Negotiating Resilience: Climate-Induced Sukuma Mobility and Rural Transformation in Kigoma, Tanzania

Abstract

Climate-related mobility is increasingly shaping rural livelihoods across Africa, yet scholarship has focused more on the drivers of migration than on experiences of migrants after their displacement and relocation. This paper examines the experiences of Sukuma agro-pastoralists in Mkuyuni, western Tanzania, and explores how they establish livelihoods and belonging within a receiving area. Migrants’ reflections on their interactions – with their host communities, with local institutions and with each other – suggest that settlement involves continuous negotiations over land access, social acceptance, work opportunities, and authority. Rather than viewing resilience as an individual capacity or an outcome of migration, it is illuminating to focus on the social and political processes through which migrants secure livelihoods and recognition in their new environments. Broader debates about climate change adaptation, rural transformation, and the significance of receiving areas in shaping migrants’ experiences should be receptive to first-hand accounts of those who are uprooted and relocated because of climate change.