Custodians of the land
Subtitle: ecology & culture in the history of Tanzania
By: edited by Gregory Maddox, James L. Giblin & Isaria N. Kimambo.
Contributors: Maddox, Gregory.; Giblin, James Leonard.; Kimambo, Isaria N.
Series: Eastern African studies; Eastern African Studies (London, England)
Publisher: James Curry; Ohio University Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: London; Athens
Language: eng
Number of pages: 271
Subjects: Human ecology -- Tanzania -- History.; Environmental policy -- Tanzania.; Environmental protection -- Tanzania.; Tanzania -- Social conditions.; Tanzania -- Economic conditions.; Tanzania -- Politics and government.
Description: Farming and pastoral societies inhabit ever-changing environments. This relationship between environment and rural culture, politics and economy in Tanzania is the subject of this volume which will be valuable in reopening debates on Tanzanian history. In his conclusion, Isaria N. Kimambo, a founding father of Tanzanian history, reflects on the efforts of successive historians to strike a balance between external causes of change and local initiative in their interpretations of Tanzanian history.

He shows that nationalist and Marxist historians of Tanzanian history, understandably preoccupied through the first quarter-century of the country's post-colonial history with the impact of imperialism and capitalism on East Africa, tended to overlook the initiatives taken by rural societies to transform themselves.

Yet there is good reason for historians to think about the causes of change and innovation in the rural communities of Tanzania, because farming and pastoral people have constantly changed as they adjusted to shifting environmental conditions.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 255-265) and index.