Environmental Reconstructions in the Upper Tana region, Kenya
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Date
2020
Authors
Ngari, Lazarus Kinyua
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
JJEOSHS
Abstract
This article sets out to unravel aspects of environmental changes in the Upper Tana
during the second millennium AD. This aspect has not been adequately addressed in
the Upper Tana. This makes it clear that a lacuna exists in the study of communities
of the Upper Tana and the way they interact with their environment in the past and
present times. The objective of this article is to evaluate the relationship between
human activities and environmental change in the Upper Tana from AD 1000 to 1950.
It is hypothesized that the advent of iron technology and its attendant economic
activities led to the depletion of indigenous forests and the general environmental
degradation. The article has employed archaeological, ethnographic, oral and historical
methodologies to gather data on vegetation change in the Upper Tana and other
related regions. It argues that livestock grazing, iron smelting, slush and burn
agriculture, and the clearing of forests for housing are key contributors to vegetation
change in the Upper Tana. Results from oral reconstruction of the past vegetation of
the area, and using the plant succession theory, shows that the lowland area of the
Upper Tana is actually savannah with scattered trees probably inhabited by grazers. It
is posited that the above factors, together with persistent droughts have altered the
vegetation cover of the area. What we have today is colonization of less desirable
stunted growth. The theory advanced here is that the vegetation change has been a
result of human activities. Overwhelmingly, results the study that the researcher
carried out, showed that the causes of these changes have been socio-economically
associated with the expansion of agricultural communities into the area; rather than
through climatic factors. Colonisation and other forces of modernisation have also
contributed to the underlying problem. The article concludes that anthropogenic
factors have greatly contributed to environmental change in the upper Tana.
Certainly, environmental change is a global phenomenon that has elicited research
interests due to its negative impacts on human population. It is recommended that
knowledge of environmental change in the past should be used to extrapolate modern
environmental challenges affecting African ecosystems.
Description
article
Keywords
Environmental reconstruction, ecological concerns in upper Tana, Agricultural activities, Vegetation change
Citation
Ngari, L. K. (2020). Environmental Reconstructions in the Upper Tana region, Kenya. Jumuga Journal of Education, Oral Studies, and Human Sciences (JJEOSHS), 3(1), 1-10.