ABSTRACT
T he Shambala are a Bantu-speaking people who occupy the Usambara Mountains of North-eastern Tanganyika. 33 The highest peaks in the Usambara Mountains rise to elevations of approximately 7,000 feet, but most of the people live in mountain valleys and small intermountain basins with elevations ranging from 3,000 to 5,500 feet where rain is good and reliable and the climate is cool as compared to the surrounding plains. The economy is based primarily on hoe agriculture, but cattle and small stock are kept in significant numbers and are grazed in unopened bush land, commonage near villages, harvested fields, and on the surrounding plains. The main crops in order of importance are maize, beans, cassava, sweet potatoes, bananas, and sugar cane. In addition to these crops, wattle trees, vegetables, coffee, rice, cotton, and tobacco are grown for the market, and small amounts of other crops are produced. Production for the market is becoming increasingly important and is encouraged by the administration. The mixed economy supports a heavy population which numbered 263,887 in the census of 1957. The greater part of the population is centred in the mountains where densities in excess of 500 persons per square mile are not uncommon, but there are increasing numbers of people residing in the plains at the base of the mountains where rice cultivation and stock herding are the main subsistence activities. However, the plains are arid lands in part infested by tsetse and mosquito, and in addition large tracts have been alienated to the great sisal estates. Thus the area for expansion out of the mountains is sharply limited.
