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Acknowledgments

This book has been a long time in the making, and the thanks I owe are many. First and foremost, I thank my mentors at Johns Hopkins University, where I spent several formative years as a graduate student. Sara Berry is my greatest role model as a scholar. Her courses inspired this project, but her encouragement and compassion inspired me as a person. I cannot thank her enough for her insight and mentorship—and for encouraging me to push the boundaries of my thinking. I owe a debt to Pier Larson, who is among the most generous people I know and who inspired me to think more deeply about the connections between environment and culture. At Hopkins, I was fortunate to be part of a great community of scholars. I am grateful to Randall Packard, Jane Guyer, and Ronald Walters for their support of my work, and I am also grateful to the numerous participants in the Africa Seminar including Claire Breedlove, Kelly Duke-Bryant, Walima Kalusa, Otis Mushonga, Emily Osborn, and Elizabeth Schmidt.

My interest in Africa began while I was an undergraduate at Washington University in Saint Louis. I am thankful to Timothy Parsons, for introducing me to African history, and to Richard Davis and Mungai Mutonya for their mentorship. The late James McLeod, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, supported my burgeoning interest by buying me my first plane ticket to Africa. One of my greatest regrets is that I never got to express my gratitude to him in person.

This book is based on research that took place on the slopes of Kilimanjaro and in the archives and libraries of Dar es Salaam. I am grateful to the Tanzania Commission of Science and Technology (COSTECH) for granting me permission to conduct my fieldwork. The archivists at the Tanzania National Archives and the librarians at the University of Dar es Salaam’s East Africana Collection helped me navigate the wealth of material in their collections. I am especially grateful to the history faculty at the university—Isaria Kimambo, Fred Kaijage, Oswald Masebo, and Yusufu Lawi—for lending their support, expertise, and encouragement to my work.

My research took me beyond Tanzania as well. I would like to thank the archivists and staff at the National Archives (Kew), the Rhodes House Library, and the Oxfam Archives in the UK; the Congrégation du Saint-Esprit Archives in Chevilly-Larue, France; and the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin. I also thank the library staff at Johns Hopkins University, Yale University, and The College of New Jersey for helping me locate materials from around the world.

Numerous organizations have provided funding to my work over the years. I thank the Fulbright-Hays Program and the Boren Fellowship programs for supporting my early fieldwork, as well as the Department of History and the Institute for Global Studies at Johns Hopkins. I had the privilege of spending a year as an Agrarian Studies Fellow at Yale University, under the mentorship of James Scott and Shivi Sivaramakrishnan. Much of this manuscript was written in my time there, and I cannot thank them enough for their skillful guidance. My fellow Agrarian Studies colleagues—Rishab Dhir, Todd Holmes, Janam Mukherjee, Juno Parrenas, and Gabe Rosenberg—lent support and wisdom.

Several communities of scholars have given me a home over the years. My fellow scholars in African studies and Tanzania studies have been a resource as well as an inspiration to me. Special thanks go to Jamie Monson, Jan Shetler, Greg Maddox, and Sheryl McCurdy, who have supported me since my earliest days of fieldwork. I also thank Jesse Bucher, Barbara Cooper, Steven Fabian, James McCann, Wendy Urban-Mead, Fran Vavrus, and Julie Weiskopf, as well as the many others who have attended conference panels and engaged my work. I am part of a growing community of scholars focused on water history, and these individuals have helped me think more critically about water and gain a perspective that extends beyond Africa. I am grateful to Ellen Arnold, Maurits Ertsen, Heather Hoag, Johann Tempelhoff, Terje Tvedt, Terje Oestigaard, Maya Peterson, and many others.

I am fortunate to work at The College of New Jersey, an institution that supports the research passions of its teacher-scholars. I have received financial support from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Support of Scholarly Activity program, and the Gitenstein-Hart Sabbatical Prize. The Mentored Undergraduate Summer Experience has helped fund undergraduate research collaborators. I thank those in the administration who have supported me, including R. Barbara Gitenstein, Jackie Taylor, Susan Albertine, Ben Rifkin, and Jane Wong. My faculty colleagues have supported me over the years and have contributed to my scholarship in more ways than I can count. I give special thanks to Maggie Benoit, Lynn Gazley, Marla Jaksch, Mindi McMann, Janet Morrison, David Murray, and Amanda Norvell as well as my colleagues in the History Department, particularly Dan Crofts, Celia Chazelle, Chris Fisher, Jo-Ann Gross, Laura Hargreaves, Craig Hollander, Adam Knobler, and Robert McGreevey. Above all, I thank Cynthia Paces, my friend, mentor, and avid proofreader. The College of New Jersey prides itself on student-faculty collaborative research, and my work is all the better for it. I am grateful to all the students who have engaged with my work, particularly those who served as collaborators: Katerina Buchanan, Beatrice Kwok, Taylor Hart-McGonigle, Ryan McClean, Corinne Winters, and Tamra Wroblesky.

Ohio University Press has been an excellent partner in bringing my book to fruition. I am thankful to Gillian Berchowitz for her encouragement and support and to the editors of the New African Histories series—Jean Allman, Allen Isaacman, Derek Peterson—for their careful and caring engagement with my work. Two anonymous readers carefully read my manuscript and provided a wealth of comments. Special thanks go to Nancy Basmajian and Sally Welch, who expertly guided me through editing and production and provided me with excellent advice. Ricky Huard, Samara Rafert, and Beth Pratt helped me with questions related to images, copyrights, and marketing. I thank Alice White and Robert Kern at TIPS Technical Publishing for their help with copyediting and typesetting. Brian Balsley did a skillful job of generating the maps. Alice White also lent her expertise in creating the index.

This book includes excerpts from some of my previously published works: “‘For More and Better Water, Choose Pipes!’: Building Water and the Nation on Kilimanjaro, 1961–1985,” Journal of Southern African Studies 34, no. 4 (2008): 841–59; “Millet Is Gone! Considering the Demise of Eleusine Agriculture on Kilimanjaro,” International Journal of African Historical Studies 44, no. 2 (2011): 191–214; and “Being ‘Chagga’: Natural Resources, Political Activism, and Identity on Kilimanjaro,” Journal of African History 54, no. 2 (2013): 199–220. I am thankful to the publishers for their permission to include this material.

My greatest thanks go to the peoples of Kilimanjaro, who shared their stories and memories and welcomed me into their communities. My work would not have been possible without their contributions and encouragement. I thank Efraim Muro for introducing me to the mountain and making me feel at home in Machame. Joachim Mkenda and Monica Lasway assisted me in Mkuu Rombo. Father Aidan Msafiri introduced me to Kilema and challenged me to think deeply about the role of water in everyday life. I am most grateful to Aristarck Stanley Nguma, my research assistant in Kilema and someone I am proud to call a friend.

Lastly, this book would not have been possible without the love and support of my family and friends. I would be nowhere without my mother, Betsy Flynn, my greatest supporter and inspiration. I am grateful to my stepfather, father, sisters, brothers-in-law, and my numerous nieces, nephews, and godchildren. Your belief in me means more than you know. Thanks to my good friends Sarah and Joe Adelman and John and Linda Jusiewicz for their support over the years. Chris Josey has been my best friend and confidante for more than twenty-five years. Thanks to Doc for the afternoon hikes at Baldpate.

I dedicate this book to the memory of my grandparents: Frances and Clem Farny and Benjamin and Helen Bender.