Our conservation work is centred in Kilwa District, southern Tanzania, where some of the greatest remaining stocks of mpingo are to be found, and also some of the highest rates of logging.
Location
Kilwa District (8°15’-10°00’S, 38°40’-39°40’E) is the most northerly district in the Lindi Region of southern Tanzania. To the east is the Indian Ocean, and to the west is the Selous Game Reserve. The District has an area of 13,920km˛, which is divided into two parliamentary constituencies and 93 villages.
History
Kilwa District has been settled for over a thousand years. The small island of Kilwa Kisiwani, lying about 1km from the mainland, was once the greatest city on the East African coast. Shirazi Arabs settled there in the 9th century and created a town.
By the height of the Swahili civilization, in the 13-15th century, it was at the hub of trade between inland peoples, in what is now Zimbabwe, and maritime trade with Mozambique, Arabia, India and as far as China. Ivory, gold and tortoiseshell were brought from inland, to be traded for cloth and porcelain. There are records of "ebony" being exported from Kilwa, which may well have been mpingo. Kisiwani was renown as a prosperous city-state and centre of Swahili culture. Kisiwani had outlying settlements on other islands, including Sanje ya Kati and Songo Mnara. The city, as Quiloa, even gets a mention in Milton's Paradise Lost. Various impressive ruins remain on the three islands, the best recently restored.
In 1505 the Portuguese attacked and occupied the coast, destroying most buildings on Kilwa Kisiwani. It never quite regained its status. However, in the 18th century, Omani Arabs resettled the island and recommenced trading. Kisiwani became an important slave holding centre, where slaves captured near Lake Nyasa (which now forms the Tanzania, Malawi and Mozambique border) were held before being transported to Mauritius, the Arab Sultanates and India. As well as the nefarious slave trade Kilwa's renewed prosperity derived from dealing in commodities as rice, gum copal (which came from the local coastal forest tree Hymenaea verrucosa) and tobacco.
At the start of the 19th century, the mainland port of Kilwa Kivinje supplanted Kisiwani as the terminus of the southern slave caravan. Kivinje has a broad sandy harbour, which to this day is an ideal landing beach for wooden boats. The slave caravan route probably passed from Kivinje, over Singino Hill, through Migeregere, southwest to Nanjirinji and leaving what is now the far southwest corner of Kilwa District by the Mbwemkuru River. By 1850 Kivinje had grown into a settlement of 12-15,000 including many wealthy families of Indian origin. The Sultan of Zanzibar, who had outlawed slave-trading, captured the last Sultan of Kilwa, sent him into exile and imposed new laws. Kivinje briefly rose to notoriety for its clandestine continuation of slave trafficking.
The coastal strip of Tanzania came under German control in 1886, and they established a regional headquarters at Kivinje. From this base the Germans suppressed a popular uprising called the Maji Maji Rebellion, which took root in the Matumbi Hills at the northern end of the District.
When Tanganyika became a British protectorate, it was decided to move the District centre to Kilwa Masoko and a deep-water habour was constructed for modern commercial vessels. Independence came in 1961, and the new national government kept the district centre at Masoko but built a new hospital on the site in Kivinje where the German colonial rulers hanged people during the Maji Maji Rebellion.
Population
The 2002 census found that the average person in Kilwa District lives in a house built in the traditional way from wooden poles and mud, with a roof made of grass. They get their water from an unprotected well, and use a pit latrine. Their house is lit at night by a wick lamp made from an old tin can. Only 47% of people are literate.
Largely as a result of poor infrastructure the District's population has remained relatively stable. Currently it is estimated to be about 175,000, which is a density of 12.6 people per km². This is much less than the national average, because young people previously left the District in search of commercial and educational opportunities in Dar es Salaam and elsewhere.
As a result of the long history of Islamic traders living in the area, most of the District's inhabitants are Muslim. Many villages have not only a mosque but also a madrassa, where children learn to read the Koran in Arabic.
There are a number of Christian missions in the District, including the well-established Roman Catholic Kipatimu Mission. This has a large stone church and hospital, which is one of the very few two-storied buildings in the District. Substantial numbers of those who have recently moved into the District are Christian.
Some people still adhere to traditional beliefs; Kilwa is famous for witchcraft. Many people turn to witchcraft when they have a serious illness or dispute.
Communications
Until May 2000 the area was inaccessible, being linked to Dar es Salaam, the largest city in the country, by a single ferry across the Rufiji River. The construction of the Mkapa Bridge across the Rufiji was an essential investment facilitating much-needed development in the impoverished area to the south. This bridge is part of the upgrading of the Dar-Mtwara road (B2), which runs north-south through the District. It is due to be entirely sealed by 2008. Previously, in the rainy seasons the area lost its road links with the rest of the country, such that goods could only be taken in and out by sea. That situation has now greatly improved, and transport by land is difficult, but not impossible, in rainy months. Kilwa Masoko has a port and also a small airport, which is served by scheduled flights to Lindi and Dar es Salaam.
A further recent improvement in communications was the arrival of mobile telephones in 2003. The network serves an area including Kilwa Masoko, Kilwa Kivinje, Kilwa Kisiwani, Nangurukuru and the villages between these towns.
The completion of the Mkapa Bridge made movement of goods and people much easier. There is anecdotal evidence of net migration into the District. It has become cheaper to send local timber, crops and fish to market in Dar es Salaam, and transport costs to bring manufactured goods from outside the area in, for sale, have decreased. New businesses are opening, particularly in Kilwa Masoko. However, despite these very recent changes, the District remains poor.
Climate
Kilwa District is one of the hottest in the country because the district is low-lying. There are two rainy seasons. Typically the ‘short rains’ are light rains falling from November to January. After a drier period around February, there are the ‘long rains’, which are heavier rains usually lasting from March to May. Relative humidity tracks rainfall, peaking in March-April.
The mean annual rainfall at Masoko (1974-2004) is 1034mm, putting it just inside the wet miombo vegetation category. However, rainfall is considered to be slightly lower inland. Annual rainfall is erratic (SD 276mm). The last three years have included the wettest (2002 and 2004) and driest (2003) in recent decades. There is also considerable monthly variation in rainfall. For example, in December 1993, when the short rains were expected, it did not rain at all.
As farmers are dependent on rain-fed agriculture, in drier years the District’s people often need food aid. It could be that rainfall is becoming more erratic, either because of local changes, such as disturbance of vegetation cover, or because of larger scale processes, which might be cyclical or directional such as global warming.
Geology and topography
Most of the District is well-drained sedimentary sandstone of low fertility and with low moisture-holding capacity. Three of the four main rivers of the Lindi Region, namely the Matandu, Mbwemkuru and Mavuji Rivers, eastwards run through the district into the Indian Ocean.
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