The Bananas of Upland East Africa - The Kagera Region of Tanzania

The Kagera Region of the United Republic of Tanzania lies wholly to the west of Lake Victoria. The northern border of the Region, which also is an international border with Uganda, is the 1°S parallel, westwards from Lake Victoria for some 100 km to where the Kagera River crosses the parallel. From there, the Kagera River, which follows a short, generally westward course then swings almost due south, forms the western border. In its southward course this is first with Rwanda then, after it passes through Ngara, with Burundi. The total land area of the region is some 28,500 km². The surface of Lake Victoria is 1134 m above sea level and almost all of the land of the region all lies above about 1200 m. Because of the effect of altitude, the climate can be described as modified equatorial. There is little variation in the mean maximum and minimum temperatures. In Bukoba, besides the lake, these rarely exceed 25° C and rarely fall below 15°C.

Lake Victoria itself lies at an altitude of 1134 m. An east to west transect across the Region from the shore of the lake shows a series of ridges and broad valleys.

A series of photographs, taken by me and showing views of the topography from east to west across the Region are linked from the clickable VISTA.

The ridges, which in most places have a steep to sheer eastern face, rise progressively higher from east to west. They reach a maximum of some 1350 m along the lake and over 1700 m in the westernmost ridge, which stretches the length of the Region.

The valley bottoms are almost all seasonally flooded or permanently swampy land, with some smaller lakes. The Rainfall Pattern, which basically is determined by the easterly airflow off Lake Victoria and convection updraughts caused by the ridges, is one of very high, over 2000 mm, in the environs of Bukoba, declining to the west, to around 1000 mm, but with the valleys in successive rainshadows. Areas with less than 750 mm of annual rainfall are mostly uninhabited. Paralleling the decline in quantity, the rainfall also becomes increasingly seasonal the further west the location.

The regional population in the 1978 census was 1,009,379. This gives a population density of 35.5 per km² but, as a consequence of the terrain and rainfall pattern, the cultivable land, and those who cultivate it, is almost all on the ridgetops. In several areas on the eastern ridges, the population density nears 500 per km²; thus, ranking that in Bukoba District among the highest rural densities in tropical Africa. The available statistics on land under cultivation are undependable and vary according to source. An estimate (based by the present author on 1:50,000 scale maps and on other sources) of the major problem area of banana cultivation, in the coastal strip some 40 km to the north and south of Bukoba, amounted to some 25,000 ha of banana shambas, supporting over 35,000 households. At 4.5 persons per household, the population density in this area is around 630 per km². Failure of the banana harvest would constitute a major disaster to these people. A modern FOOD SECURITY ATLAS OF KAGERA REGION can be found at a University of Glasgow site with Digital Cartography and GIS by Mike Shand.	Market day in Ngara
Typically the farmers of Kagera live on their shamba, giving security to their food, bananas, and the "villagization" programme of the post-independence government failed in the Region. The major cash crop is the "robusta" coffee, indigenous to the area.	Traditional Wahaya house
Robusta Coffee	"Modern" farmer's house
For administrative and political purposes, the Region is divided into five Districts; Bukoba, Muleba and Biharamulo being on the eastern side, from north to south respectively; Karagwe and Ngara form the western side, again north and south respectively. In addition there is the Bukoba Urban District, where the Regional Headquarters are situated. Below the District level there are Divisions and these are further split into Wards, with a Ward usually being made up of a number of villages. To give some idea of the distances involved:- Bukoba by road is some 1550 km, around two and a half days travelling time, from Dar es Salaam; Bukoba to Muleba District Headquarters is 68 km, and to Biharamulo, 205 km; to Karagwe District HQ is 117 km and to Ngara via Biharamulo 310 km, or via the more adventurous Karagwe route, 240 km.

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