Utilisation of Mangroves, Urbanisation and Population Pressure

The mangroves have long been used in Zanzibar in different forms and activities according to their size and demands. They have been mainly used as building materials because they are resistant to rotting agencies such as termites and rain water.³⁴⁶ In the building sector, the larger mangroves were poles or pillars of between 4.7 and 8 inches diameters, which were used for construction of Swahili houses, predominantly to support the mud-ceiling.³⁴⁷ Other mangroves of about 1.5 inches or less were also utilized as building sticks³⁴⁸ to support the Swahili mud-walls. The sticks were also used to construct fish traps and fences.³⁴⁹ Furthermore, the mangrove poles have been used extensively as scaffolding in construction of large buildings. Besides, there are several other uses of the trees; for instance, the trees’ products have been used as medicine. Mangrove fruits have been used to treat stomach pains in villages such as Vitongoji, Makunduchi and Jambiani.³⁵⁰ Mangrove barks have been used for tanning of local leather goods and baskets such as winnowing baskets. Moreover, mangroves have       

345 ZNA/AU7/42 Mangroves Industry – Working Scheme

346 Abdul Sheriff, Dhow Cultures of the Indian Ocean: Cosmopolitanism, Commerce and Islam, London:

C. Hurts and Co. (Publishers) Limited, 32 and BA24/5 R. H. W. Pakenham, Land Tenure Among the Wahadimu, 28

347 Sheriff, Dhow Cultures of the Indian Ocean, 32

348 Sheriff, Dhow Cultures of the Indian Ocean, 32

349 BA24/5 R. H. W. Pakenham, Land Tenure Among the Wahadimu, 28

350 Interview with Mzee Suleiman Haji (Njenje) on April 2012 at Jambiani, Unguja. Also Interview with Mwalim Rajab on May 2012, Chakechake, Pemba

been used as a source of energy (firewood and charcoal) as well as for building animal carts and fishing traps.³⁵¹ Despite their small quantity in usage, the mangroves were also used for constructing parts of the dhows, especially masts and push poles.

Local communities in Zanzibar were allowed to utilize forest resources according to their regular requirements, which meant to cater for their domestic consumption, such as firewood for cooking and lime burning as well as poles and timber for building their houses.³⁵² However, since there was no precise boundary or defining terms concerning how much was ‘the regular requirement of the local communities,’ it was discovered that some people made business out of it. That seemed to accelerate establishment of a Forests Reserves Decree in 1950³⁵³ to place some mangrove forests entirely under government control and further restrict the local community from consuming the forest resources in the islands.

351 See the following: BA24/5 R. H. W. Pakenham, Land Tenure Among the Wahadimu, 28; Thabit S.

Masoud and Robert G. Wild, “Sustainable Use and Conservation Management of Mangroves in Zanzibar, Tanzania,” in Marta Vannucci (ed.), Mangrove Management, 282;

352 ZNA/AU7/42 A. L. Griffith, Working Scheme for the Mangroves, 6

353 Zanzibar Protectorate, A Decree to Provide for the Establishment, Protection and Management of Forest Reserves, (Zanzibar: The Government Printer, 1950)

Figure 4.1 A local bus transporting mangrove poles from the rural area in Unguja Source: Pakenham, (1947)

As previously discussed, wealthy people in Zanzibar built many large houses in Zanzibar Stone Town, which was the capital and major town in the islands. They constructed the houses side by side with other common people in Zanzibar. The town began to grow rapidly during the rule of Sultan Seyyid Said from the 1840s.³⁵⁴ Apart from economic stagnation that Zanzibar faced after transformations brought about by the British colonial government from the 1890s, the number of people living in urban areas increased over time, together with the general population (see Table 3.1). This indicates an increase in demand for social services such as housing, which, in turn, had implications for use of resources including building materials such as mangrove poles for domestic houses in both urban and rural areas.

A colonial government survey conducted in 1893 indicated that there were 1,506 mansions or stone buildings, compared to 5,179 huts in Zanzibar town.³⁵⁵ Subsequently, economic changes had the effect of "reducing the number of landlords       

354 John Middleton, Land Tenure in Zanzibar, (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1961), 12 & 14

355 William Cunningham Bissell, Urban Design, Chaos and Colonial Power in Zanzibar, (Bloomington:

Indiana University Press, 2011), 65

and increasing the number of African peasant smallholders. Increasingly, landlords were reduced to becoming smallholders and permanent residents of the towns..."³⁵⁶ Again, that pattern accelerated the urbanisation process and expansion of Stone Town.

In the early-1930s, the colonial government through its Town Planning Board tried to strictly control construction of houses in Stone Town and Ng'ambo by using an elaborate Master Plan. But the situation was difficult to control, including the master plan itself, and few years later in 1938, the whole control programme was abandoned and the ban against mud houses (as discussed before) was declared unlawful.³⁵⁷ Urbanisation of communities in Zanzibar increased gradually whereby out of a total population of 149,575 on Unguja Island in 1948, about 28 percent (42,362) were living in Zanzibar town. In Pemba Island, urbanisation was relatively slow and there were three different townships of Wete, Chekechake and Mkoani. Thus, out of the total population of 114,587, there were only 7,389 urban residents.³⁵⁸ Urbanisation had increased by 1958 whereby 35 percent of people lived in Stone Town and 12 percent of Pemba population lived in townships.³⁵⁹ As a result, development of urban communities in the islands propelled demand for more houses, many of which required many mangroves and coral stones as building materials thereby jeopardised these resources.

356 J. L. Mlahagwa, “The Decline of the Landlords, 1873 – 1963,” 160

357 See the following: William Cunningham Bissell, Urban Design, Chaos and Colonial Power., 261-2, 290; Garth Andrew Myers, Verandahs of Power: Colonialism and Space in Urban Africa, (Syracuse:

Syracuse University Press, 2003), 87 - 8; and Garth Andrew Myers, "Sticks and Stones: Colonialism and Zanzibari Housing," in Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Volume 67, Number 2, (Cambridge University Press, 1997), 252 - 3.

358 ZNA/BA 34/4 Notes on Census of the Zanzibar Protectorate 1948 (Zanzibar: The Government Printers, 1953), 3 - 4

359 J. G. C. Blacker, "Population Growth and Differential Fertility in Zanzibar Protectorate" in Population Studies, Vol. 15, No. 3 http://www.jstor.org/stable/2172728 Accessed June, 2013

Table 4.4 Zanzibar Population Censuses during the British Colonial Period

Year 1910 1921/1924 1931 1948 1958

Unguja 114,069 128,099 137,741 149,575 165,253

Pemba 83,130 88,691 97,687 114,587 133,858

Total Population 197,199 216,790 235,428 264,162 299,111 Source: J. G. C. Blacker, "Population Growth and Differential Fertility in Zanzibar Protectorate" p. 259

4.3.1.4 Ecological Impact of Mangrove Utilisation: The Question of Degradation,