Once There Was a Forest

The Usambara Mountains lie in North-Eastern Tanzania, and are the land of the Sambaa. Once they contained some of the richest rain forests in all Africa. Long before the colonial era the Sambaa had developed a fruitful method of farming that resembled the structure of the forest itself. During colonialism and since independence, many modernization programmes have come and gone; Today, most of the forest has disappeared. The soil has been ruined by western-style commercial agriculture and does not respect the cycle of nature. Food production is falling, while the population is growing. But now the farmers are starting to return to the old ecological systems. Time is pressing; farming will have to change rapidly if the soil is to be saved. The fate of tree and man are inextricably linked.