Amy Stambach

AMY ELIZABETH STAMBACH, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, was awarded a grant June 2018 to aid research on ‘How Do People Manage Water on Mount Kilimanjaro: Kinship May be Key.’ Standing at 19,000-plus feet above sea level, just a few degrees south of the equator, Kilimanjaro Mountain and its coffee-growing environs have made northeastern Tanzania one of Africa’s most economically productive regions. Yet eighty percent of Kilimanjaro’s glacial cover has disappeared in as many years, and coffee production fluctuates erratically, depending on water availability. This research project on water management in Kilimanjaro Region examined how people who self-identify as Chagga use water to regulate social interactions, to connect religious and moral domains of life, and to demarcate and adjudicate conflicts. To learn about water use and resource sustainability from the perspectives of coffee farmers, the research combined participant observation, oral history methods, and interviews to document irrigation routes, community management of these irrigation routes, and ritual and everyday uses of water under conditions of climate change and out-migration of labor to cities. Research focused on the everyday articulations of multiple social domains in which water is used, including religious, legal, and economic institutions. A book, research articles, and conference papers based on this research are in process.