial agricultural landscape in Tanzania. Researching Africa's Past. New contributions from British archaeologists 2003, Vol. 57:101-109. Oxford University School of Archaeology, Monograph, Oxford.
93. Stump D. The development and expansion of the field and irrigation system at Engaruka Tanzania. Azania 2006, 41:69-94.
94. Stump D., Tagseth M. The history of precolonial and early colonial agriculture on Kilimanjaro: A review. Culture history and identity: Landscapes of inhabitation in the Mount Kilimanjaro Area Tanzania 2009, 107-124. Archaeopress, BAR International Series 1966. Oxford. T. Clack (Ed.).
95. Sutton J.E.G. Irrigation and soil conservation in African agricultural history with a reconsideration of the Inyanga terracing (Zimbabwe) and Engaruka irrigation works (Tanzania). Journal of African History 1984, 25:25-41.
96. Sutton J.E.G. Towards a history of cultivating the fields. History of African agricultural technology and field systems 1989, Vol. 24:99-111. Azania.
97. Sutton J.E.G. Engaruka: An irrigation agricultural community in Northern Tanzania before the Maasai. Azania 1998, 33:1-33.
98. Swynnerton R.J.M. Some problems of the Chagga on Kilimanjaro. East African Agricultural Journal (Amani) 1949, January:117-132.
99. Tagseth M. The 'mfongo' irrigation systems on the slopes of Mt Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. A history of water: Water control and river biographies 2006, Vol. 1:488-506. I.B.: Tauris, London.
100. Tiffen M. Land and Capital: Blind spots in the study of the "resource-poor" farmer. The Lie of the Land: Challenging received wisdom on the African environment 1996, 168-185. James Currey, London. M. Leach, R. Mearns (Eds.).
101. Tiffen M., Mortimore M., Gichuki F. More people, less erosion: Environmental recovery in Kenya 1994, Wiley, Chichester.
102. UN [United Nations]. (1992). Agenda 21: The United Nations plan for action from Rio. United Nations: New York.
103. Walker, B., Holling, C. S., Carpenter, S. R. & Kinzig, A. (2004). Resilience, adaptability and transformability in social-ecological systems. Ecology and society 9(2), 5. URL: (accessed October 2008). http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol9/iss2/art5.
104. Watson E.E. Living terraces in Ethiopia. Konso landscape, culture and development 2009, James Currey, Woodbridge.
105. Westerberg, L.-O., Holmgren, K., Börjeson, L., Håkansson, N. T., Laulumaa, V., Ryner, M., et al. (2007). The development of the ancient irrigation system at Engaruka, Northern Tanzania: Physical and societal factors. In M. Ryner (Ed.), 2007: Past environmental and climate changes in northern Tanzania: Vegetation and lake level variability in Empakaai Crater. Doctoral Thesis No. 5, Dept. of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology, Stockholm University.
106. Widgren, M. (1999). Islands of intensive agriculture in eastern Africa: The social, ecological and historical contexts. In M. Widgren & J. E. G. Sutton (Eds.), 'Islands' of intensive agriculture in the east African Rift and Highlands: A 500 year perspective (pp. 3-14). EDSU Working papers No. 43. Stockholm: Stockholm University Press.
107. Widgren M. Towards a historical geography of intensive farming in eastern Africa. Islands of intensive agriculture in eastern Africa 2004, 1-18. James Currey, Oxford. M. Widgren, J.E.G. Sutton (Eds.).
108. Widgren M. Pre-colonial landesque capital: A global perspective. Rethinking environmental history: World-system history and global environmental change 2007, 61-77. AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek. A. Hornborg, J. Martinez-Alier, J.R. Mcneil (Eds.).
109. Islands of intensive agriculture in eastern Africa 2004, James Currey, Oxford. M. Widgren, J.E.G. Sutton (Eds.).
110. Yoshida M. Traditional furrow irrigation systems in the South Pare Mountains area of Tanzania. Opportunities for irrigation development in Tanzania 1985, 33-69. Institute of Developing Economies, Tokyo. A. Mascarenhas, J. Ngana, M. Yoshida (Eds.).