The study of anthropogenic climate change is a research area of vital importance for the coming decades, with rainfall change and variability expected to be keenly felt in vulnerable regions of the world, including Africa. The focus of this study is daily rainfall during the short rains season over East Africa from October to December, which has one of the most coherent increasing rainfall projections in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) dataset. This thesis aims to examine the fidelity of coupled climate models over an East African domain, with the question approached through focus on the daily (rather than monthly) rainfall field. The self-organising map is used as a clustering tool to establish contemporary characteristics of daily rainfall events in reanalysis (ERA-40) and satellite (TRMM) rainfall datasets between 1971-2000 and 1998-2010 respectively for the East African short rains. Moisture flux divergence is found to be the circulation parameter that is most closely related to the presence of rainfall events or dry conditions over East Africa. Coupled climate models are poor at replicating the daily rainfall field over the domain. A key result of the analysis is the consistent overestimation of daily rainfall by climate models for days where dry conditions of suppressed convection should prevail. In contrast, the moisture flux divergence field maps well to dry nodes for days of the self-organising map array for the models. Dry days are associated with widespread anomalous moisture flux divergence and rainfall events with co-located anomalous moisture flux convergence. This is in agreement with the moisture flux divergence field in the ERA-40 dataset; it is the rainfall field where there is disagreement for days of suppressed convection. Twenty to thirty-five percent of the projected rainfall increase towards the end of the twenty-first century results from an increase in the proportion of days assigned to nodes of suppressed convection in six of the seven models and the ensemble mean. There is an accompanying projected rainfall increase associated with days assigned to these nodes. Such days in the 2090s are characterised by projected increased strength moisture flux divergence over East Africa. Given that the moisture flux field was more successfully simulated in the coupled models under contemporary conditions than the daily rainfall field, this suggests that rainfall projections under a high emissions scenario at the end of the twenty-first century are overestimated and that an important part of the key increase in the projected rainfall may not be real.

In 2007, Uganda had one of the lowest levels of access to electricity in the world. Given the influence of multilateral and bilateral agencies in Uganda; the strong international reputation and domestic influence of its President; the country’s historic achievements in public sector and economic reform; and the intimate connection between economic performance, social well-being and access to electricity, the problems with Uganda’s electricity sector have proven deeply frustrating and, indeed, puzzling. Following increased scholarly attention to the relationship between political change, policymaking, and public sector reform in sub-Saharan Africa and the developing world generally, this thesis examines the multilevel politics of Uganda’s electricity sector reform process. This study contends that explanations for Uganda’s electricity sector reform problems generally, and hydroelectric dam construction efforts specifically, must move beyond technical and financial factors. Problems in this sector have also been the result of a model of reform (promoted by the World Bank) that failed adequately to account for the character of political change. Indeed, the model of reform that was promoted and implemented was risky and it was deeply antagonistic to domestic and international civil society organizations. In addition, it was presented as a linear, technical, apolitical exercise. Finally the model was inconsistent with key principles the Bank itself, and public policy literature generally, suggest are needed for success. Based on this analysis, the thesis contends that policymaking and reform must be understood as deeply political processes, which not only define access to services, but also participation in, and exclusion from, national debates. Future approaches to reform and policymaking must anticipate the complex, multilevel, non-linear character of ‘second-generation’ policy issues like electricity, and the political and institutional capacity needed to increase the potential for success. At the heart of this approach is a need to carefully consider how the character of state-society relations in the country – “governance” – will influence reform processes and outcomes.

Problem statement Previous studies have indicated that poverty can be reduced through selling products to the poor. Moreover, these markets contain a large potential for profit that is currently untapped. Reaching these however requires substantial innovativeness and many companies have tried and failed. Surprisingly then, little theoretical guidelines exist on how to create social innovative products for poor markets. Purpose and research question The purpose of this study is to contribute to a better understanding of social product innovation for poor markets. This is done through investigating key factors to consider for SMEs emanating from developed countries in order to create social innovative products for these markets. Methodology This paper is a qualitative research and takes an exploratory approach, and uses a cross- sectional, multiple case study methodology. This study has investigated four products emanating from Swedish micro-SMEs, sold primarily in Tanzania, Zambia and Kenya. The empirical data was collected through conducting 12 semi-structured interviews. Results and conclusion The result of this paper contributed to a deeper understanding of social product innovation in subsistence markets. Theoretical guidelines in form of a model has been developed which summarizes 19 key factors that SMEs emanating from developed countries need to consider in order to create social innovative products for subsistence markets. Out of these, three are deemed to be of particular importance, namely the need to understand the marketplace, to develop the product in a price-based costing framework, and to scale.

The concept of gender becomes significant when associated with variable and unpredictable effects of climate change. It is important to assess the linkages and outcomes between humans and their environment. I highlight the level of vulnerability and burdens on the different genders and discuss how these environmental influences are shifting what we will considered “traditional” social norms and responsibilities within rural households of Kenya and Tanzania. For agricultural and pastoral communities in eastern Africa, drought triggers many socio-economic alterations that lead to great shifts in traditional roles and daily duties especially for women. The key focus of this study relies on changing gender dynamics as a result of intensified and prolonged episodes of drought, considering male and female interactions and coping strategies. Using my case study of Ayalaliyo, Tanzania as a springboard, I will be analyzing women’s vulnerability, increased workloads, health implications, and alternative incomes as well as male disempowerment in the rural communities of Kenya and Tanzania. I aspire to find the connections between women and the environment and detect whether or not there have been similar changes in gender roles as a result of climatic changes throughout the rest of East Africa’s farming communities. I will be concluding by tying these effects to a more global perspective on the importance of gendering climate change adaptations.

This thesis presents the results of contemporary limnological and palaeolimnological investigations of a series of crater lakes in order to reconstruct the palaeoenvironmental history of western Uganda, East Africa. The research examines questions of spatial and temporal heterogeneity of climate changes in the context of growing human impacts on the landscape over the last millennium. Sediment records from two lakes, Nyamogusingiri and Kyasanduka within the Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP) were investigated to look at the long term records of climate and environmental change (spanning the last c. 1000 years). Five shorter cores across a land-use gradient were retrieved to assess the impact of human activity on the palaeoenvironmental record over the last ~150 years. High-resolution (sub-decadal), multiproxy analyses of lake sediment cores based on diatoms, bulk geochemistry (C/N and δ13C) and sedimentary variables (loss-on-ignition, magnetic properties and physical properties) provide independent lines of evidence that allow the reconstruction of past climate and environmental changes. This multiproxy approach provides a powerful means to reconstruct past environments, whilst the multi-lake approach assists in the identification and separation of local (e.g. catchment-scale modifications and groundwater influences) and regional effects (e.g. climatic changes). The results of a modern limnological survey of 24 lakes were used in conjunction with diatom surface sediment samples (and corresponding water chemistry) from 64 lakes across a natural conductivity gradient in western Uganda (reflecting a regional climatic gradient of effective moisture) to explore factors controlling diatom distribution. The relationships between water chemistry and diatom distributions were explored using canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) and partial CCA. Variance partitioning indicated that conductivity accounted for a significant and independent portion of this variation. A transfer function was developed for conductivity (r2jack = 0.74). Prediction errors, estimated using jack-knifing, are low for the conductivity model (0.256 log units). The final model was applied to the core sediment data.This study highlights the potential for diatom-based quantitative palaeoenvironmental reconstructions from the crater lakes in western Uganda. Sedimentary archives from the Ugandan crater lakes can provide high-resolution, annual to sub-decadal records of environmental change. Whilst all of the lakes studied here demonstrate an individualistic response to external (e.g. climatic) drivers, the broad patterns observed in Uganda and across East Africa suggest that the crater lakes are indeed sensitive to climatic perturbations such as a dry Mediaeval Warm Period (MWP; AD 1000-1200) and a relatively drier climate during the main phase of the Little Ice Age (LIA; c. AD 1500-1800); though lake levels in western Uganda do fluctuate, with a high stand c. AD 1575-1600). The general trends support the hypothesis of an east to west (wet to dry) gradient across East Africa during the LIA, however, the relationship breaks down and is more complex towards the end of the LIA (c. AD 1700-1750) when the inferred changes in lake levels at Nyamogusingiri and Kyasanduka are synchronous with changes observed at Lakes Naivasha (Kenya) and Victoria and diverge from local lake level records (from Edward, Kasenda and Wandakara). Significant changes in the lake ecosystems have occurred over the last 50-75 years, with major shifts in diatom assemblages to benthic-dominated systems and an inferred increase in nutrient levels. These changes are coincident with large sediment influx to the lakes, perhaps as a result of increasing human activity within many of the lake catchments.

The increasing demand for seaweed extracts has led to the introduction of non-native seaweeds for farming purposes in many tropical regions. Such intentional introductions can lead to spread of non-native seaweeds from farming areas, which can become established in and alter the dynamics of the recipient ecosystems. While tropical seaweeds are of great interest for aquaculture, and have received much attention as pests in the coral reef literature, little is known about the problems and potential of natural populations, or the role of natural seaweed beds in the tropical seascape. This thesis aims to investigate the spread of non-native genetic strains of the tropical macroalga Eucheuma denticulatum, which have been intentionally introduced for seaweed farming purposes in East Africa, and to evaluate the state of the genetically distinct but morphologically similar native populations. Additionally it aims to investigate the ecological role of seaweed beds in terms of the habitat utilization by fish and mobile invertebrate epifauna. The thesis also aims to evaluate the potential of native populations of eucheumoid seaweeds in regard to seaweed farming. The initial results showed that non-native E. denticulatum is the dominating form of wild eucheumoid, not only in areas in close proximity to seaweed farms, but also in areas where farming has never occurred, while native eucheumoids are now scarce (Paper I). The low frequency of native E. denticulatum in seaweed beds, coupled with a low occurrence of reproductive structures, indicates that the effective population size may be low, which in turn may be a threat under changing environmental conditions. These results, combined with indications that seaweeds may be declining in East Africa, illustrates the need for attaining a better understanding of the ecological role of tropical seaweed habitats. The studies on the faunal communities of seaweed beds showed that they are species rich habitats, with high abundances of juvenile fish and mobile epifauna (Paper II and III), strongly indicating that these habitats should be considered for future seascape studies and management actions. Productivity in East African seaweed farming is decreasing, and as the current cultivation is based on a single non-indigenous haplotype, a more diverse genetic base has been suggested as a means to achieve a more productive and sustainable seaweed farming. Although our results show that East African E. denticulatum has a lower growth rate than the currently used cultivar (Paper IV), the several native haplotypes that are present in wild populations illustrates that, though a demanding endeavour, there is potential for strain selection within native populations. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Manuscript. Paper 3: Manuscript. Paper 4: Manuscript.</p>

Ph.D. University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanities, 2012 / Modern African poetry in English is a product of a number of literary traditions broadly categorised as either „indigenous‟ or „alien‟ to Africa. Working on the premise that these vary from one region to another, this study seeks to compare the myriad of poetic influences and traditions as manifested in contemporary East and West African poetry of English expression using a corpus of selected contemporary African poems. The contemporary era, here temporally defined as the post 1980s period, is typified by borrowing across literary genres and traditions to the point where the boundaries of what may be designated as „indigenous‟ or „alien‟ has become difficult to determine and distinguish. Core to my thesis is what Jan Ramazani (2001) designates as the hybrid muse, which ensures that contemporary poetry or poetic discourses explicitly or implicitly acknowledge that they are defined by their relationship to others, hence regarded as „epochal continuities‟ of foundational poetics. The study seeks to illustrate how creative writing, in particular poetic composition, emerging from the two regions exhibits affinities, parallels, as well as inter-connectedness despite the much emphasised disparities and peculiarities. Central to contemporary poetry examined in this study is „song‟ as a metaphor for its characteristic hybrid nature. The following chapters engage with different facets of song; from the praise song – hatched as a dirge in Chapter Two, mashairi as a Swahili sung poem tradition influencing poetry in written English in Chapter Three, what Osundare calls „songs of the season‟ in Chapter Four and how the experiment dialogues with journalistic discourses, song school and the different „Lawinos‟ singing in contemporary times in Chapter Five, through to Mugo‟s mother‟s poem and other songs in Chapter Six. Recent poetry from Africa is replete with and informed by diverse texts and intellectual discourses available to the poet in East or West Africa. Despite the much emphasized differences, I argue that there need not be explicit intertextual relations; that even when produced or consumed in tregion („solitary speaker‟), contemporary poetry still typically includes „language‟ or textual material derived not just from a „socially diverse discursive formation‟ but econo-political and intellectual environment underpinning the „other‟. The contemporary socio-political and economic conditions as well as various institutional parameters ensure that sharp differences in thematic preoccupations and aesthetic – are not as much as they may have been portrayed in “foundational poetry”. Considering the commonality in contemporary poetry issues from more or less the same pool of texts, intertextuality marking the era therefore evidences dialogues within and across the regions examined

Abstract “LANDSCAPES SUBLIME: IMPERIALISM, THE WILDERNESS IDEAL AND THE HISTORY OF CONSERVATION IN TANZANIA" The aim of this dissertation is to trace the implications that Western views of nature have had for the restructuring of African landscapes through the creation of game reserves and national parks, with a particular focus on Tanzania. I contend that wilderness spaces are the main repositories of a western imaginary that longs for those places where nature is prodigious and untamed, uncontaminated by development and devoid of people. The idealization of landscapes is derived from the aesthetic of the Romantic sublime with its dual impulse: the quest for escape from a fragmenting and morally corrupting capitalist society, and the search for the immutable and the transcendent in landscape 'untouched' by development. In Africa the physical manifestation of the wilderness landscape ideal came to be reflected in real space – the space of the East African national park. To produce a wild landscape in which animals roam free required the reproduction of a certain ideology of nature which may have been inaugurated during the colonial period, but which has been assimilated and even expanded by post-colonial regimes like Tanzania. Why is it, I ask, that the wilderness landscape ideal is so remarkably persistent in the post-colonial, post-socialist Tanzania of today? Taking the approach of scholars like Mitchell, I ask not just what landscape ‘is or ‘means’ but what it does in this context.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Johannesburg, 2015. / In this thesis the crustal structure beneath two areas of Africa is investigated. In Sudan, the new constraints on the crustal structure beneath the northern part of the Khartoum basin have been obtained. In East Africa, the size of the Tanzania Craton, and the differences between the Eastern and Western branches of the East African Rift System (EARS) have been determined. In southern Tanzania, the debate on the secular variation between Proterozoic and Archean crust has been investigated. The approach used in this thesis involves different data sets and methods. In first part of the thesis, the crustal structure of the northern part of the Mesozoic Khartoum basin is investigated by using two modelling methods: H-k stacking of receiver functions, and a joint inversion of receiver functions and Rayleigh wave group velocities. H-k stacking indicated that the crust is 33-37 km thick with an average of 35 km, and the crustal Vp/Vs ratio is 1.74-1.81 with an average of 1.78. Similar results were obtained from the joint inversion for Moho depth, as well as an average shear wave velocity of 3.7 km/s for the crust. These results provide the first seismic estimates of Moho depth for a basin in Sudan. When compared to average crustal thickness for unrifted Proterozoic crust in eastern Africa, our results indicate that only a few kilometers of crustal thinning may have occurred beneath the Khartoum basin. This finding is consistent with estimates of effective elastic plate thickness, which indicate little modification of the Proterozoic lithosphere beneath the basin, and suggests that there may be insufficient topography on the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary beneath the Sudanese basins to channel plume material westward from Ethiopia. In the second part of the thesis, the uppermost mantle structure beneath East Africa is investigated by using a standard singular value decomposition algorithm model. Results reveal fast Pn velocities beneath the Mozambique Belt to the east of the craton, the Kibaran Belt west of the craton, and beneath the northern half of the Ubendian Belt to the southwest of the craton. These results indicate that the cold, thick lithosphere of the Tanzania Craton extends beneath the Proterozoic mobile belts and the areal extent of the cratonic lithosphere is much larger than is indicated iv by the mapped boundaries of the craton. The results also show that the Pn velocities beneath the volcanic provinces along the Western Branch are not anomalously slow, which indicates little, if any, perturbation of the uppermost mantle beneath them. This is in contrast to the upper mantle structure at depths ≥ 70 km beneath the volcanic regions, which is clearly perturbed. The fast Pn velocities beneath the Western Branch contrast with the slow Pn velocities (7.5-7.8 km/s) beneath the Eastern Branch in Kenya, indicating that the upper mantle beneath the Eastern Branch has been altered more than beneath the Western Branch. In the third part, the crustal structure beneath two Proterozoic mobile belts, the Usagaran and the Ubendian belts, is investigated by using the Non-Dominated Genetic Algorithm method. In the Usagaran belt, results show an average Moho depth of 35 km for station MAFI and 41 and 42 km for stations MOGR and MIKU, respectively. In the Ubendian Belt, results showed an average Moho depth of 43 km beneath the Ufipa sub-terrane compared to 39 km for Wakole sub-terrane. These results indicate localized thickening in the Ufipa sub-terrane, but not beneath the entire Ubendian Belt. These results indicate that is no clear evidence that Paleoproterozoic crust in East Africa is substantially thicker than Archaean crust.

One cannot study poverty in Tanzania without understanding the agricultural sector, which employs more than two-thirds of the population and accounts for nearly a quarter of national GDP. This thesis examines three themes that focus on the difficulties that rural Tanzanians face in achieving a reasonable livelihood: the adverse legacy of a failed historical policy, a difficult climate, and market failures. The first empirical chapter examines the legacy of the villagization program that attempted to transform the predominantly agricultural and rural Tanzania. Between 1971 and 1973, the majority of rural residents were moved to villages planned by the government. This essay examines if the programs e↵ects are persistent and have had a long-run legacy. It analyzes the impact of exposure to the program on various outcome measures from recent household surveys. The primary finding of this study is that households living in districts heavily exposed to the program have worse measures of various current outcomes. The second empirical chapter examines the role of reliability of rainfall, which is important in Tanzania as agriculture is predominantly rain-fed and a small fraction of plots are irrigated. This chapter investigates if households cope with this major risk to income by re-allocating their labor supply between agriculture, wage labor, and self-employment activities. This chapter combines data on labor allocation of households within and outside of agriculture from the National Panel Survey with high-resolution satellite-based rainfall data not previously used in this literature. The primary finding of this study is that households allocate more family labor to agriculture in years of good rainfall and more labor to self-employment activities in years of poor rainfall. Market failures are often cited as a rationale for policy recommendations and government interventions. The third chapter implements four tests of market failures suggested in the literature, all of which rely on the agricultural household model but di↵er in how market failures are manifested. The common finding of these tests is that market failures exist in agricultural factor markets in Tanzania, although significant heterogeneity exists. Markets are more likely to fail in rural areas, remote locations, and are more likely to affect female-headed households. Households are also more likely to face market failure when they try to supply labor to the market than when they try to hire labor from the market.