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Hippopotami in a liminal space: a multi-species ethnography of Lake Tanganyika in Bujumbura
This thesis explores how human encroachment has significantly altered Lake Tanganyika's freshwater ecosystem and riparian zone in Bujumbura, the capital city of Burundi, which affects the daily life and interactions between humans and hippopotami (hippo). Societal development agendas have favoured e...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Environmental Humanities South
2023
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| _version_ | 1867613190987186176 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Maksudi, Bakenga |
| author2 | Solomon, Nikiwe |
| author_browse | Maksudi, Bakenga Solomon, Nikiwe |
| author_facet | Solomon, Nikiwe Maksudi, Bakenga |
| author_sort | Maksudi, Bakenga |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | This thesis explores how human encroachment has significantly altered Lake Tanganyika's freshwater ecosystem and riparian zone in Bujumbura, the capital city of Burundi, which affects the daily life and interactions between humans and hippopotami (hippo). Societal development agendas have favoured economic growth and infrastructural development with little regard for the well-being of multi-species communities. The study contrasts the ideas that drive economy-based approaches to development and environmental management with the many engagements with the lake, and how this in turn affects human-hippo relations on Lake Tanganyika's riparian zone. Environmental protection and management discourses are frequently portrayed as a unified, single, objectivist practice, however, their contextual enactment differs from discipline to discipline and across municipal interventions and service delivery. The study investigates how the current settlement developments affect human-hippo relations. Specific research questions include, what are the intersecting human-hippo interactions that exist in Bujumbura's lakeshore neighbourhoods? What impacts do these interactions have on people and hippos? What interventions can help restore the degraded environment and foster kinship? I respond to these questions by engaging with current debates in environmental humanities, cultural, and environmental anthropology on human-multi-species entanglements. Both grounded theory and multi-species ethnography approaches were used as data collection and analytic tools in this study. I trace nutrient and energy flows to foreground the interdependencies between the “human world” and “natural world”, a separation that is no longer viable in the time of the Anthropocene. Triangulated data sets are used to narrate stories and critically discuss the current environmental challenges using ecocentric, and actor-network theory as the conceptual frameworks. Although population growth is considered a key factor in environmental degradation, I argue that the deterioration of the environment, particularly the coastal landscape, may be attributed to improper and unclear land-water management. The findings of this study indicate that land acquisition on the riparian zone for settlement development in the Gisyo and Kibenga is associated with power and affluence by some members of society. Potential land-water insights and spatial planning approaches for a human-and-hippo-friendly riparian zone are proposed. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/37490 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:32:13.078Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| publishDateRange | 2023 |
| publishDateSort | 2023 |
| publisher | Environmental Humanities South |
| publisherStr | Environmental Humanities South |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/37490 Hippopotami in a liminal space: a multi-species ethnography of Lake Tanganyika in Bujumbura Maksudi, Bakenga Solomon, Nikiwe Matose, Frank Environmental Humanities Ecosystem Lake Tanganyika Hippopotamus biogeochemical social ecology riparian zone This thesis explores how human encroachment has significantly altered Lake Tanganyika's freshwater ecosystem and riparian zone in Bujumbura, the capital city of Burundi, which affects the daily life and interactions between humans and hippopotami (hippo). Societal development agendas have favoured economic growth and infrastructural development with little regard for the well-being of multi-species communities. The study contrasts the ideas that drive economy-based approaches to development and environmental management with the many engagements with the lake, and how this in turn affects human-hippo relations on Lake Tanganyika's riparian zone. Environmental protection and management discourses are frequently portrayed as a unified, single, objectivist practice, however, their contextual enactment differs from discipline to discipline and across municipal interventions and service delivery. The study investigates how the current settlement developments affect human-hippo relations. Specific research questions include, what are the intersecting human-hippo interactions that exist in Bujumbura's lakeshore neighbourhoods? What impacts do these interactions have on people and hippos? What interventions can help restore the degraded environment and foster kinship? I respond to these questions by engaging with current debates in environmental humanities, cultural, and environmental anthropology on human-multi-species entanglements. Both grounded theory and multi-species ethnography approaches were used as data collection and analytic tools in this study. I trace nutrient and energy flows to foreground the interdependencies between the “human world” and “natural world”, a separation that is no longer viable in the time of the Anthropocene. Triangulated data sets are used to narrate stories and critically discuss the current environmental challenges using ecocentric, and actor-network theory as the conceptual frameworks. Although population growth is considered a key factor in environmental degradation, I argue that the deterioration of the environment, particularly the coastal landscape, may be attributed to improper and unclear land-water management. The findings of this study indicate that land acquisition on the riparian zone for settlement development in the Gisyo and Kibenga is associated with power and affluence by some members of society. Potential land-water insights and spatial planning approaches for a human-and-hippo-friendly riparian zone are proposed. 2023-03-17T12:12:05Z 2023-03-17T12:12:05Z 2022 2023-03-17T08:42:14Z Master Thesis Masters MPhil http://hdl.handle.net/11427/37490 eng application/pdf Environmental Humanities South Faculty of Humanities |
| spellingShingle | Environmental Humanities Ecosystem Lake Tanganyika Hippopotamus biogeochemical social ecology riparian zone Maksudi, Bakenga Hippopotami in a liminal space: a multi-species ethnography of Lake Tanganyika in Bujumbura |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | Hippopotami in a liminal space: a multi-species ethnography of Lake Tanganyika in Bujumbura |
| title_full | Hippopotami in a liminal space: a multi-species ethnography of Lake Tanganyika in Bujumbura |
| title_fullStr | Hippopotami in a liminal space: a multi-species ethnography of Lake Tanganyika in Bujumbura |
| title_full_unstemmed | Hippopotami in a liminal space: a multi-species ethnography of Lake Tanganyika in Bujumbura |
| title_short | Hippopotami in a liminal space: a multi-species ethnography of Lake Tanganyika in Bujumbura |
| title_sort | hippopotami in a liminal space a multi species ethnography of lake tanganyika in bujumbura |
| topic | Environmental Humanities Ecosystem Lake Tanganyika Hippopotamus biogeochemical social ecology riparian zone |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/37490 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT maksudibakenga hippopotamiinaliminalspaceamultispeciesethnographyoflaketanganyikainbujumbura |