Abstract
This paper emphasizes on the rural-urban linkages on the southern side of Mount Kilimanjaro, inNorthern Tanzania. This example is quite remarkable in terms of recent urban development in ahigh rural density mountain area. Mt Kilimanjaro countryside, usually known as Chagga land, isin fact one of the most dynamic rural agro-pastoral systems in East Africa, with very highpopulation densities scattered mainly on the fertile volcanic soils of 1000-2000 meters altitudeslopes of the mountain. The growth of the main town, Moshi, now about 200,000 people, firstoriginated from a rural development based on coffee cultivation and exportation. The sprawlingurban development has created a kind of rural-urban continuum, based on high densities, bothrural and urban, and strong rural/urban linkages and mobilities. Since the 2000s, some changes seem to occur: in the new context of globalization, symbolized bythe development of international tourism and capitalistic business, are the traditional rural/urban linkages becoming different? We guess that, more and more, some “discontinuum” breaklogics take over from the former urban-rural continuum. On the one hand, a growing tendency ofde-agrarianisation and livelihood diversification can be observed. On the other hand, there areclear indications of agricultural intensification and extensification. However, for manyhouseholds subsistence production is still more important than cash crop production and not all households succeed in connecting to the booming crops in the areas under study. Rural peoplemake an effort to diversify their livelihoods as much as possible in order to reduce vulnerabilityfor shocks and insecurities. Agricultural diversification (crop differentiation), non-agriculturalactivities, multi-locality and household’s resettlement are just some key examples of these rurallivelihood strategies.
Highlights
Introduction10 One of the main features of the historical background is the differentiation of mountain farmers (mainly Chagga in Mt Kilimanjaro) and lowlands pastoralists (mainly Maasai)
Revisiting the rural-urban linkages in East Africa: Continuity or breakdown in the spatial model of rural development?
This paper aims to contribute to a debate about what can be called the new reference areas, from the resources of which people derive their livelihoods
Summary
10 One of the main features of the historical background is the differentiation of mountain farmers (mainly Chagga in Mt Kilimanjaro) and lowlands pastoralists (mainly Maasai). 20 In the first stage of urbanization, most of the rural population was living on highlands, in scattered settlements, and the urban development started in lowlands, attracting some population flows downward The geography of those high mountains was such involved in growing up-down complementarities and flows, in terms of altitude levels, physical and human characteristics. 25 This general shape suits to the main three objectives of the study, which aims to analyse new types of rural-urban linkages in those densely populated mountain areas scattered along the main highway of Northern Tanzania, with two main towns, Arusha and Moshi. This process leads to new forms of differentiation amongst the actors and to new forms of differentiation of the space
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