Water brings no harm: Knowledge, power, and practice on Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, 1880--1980

This dissertation examines transformations in the use, control, and meaning of water resources among the Chagga-speaking population of Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania from 1880 to 1980. In the late nineteenth century, Chagga used water for irrigation and domestic needs, relying upon a unique system of furrows to channel water directly into areas of settlement. The resource also had tremendous cultural and religious importance. The onset of colonial rule introduced new actors to Kilimanjaro---colonial officials, missionaries, and settlers---who settled on or near the mountain and made demands upon its water resources. At first, Europeans were quite accepting of local knowledge of the resource, the existing practices of utilizing it, and even the power structures in place to manage it. In the 1930s, however, fear that water supplies were becoming scarce led these agents to challenge local knowledge, power, and practice of water. Chagga initially resisted these efforts vehemently, but after 1940 many began to adopt new notions of water. By the 1980s, profound changes had occurred in the use, management, and meaning of the resource. While in the most general sense these changes were a product of colonial rule on Kilimanjaro, I examine them as effects of, as well as causes of, social and political change within Kilimanjaro. I show that changes in water knowledge and practice were initiated by the onset of new social, political, and economic processes that reached critical mass in the late 1930s. These included the spread of Christianity, Western schooling, ideas about health and sanitation, colonial administrative strategies, coffee cultivation, and demand from downstream users. These emerging phenomena enabled people to reshape their own understandings of what water was, how it should be used and procured, who possessed relevant knowledge of it, and who should control and be responsible for it. Thus water serves as a window through which we can see complex cultural, social, and economic processes at work. It not only highlights the uniqueness of Kilimanjaro, but it also provides valuable insights and comparisons for other colonial societies inside and outside of Africa.