This pioneering book was one of the first to place the history of East Africa within the context of the environment. It has been used continuously for student teaching. It is now reissued with an introduction placing it within the debate that has developed on the subject; there is also an updated bibliography.
The book puts people at the centre of events. It thus serves as a modification to nationalist history with its emphasis on leaders. It presents environmental factors that had been underestimated; for instance, it points to the critical importance of the rinderpest outbreak.
Helge Kjekshus provides evidence to suggest that the nineteenth century was a period of relative prosperity with well-developed trade. He questions the view that warfare was pervasive and that the slave trade led to depopulation. He points to a balance between man and the environment.
This book is reissued at the same time as the first publication of Custodians of the Land: Ecology and Culture in the History of Tanzania edited by Gregory Maddox, James I. Giblin and Isaria N. Kimambo. The footnotes in that book point to the importance of the work of Helge Kjekshus.
Helge Kjekshus taught Political Science at the University of Dar es Salaam. More info →
Retail price:
$32.95 ·
Save 20% ($26.36)
US and Canada only
Availability and price vary according to vendor.
Share 
Permission to reprint
Permission
to photocopy or include in a course pack
via Copyright Clearance
Center
Click or tap on a subject heading to sign up to be notified when new related books come out.
Paperback
978-0-8214-1132-2
Retail price: $32.95,
S.
Release date: April 1996
253 pages
·
5¼ × 8½ in.
Rights: World (exclusive in Americas, and Philippines) except British Commonwealth, Continental Europe, and United Kingdom
Electronic
978-0-8214-4007-0
Release date: April 1996
253 pages
Rights: World
Highland Sanctuary
Environmental History in Tanzania’s Usambara Mountains
By Christopher A. Conte
Highland Sanctuary unravels the complex interactions among agriculture, herding, forestry, the colonial state, and the landscape itself. Conte’s study illuminates the debate over conservation, arguing that contingency and chance, the stuff of human history, have shaped forests in ways that rival the power of nature.
History | Historical Geography · African History · Environmental Policy · Tanzania · African Studies
Crisis and Decline in Bunyoro
Population & Environment in Western Uganda 1860–1955
By Shane Doyle
One of the first studies of the political ecology of a major African kingdom, Crisis and Decline in Bunyoro focuses on the interplay between levels of environmental activity within a highly stratified society.
Environmental Policy · African History · History · African Studies
Eroding the Commons
The Politics of Ecology in Baringo, Kenya, 1890s–1963
By David M. Anderson
Colonial Baringo was largely unnoticed until drought and localized famine in the mid-1920s led to claims that its crisis was brought on by overcrowding and livestock mismanagement. In response to the alarm over erosion, the state embarked on a program for rehabilitation, conservation, and development.Eroding
African History · History | Historical Geography · Colonialism and Decolonization · Kenya · African Studies
Sign up to be notified when new African Studies titles come out.
We will only use your email address to notify you of new titles in the subject area(s) you follow. We will never share your information with third parties.
