Kilimanjaro

This paper is a chapter in a much larger thesis bearing the title "Building National Unity in sub-Saharan Africa: The Impact of State Policies on the Chagga Community in Northern Tanzania." Unlike the local political authority which lost popular support, the Kilimanjaro Native Cooperative Union (KNCU) grew even stronger after World War II. Government interference was at the minimum, the Union’s administration was in Chagga hands, its affiliate societies were fully democratised and
world coffee prices at their best. With this prosperous cooperative under their control, the Chagga crossed confidently into independence. However, political interference was soon resumed at the same time as coffee prices plummeted. The KNCU limped through the 1960s towards its abolition in 1976. Though much regretted, the political interferences did not elicit stone-throwing as previous ones did. Instead, those who
could simply abandoned the KNCU and exploited other social and economic avenues opened up by independence. Often they did so legally, but sometimes they quietly subverted unfriendly policies of a state to which they now owed some loyalty.

This work is a result of the research project „Irrigation at Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania,“ which was embedded in the Humanities Collaborative Research Centre “Local Action in Africa in the Context of Global Influences” at Bayreuth University. The author investigates how the local population of the plains south of Mt. Kilimanjaro is dealing with the influences of the Japanese assisted “Lower Moshi Irrigation Project” (LMIP), which established paddy cultivation in that area. After the introduction of the multi-ethnic village Chekereni, which is the centre of the LMIP and the base of an 18 months field research, the author examines local irrigation knowledge, focussing on the Kahe, the Chagga and Pare but also taking other East African societies into account, which practice irrigation or paddy production. This local knowledge is used as a reference to compare local practices with the new influence of the LMIP. The establishment of local knowledge together with a detailed study of the various actors involved in the LMIP enables a sound analysis of the way the local population is dealing with the LMIP. The result is that there are as well contradictions between the local concepts of irrigation and the LMIP as forms of appropriation of different aspects of paddy cultivation in various domains of the local society. Contradictions can result in water conflicts, contradictions of different concepts of water management, economy or legal concepts. Appropriation can take the form of technical appropriation, social appropriation or even selective appropriation whereby the LMIP is considered as a form of booty. The contradictions and processes of appropriation are interpreted as two complementing parts of dealing with the new whereby the solving of contradictions can lead to appropriation or conflicts, depending on how the new influence effects the live of the local population and which means the local population has to pursue their interests.

Geographical analysis of the current state and gradual changes in the region of
the highest mountain range of Africa. Summarizing the history of knowledge,
use, and routes to Kilimanjaro with an aim to enabling them to be applied in the
teaching process of geography, history and biology.

Kilimandžáro, symbol Afriky, je nie celkom správne považované za najvyšší vrchol tohto kontinentu. V skutočnosti tento názov nesie celý rozsiahly horský masív, ktorý je najväčším samostatne stojacim sopečným horstvom na svete. Je to prírodný fenomén, ktorý z okolitej plošiny vyrastá 4 788 m až po vrchol vo výške 5 895 m n. m., známym ako najvyšší bod Afriky s bielym zaľadneným vrcholom. Tajomná hora, ktorá púta pozornosť vedcov, horolezcov, spisovateľov aj umelcov, sa nazýva Kibo s najvyšším bodom Uhuru.(V časti o histórii objavovania používame v súlade s vtedajším poznaním a terminológiou názov Kilimandžáro aj pre pomenovanie tohto najvyššieho bodu.) Vedci na základe meraní odhadujú, že charakteristická črta vrcholu − biela ľadovcová pokrývka, sa vplyvom otepľovania klímy do roku 2020 úplne stratí.

Kinyala Johannes Lauwo (1871-1996) was the guide to Hans Meyer and Ludwig Purtscheller when they climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in October 1889. In 1989 the West German government honoured him by funding a new house at Ashira, Marangu, Tanzania. Related to Kinyala by marriage, my wife's sister and  I interviewed him in KiChagga and Swahili on  video in 1993. My father in law and my wife's brother also provided details from Ashira Lutheran Mission.

The Pangani Valley region in northern Tanzania is dominated by an arc of highlands that stretch from Usambara to Arusha. In this region, ecotonal variations in environments have shaped-and were in turn shaped by-cultural, political, and economic forces. Since the early 18th century three major events and shifts in regional and world systems dynamics affected significant economic and political changes on the highlands. First, the international ivory and slave trade increased in volume and organization; second, this led to an expansion of specialized pastoralism through an increased availability of cattle in the region; and third, at the end of the 19th century the region was included into a colonial state.

The focus of this ethnographic study is to examine the sociocultural aspects of water usage amongst the Chagga of North East Kilimanjaro. 

Issues concerning water access involving economic and geographical inequalities, as well as threats to water access in the form of alcoholism will be considered, and various aspects of water usage practice will be explored in detail. A discussion of these findings will follow with reference to trachoma control programmes which are being implemented throughout the region.

The study will conclude with some recommendations for said programmes based on the insights gained from this research

Not-being made its appearance in the world as an alternative embodied in being itself; and thereby being itself first assumes an emphatic sense: intrinsically qualified by the threat of its negative it must affirm itself, and existence affirmed its existence as concern. So constitutive for life is the possibility of not-being that its very being is essentially a hovering over this abyss, a skirting of its brink: thus being itself has become a constant possibility rather than a given state, ever anew to be laid hold of in opposition to its ever-present contrary, not-being, which will inevitably engulf it in the end. Hans Jonas, The Phenomenon of Life: Toward a Philosophical Biology (1966: 4).

This edited volume explores the landscapes of Mount Kilimanjaro in N. Tanzania. Contributions facilitate insights from agronomy, anthropology, archaeology, botany, development studies, history, material culture studies, theology and zoology. The volume is in honour of Paramount Chief Thomas Marealle II (1915-2007).