Elsevier

Journal of Historical Geography

Volume 78, October 2022, Pages 45-54
Journal of Historical Geography

‘Not a true cyclone’: Colonial officials' discursive tactics and responses to the 1952 cyclone in Southern Province and intra-territorial competition in Tanganyika

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhg.2022.07.009Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Officials using the cyclone to contest the marginalized status of Southern Province.

  • Extractive famine and disaster management after the cyclone in southern Tanganyika.

  • A fractured state shaped by colonial officials' competing agendas in Tanganyika.

Section snippets

Labour shortages, African mobility and negotiating with central government

During the first decade of governing Tanganyika as a mandate territory (1920–1930), the British administration focused primarily on maintaining food sufficiency and establishing civil government.13 The

Downplaying the effects of the cyclone to safeguard SP's economic profile

Hopeful for successful results at the onset of the groundnut scheme, the southern administration ambitiously focused on developing the province's ‘notoriously poor’ communications and road infrastructure.35 To equip the scheme and province with sufficient transportation, the building of a port at Mtwara and a ‘railway from it to the groundnut area at Nachingwea’ commenced in 1947.36

Emphasizing famine and southerners as victims for economic gain

The cyclone and poor rainfall later in the year and next significantly impacted the province's food security, resulting in famine in some areas. In his annual report for 1952, the labour officer of SP indicated the ‘long dry spells’ ensuing the storm ‘caused severe loss of crops,’ particularly grains.53 The labour officer contended that southerners' cultivation of

Explaining low production and revenue for 1953: between climatological factors and ‘lazy’ southerners

While in the immediate aftermath of the cyclone the district commissioner of Lindi characterized southerners in famine-stricken Mbwemkuru as victims of environmental factors to secure material resources from the capital and push forward the district's development agenda, in his annual report for 1953, the administrator inconsistently portrayed southerners as victims or ‘lazy.’ The district commissioner portrays southerners as victims to explain the shortfall of export production but

Conclusion

In the aftermath of the April 1952 cyclone in Lindi, colonial officials stationed in SP crafted narratives that either minimized or amplified the socio-economic impact of the storm to further their agenda to increase the province's agricultural exports and overall development and pushback against the central government's marginalizing outlook towards the province. The southern administration's approach stemmed from the continuing structural impoverishment of the province and officials'

Declaration of competing interest

None.

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