Revisiting the rural-urban linkages in East Africa: Continuity or breakdown in the spatial model of rural development?

• Main Authors: Bernard Charlery de la Masselière, François Bart, Bénédicte Thibaud, Rémi Benos
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Société Royale Belge de Géographie and the Belgian National Committee of Geography 2020-05-01
• Series: Belgeo
• Subjects: East African Mountains; agricultural changes; livelihood diversification; Rural-Urban dynamics; territorial development
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/belgeo/38669

This paper emphasizes on the rural-urban linkages on the southern side of Mount Kilimanjaro, in Northern Tanzania. This example is quite remarkable in terms of recent urban development in a high rural density mountain area. Mt Kilimanjaro countryside, usually known as Chagga land, is in fact one of the most dynamic rural agro-pastoral systems in East Africa, with very high population densities scattered mainly on the fertile volcanic soils of 1000-2000 meters altitude slopes of the mountain. The growth of the main town, Moshi, now about 200,000 people, first originated from a rural development based on coffee cultivation and exportation. The sprawling urban development has created a kind of rural-urban continuum, based on high densities, both rural and urban, and strong rural/urban linkages and mobilities. Since the 2000s, some changes seem to occur: in the new context of globalization, symbolized by the development of international tourism and capitalistic business, are the traditional rural/urban linkages becoming different? We guess that, more and more, some “discontinuum” break logics take over from the former urban-rural continuum. On the one hand, a growing tendency of de-agrarianisation and livelihood diversification can be observed. On the other hand, there are clear indications of agricultural intensification and extensification. However, for many households 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 people make an effort to diversify their livelihoods as much as possible in order to reduce vulnerability for shocks and insecurities. Agricultural diversification (crop differentiation), non-agricultural activities, multi-locality and household’s resettlement are just some key examples of these rural livelihood strategies.