Human History
Historically the Usambara Mountains have been inhabited by the Bantu, Sambaa, and Maasai people who were a mix of agriculturalists and pastoralists. In the late 18th century, German colonialists came to the area bringing with them a mix of cash crops like lumber trees, coffee, tea, and quinine, and also designated forests as reserves for either water conservation or timber use (Rogers 2009). They also brought a slew of new, western ideas which were, in many ways, diametrically opposed to traditional beliefs such as coexistence with the forest versus forest as a "separate wilderness" (Korschun 2007). The result of colonialism was a massive change in the way forests were perceived in the community, and conversion of traditional agriculture to cultivating cash crops such as quinine, pine trees, bananas, maize, tea, and coffee.
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