Environmental degradation in Mbeya town: a case study of river source areas, 1920s-1950s

This study explored the history of environmental degradation in river source areas in Mbeya town from the 1920s to the 1950s. Three specific objectives guided the study: identifying the causes of river sources degradation; analyzing the British colonial government’s interventions to conserve river source areas and examining the consequences of those interventions in Mbeya town. Political ecology was used as a theoretical framework while archival sources, interviews and field observations formed the evidentiary basis of the dissertation. The study has found out that from the 1930s, British colonial officials realized the growing problem of environmental degradation in river source areas, which went hand in hand with declining amount of water in rivers. Rapidly growing population in Mbeya, which led to overcrowding, unguided settlements, cultivation on steep slopes, sand quarrying, deforestation, grassfires, grazing and soil erosion were the main causes of this problem. The study has uncovered three main British colonial interventions to deal with the problem. The first intervention involved using anti-erosion rules of terracing, ridges, contours, hedges, storm water drains, ditches and planting of trees. The second measure involved creation of forest reserves at Mbeya Range and Kawetire. The third initiative involved controlling fires and sand quarrying in the river source areas. These conservation interventions had three effects in Mbeya town: they transformed ecological landscapes of Mbeya into forests and areas of human settlement; they created employment opportunities as some local resident of Mbeya were employed as Forest Rangers and they aroused political consciousness among the local people of Mbeya. The study contributes in the debate of environmental degradation and enriches its historiography in environmental history. It exposes violence of colonial conservation interventions and the ways the interventions forced local people into nationalist struggles. Therefore, the dissertation contributes to an understanding of the ecological, social, economic and political impacts of colonialism in Africa, particularly in Mbeya town.