Environmental and Tribes

 Environmental conservation; is a practice of protecting the natural environment on individual, organizational or governmental levels, for the benefit of both the natural environment and humans. It is the act of conserving or saving our natural resources through careful management, through reducing waste, saving trees, recycling, using renewable resources that don't deplete our natural resources (Brown & Bard, 2016). Moreover, conserving the environment is the opportunities for all people to participate in the conservation of the natural environment and the sound use of the natural an environment so as to ensure sustainable development of the current and future generation.

 Environmental destruction: according to Saangapani and Sripath (2015). They defined it as the deterioration of physical components of the environment brought in by human activities to such an extent that it cannot be set right by self regulatory mechanism of the environment. It is the result of developmental processes of economic and technological activities of man. It is caused by several forms of pollution, depletion of natural resources; increasing dependence on energy consuming and ecologically damaging technologies, depletion of forest cover has become a global concern. The environmental crisis is ascribed to exponential growth in human population, fast expanding industries and philosophical religious out-look of society. Man’s cruel behavior with environments accelerated the pace of scientific and technological advancement. Therefore using Sukuma, Haya, Ha and Bena the following traditional, believes and attitude has led into conservation and destruction of the environment;

SUKUMA TRIBE

According to Migiro (1991). The Sukuma are a Bantu ethnic group who live near the African Great Lakes. The Sukuma people are the largest ethnic group in Tanzania, with a population of approximately 8.9 million, and making up 16 percent of the country's total population. Most of the Sukuma people live in Mwanza, near the southeastern shores of Lake Victoria, and over 80% of the Sukuma still live in the rural areas, which include the Shinyanga, Mara, and Simiyu regions. The Sukuma are closely related to the Nyamwenzi ethnic group, who are their neighbors. The term ‘’Sukuma’’ refers to ‘’nor,’’ which means the people living in the north.

The Sukuma people are cattle herders and subsistence farmer, with millet and sweet potatoes as their staple food. The main cash crops planted in Sukuma land include tobacco and cotton. Additionally, the Sukuma were the main meat suppliers to the Unyanyembe, a crucial chiefdom among the Wanyamwezi, which was centered in Tabora. However, in 1892 their cattle herds began to decline because of tsetse fly and rinderpest, which rendered over two-thirds of German East Africa unsuitable for raising cattle.

Although Christianity was introduced in Sukumaland over a century ago, a vast majority of the Sukuma people still practice animism. Every aspect of the Sukuma people, from planting crops to the naming of their children, is affected by their spiritual and ancestral beliefs. Christianity was introduced in Sukumaland during the early 1900s, with African Inland Mission (AIM) membership being the first Christians to influence the locals. The Anglicans later established their missionary works in Ihelele and Nasa, while the Baptist mission had an intensive Sukuma project, which began during the late 1970s and continued into the early 1980s. Sukuma people like any tribe have their own way of interacting with the environment.

To that the following below are the ways through which sukuma people had developed positive altitude in managing the environment:-

 Sukuma people practice transhumance known as “Lugundiga”. A system of preserving a piece of land for dry season grazing. All these are done to ensure that there must be existing of a certain balance in the environment. According to Watson (2011) it means that it is the people who know their environment and how to interact with it. The decision of using the environment belongs to them.  In the same line of argument, for example in Sukuma tribe there is a practice of burning the grasses so that it can provide new pastures. This was technically done without destroying the environment. It was mentioned that the new grasses after burning were of great importance for cattle feeding, for reproduction and their health (Ipolu, 2011).

Sukuma tribe had traditional practice called “ngitili,” a Sukuma tribal word meaning “enclosure “or “fodder reserve” (Barrow and Shah 2011). “Ngitili” involves closing off from livestock an area of standing vegetation including grasses, shrubs, and trees—from the onset to the end of the rainy season. The “ngitili” area is only opened up for grazing at the peak of the dry season. During the wet season, this approach prevents landscape degradation such as soil erosion and helps conserve biodiversity. During the dry season, it alleviates fodder shortages. The woodlands restored via “ngitili” have generated a number of benefits for instance; food crops such as maize, sorghum, bulrush, millet, cassava, rice, and chickpeas are grown within the enclosures under the trees (Kamwenda, 2002). The “ngitili” have increased the availability of fuel wood, thatch grass, poles, fodder, and water. Because the collection of fuel wood, water, and fodder are often women’s chores, the restoration of “ngitili” has reduced the workload for women (WRI 2005). The restoration “know-how” relevant for Shinyanga already existed, consisting of traditional land management practices that had been passed down for generations (Winrock International 2006). Villagers knew the value and uses of different tree species. Moreover the hash program’s approach to “ngitili” revival was to work with local people to identify land restoration opportunities and then to restore them according to customary practices. The Division of Forestry and Beekeeping within the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism worked closely with both district government staff and village government authorities to understand which areas needed urgent restoration and which best practices to use (WRI 2005). Promoting traditional.

Know-how created a more willing environment for the transfer of knowledge among peers and extension services, since the traditional techniques are suitable for the local capacity and

Local conditions (Winrock International 2006).

 Sukuma practice customary institution called “dagashida”. This is a powerful traditional regulatory mechanism which involved an assembly that formulated customary laws and punished those who broke it (Mlenge, 2004:30). This law gives great transparency in decision making. The law therefore, is mainly used to conserve the environment. It punished those people who destroyed the environment.  Hunting and grazing as well as cutting trees in reserved areas were seriously prohibited. Basically ‘dagashida’ institution governs resource use. It is mainly implemented by the local soldiers called ‘sungusungu.”  For example, the “Kizumbi” forest in Shinyanga was seriously restricted; people were not allowed to cut trees in this forest. Moreover, people planted trees in “ngitili” areas and around homesteads. Livestock were actively controlled, too. The enclosures kept livestock from damaging growing vegetation during the wet season. During the dry season, livestock played a role mimicking native browsers and fertilizing the soil (Winrock International, 2006).

Sukuma tribe  have taboos that prevents women and young people from cutting down certain type trees. Menstruating women, for example, were prohibited from collecting medicinal plants; medicine trees and fruits like “mkuyu” and “bhushishi”. Traditionally people were healed through these trees (Budoya, 2011, Ntimba, 2011 and Joseph, 2011). It was believed that if they did so the healing power of the plants would be reduced (Fred et al, op cit). These taboos ensured the conservation of, many species. In sukuma communities, big trees are not cut for domestic purposes; only small shrubs, reeds, and grass, which regenerate quickly.  They collect such tree for the purposes of building houses.

In other hand Sukuma tribe due to their socio-economic activities that a carried out to the land like agriculture, hunting and social activities like  making local medicine  had caused or been a sources of  environment destruction as follows;

In Sukuma some of the animals are used in ritual activities.  Animals like lion, leopard and “mbushi” and some other body parts of animals like horns were highly needed for healing processes. These animals were used by traditional healers. These practices have caused to decline or disappearance of some animals in the forests.

Sukuma tribe has practice of producing traditional medicine. Most of the sukuma people they believe in local medicine that are obtained from our environment, most of them uses some roots form different kind of tree species this has caused destruction of environment because most of the tree are cut without replacement, for example from our experience in Tanzania this has much affected Shinyanga region where the land had turned into bare land. Therefore this activities need to be done consciously, so as to protect our environment.  
 HAYA TRIBE

The Haya are ethnic linguistic group based in the district of Bukoba, Muleba and Karagwe in Kagera region in Northwest of Tanzania East Africa in 1991, the Haya population was estimated to 1,000,000. The Haya people speak Haya language. They said to have settled in the Kagera region of norwest Tanzania during the time of Bantu expansion. They are believed to be the earlier in habitant in the area of the practice of mental works allowed them to create various new forms of portly. They were organized in to small groups which; loosely affiliated with one groups another and organized in the system of similar to feudalism with commoners and nobles as the main participant. With the arrival of European Christianity the regions becomes famous for fielding the rate cardinal Laurian Rugambwa was the cardinal and respected person in the church as the Haya are many of them are Roman catholic behaves. In the 1978 the ancestral region in which the haya belongs was subjected to an attempt of annexation by the former Uganda president Idd Amin Jada whose invasion of the Kagera region failed eventually lead to the topping of government by the arm of Tanzania. Haya like any other tribe  preserve and destruct environment as follows:-

Haya have practice growing some grass species in “lweya”.  According to (Nkuba 1997) “Lweya” is an open grassland in Buhaya including the area with rock, or areas with steep slope so as this area was partly supporting the banana based farming of “kibanja” because of its fertility due to the kind of soil that was found in that area  so as to preserve the environment of that area.  So “bahaya” people engage in preserving that grasses found in the area. The Haya   people preserve the environment, and preserve it through growing grass species like “olumbugu” called in scientific name as “digitariaa scalanau” and “ekinshwi” called in scientific name as “eragrostic alvacea” and both of these species are popular in Haya but useless so its purpose is only to preserve and conserve that environment.

Haya practices traditional mulching in “lweya”. One among the haya society called “Kibanja” they are practicing crop cultivation and the major crops produced or cultivated is banana, coffee and maize. During growing of banana they have that system of maintaining soil fertility through mulching by using grasses which received from “lweya”, also by using the manure from cattle or cattle manure, So through the system of the haya (kibanja) tends to conserve the environment. In that way( kimambo 1969). Also Haya desruct environment as follows Apart from conserving then environment done by the haya people also there is some destruction that has been practiced by the haya people in the environment. This can be seen through different practices and daily routines done by the haya people.

 Here under there is some of the causative that triggers the destruction of the environment by the haya people.

Traditional ceremonies;- The haya society is among of the society that practices the traditional ceremonies called “omutoto, omayanga, omulekule, amakondele and akasimbo”, all these dances were practiced in almost all district of the Haya people. These tradition ceremonies it accompanied with cutting of scrubs and trees because these traditional ceremonies conducted into the forest something lead to the environment destruction, Through this ceremonies  they tends to clear all the grasses  in that area  in order to make sure the ceremony will be hold on that area .so because of the action of clearing all of the grasses that found in an area is part of environmental destruction by sorting away the plants species and leaving the land bare. Traditional ceremonies are accompanied with traditional dances that are held during the special ceremonies like marriages succession and political issues, These dances are called “Omutolo, Amayaga, Omulekule , Amakondele, and Akasimbo”. Through these dances some of them conducted at home also lead to cutting trees for preparing ekitikilitwa/ jukwaa) and slash grass ( okushala obwokwalila onikitikikililwa). In order to prepare these ceremony at home.Olthough lead to environmental destruction. Through cutting trees, scrubs and slash grass. All these cutting down trees, scrubs and slashing of grass are the causative agents of the vulnerable climatic change. This is due to the fact that the practice of cutting down trees and slashing of the grasses leads to disappear of some of the biodiversity that is environmental friend for maintenance of climatic stability.

They practice “Omsiri” (Open grass or bush land).  Most of the Haya people practices “omsiri” by cultivating different crops like maize, Yam, Potatoes, Yellow yams (kashuli) and cassava, through these , Haya cutting down trees, and scrubs to prepare “Omsiri”. This also leads to the destruction of the environment. Also practice “Omsiri” near water sources in order to protect or off the water for irrigation. Use this water from source of water, thus also destructs the environment through using water for much irrigation can affect the terrestrial living organism like animals and fish species due to the decrease of water that is used much in irrigation leading to drop in level, quantity and quality of water security for living organism that found in water areas. 
 BENNA TRIBE

Bena: is among of the tribe which is among of the Bantu tribe that is found in the southern highlands area specifically in Njombe region where it is occupied by Benna speaking people. Njombe currently has seemed to have mainly five districts which are Njombe municipal, Njombe rural, “Makete, Wanging’ombe and ludewa”.  Before Njombe was among of the part of Iringa region before to be separated to stand as the region, Hence by abstract, Njombe has characterized of different tribes which everyone has got its own ways of life although they just resemble to have some similarities to some aspects of culture but they differs to some extent. In this context our discussion will base much on Benna tribe and we are going to see their similarities and ethnicity difference on the aspect of either preserving or destructing environment basically by much consideration on attitude, practice and culture. Bena tribe preserve environment in the following ways:-

Believe on ghost and ancestors function: Benna is among of the tribe that since ever has been putting belief on the function of ghost and ancestors to improve life situation and solve some problems affecting the society. According to (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ nyumbanitu)This is done through the preserved forest found in Njombe known a  “NYUMBANITU” , This forest is the among of the mostly preserved forest and no one can even cut a or pick even a leaf of the trees found there because he or she will be affected by different problems according to the reality. Hence it is totally prohibited to anyone who tends to destroy anything found within that forest something that preserves the environment because if one goes against, problems like drought, hunger, will affect the society due to lack of rain in the total region.

Planting trees as much as possible; This is among of the proper habit of the benna tribe because are the one that cooperates with other tribes like Kinga tribe in planting many trees that ere used for different uses such as charcoal making, building materials, good air condition and others uses. Most of the electric post that are spread all over Tanzania most of them are harvested from Njombe region where they are harvested from planted trees and not destructing the natural vegetation that found all over the area. Through planting trees, there is practice like planting trees to every homestead for different reason like chasing away dangerous animals like snake through the trees odor, and at the same time preserving the environment, also for the purpose of creating shadow at homestead, and other uses.

Use of Natural extracted medicine; Most of the benna speaking people are the one that prefer most in the use of tradition medicine to cure some of the diseases that mostly affects the society. Through this practice many people engages in planting trees that they are seemed to cure some of the diseases.  It is the nature to see most of the Bena houses are characterized with trees and it is seen as a non-normal habit to see any house holder is not engaging in planting trees that are used as medicine at any homestead. From this habit we can see that is much friendly with the environment and is attractive to rainfall formation.

Destructing the environment through practice, attitude, and beliefs. Hence in this context we shall see all the practice that is not environmental friendly as practiced by Bena tribe.

Depending on agriculture as among of their culture; Benna is among of the tribes that depends much on agriculture as the part of their culture since every new upcoming stars, and new incoming married couples are advised to depend much on agriculture this can be revealed during marriage ceremonies. Example many of the newly incoming couples are given hoes and machete (ligimilo ni nyengo) as the main starting point of self independent in finding and collecting their food though agriculture, Where through this tools, hoe is for digging and tilling the land and the machete for clearing bushes and vegetation to introduce the new farms and plantations. This is unfriendly to the environment because the practice is done without considering better ways of cultivation leading to environmental pollution due to the local tools and methods used in agriculture. The Benna tribe in order to engage much in agriculture most of them are engaged living far apart from each other through taking a piece of land, clearing it by cutting down all the vegetation cover present in order to introduce agriculture activities and for the purpose of introducing the new accommodation. Agriculture that do not preserve soil and preserve the environment is seen to be unfriendly and its not a conserving way rather than destroying the environment.

Also living sparsely to each other: Among of the Benna tribe behavior and practice is living apart from each other whereby most of the people are living apart from each other due to this factor, most of the people like to live apart from each other in order to have enough time to practice their activities separately from each other. Due to this factor most of people likes to cut down trees and clearing the vegetation in order to get land for cultivation

Hunting and poaching as their main activities for gathering food (HUFWIMA): Most of of Bena people practice poaching where they do not use proper way of capturing animals, but they uses the local ways where among of the local way of hunting is the way of burning forest so as to result a bare land to become easy in animal catching even though other uses single shot twelve gauge short-guns to obtain or provide dried or smoked meat to be sold in the village at low price. Thus, through the local means of burning forest become destructing the environment because can destroy things that haven’t been not needed to be killed and cause deforestation. (https://www.encyclpedia .com.)

Use of three legged carved stools; which in Bena tribe men are skilled and become responsible in wood carving to produce or make three legged stools which is actually developed from a single log. So, in order to accomplish activity must be undergone cutting down trees where accelerate deforestation that as the part of environmental destruction.

Pottery uses: Most of the Bena people from the Bena tribe they believe in pottery uses for different practices which its making process are became controlled by a woman in a tribe, where they uses muddy to produce pots for storing water, cooking, crops product and sometimes for cooking some foods such as (beans, and makande). From Bena tribe most of the people of all ages, like senior, and juniors believes that the food cooked in ports is much delicious than that cooked in pans. This is the reason why in most of the marriage ceremonies the woman married is given gifts of pots that she could use to cook for her husband and the guest.Tey have to extract muddy from the area near the water source where become causes soil erosion as the part of environmental destruction. 
HA TRIBE

Waha is the tribe that found in the regions like Kigoma, and Kagera. The high number of the waha people from Ha tribe is found in Kigoma  especially in districts like Kasulu, kibondo, kigoma and uvinza.The Ha is the dominant tribe in Kigoma but there is another tribes that found in kigoma.They were coming to settle either permanently or temporary for different purpose like , working in business, or other works .This is according to one historian and the writer of historical facts Mr. B.A,Ogot from  Kenya in his book called : A survey of two hundred years of east Africa history in page 76 up to page 85. He tried to Mention tribes in east Africa including kigoma region in particular Tanzania. The Ha tribe divided into different small clans that were 6Wajiji, Wakimbili, Watela, Walagane, Wasinde, and other tribes. Ha tribe have Idiom said that “Ibhiharagi bhisumbinyama”. Ha tribe like any other tribe conserve environment in the following ways:-

They planted “Imivumu” in Kiswahili is known as “Milumba”, for worship activities. According to Chubwa (1996) Ha tribe believes that these trees are resident for the ancestors. There were places for worship such as “Indalo” and on the big special trees “Imivumu”. “Indalo” is the kind of house special for worship where by people within their community met for worship activities. Therefore through planting those special big trees is where we can term that is part of environmental conservation. Hence the Ha tribe conserves and plants their trees in order to influence rainfall in their area. Still nowadays most of the people in Ha tribes engage in planting trees as part of their culture for the purpose of accomplishing the mission of worshiping.

Ha tribes practice “Uguhezagila”. According to Ernest (1990) Ha tribe used sacrifices of animals like sheep and whip hen. The kind of animals that were used in sacrifice was known as “Ingabulo” but the whole process of making and practicing sacrifice was known as “Uguhezagila”. They practices this activity for seeking rainfall especially for the farmers, were doing in order to escape many problems and also were seeking to avoid fatness and calamities in the society.This practices in the Ha tribe has two sides, in the case of environment firstly Though the sacrifice of animals lead to the loss of biodiversity where by some species of animals were disappeared due to this activities, and this is dangerous to the environment. Also this practice according to Ha tribes helps them in conserving environment because they believe that if they practice “Uguhezagila” process they will get enough rainfall that helps farmers in their cultivation of plants like cassava, beans, maize, and yam potatoes. Also due to this activity when the rain rains it activates some natural plant to clear succession and well grow hence preserve environment.

Conclusively: the question of environment conservation is important therefore every member in the society needs to be adhered too, the best possible way to help prevent environmental destruction is to give back to the environment. We can do this successfully by planting three trees for every one that is cut down for the forestry industry. When it comes to the planet’s trees, you can never have enough. Trees give us clean air to breathe; they literally filter out the bad and pump out the good, which is why we’d never survive without them. Keeping our forests alive are not only important to our ecosystem, but to the wildlife system of the world as well, because it’s their home. When the food chain is affected, we as humans we are also affected.

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By Geoffrey Migiro

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