HISTORY OF LAND IN TANZANIA- LAND CONFLICTS DURING COLONIAL

 

During colonial rule, land conflicts were common since the natives struggled to reclaim landownership and use rights. Among the most notable uprisings in colonial Tanganyika was the maji maji war in southern parts of the country between 1905 and 1907. One of the main aims of this uprising against German colonial rule to was to reclaim fertile land that had been grabbed by the colonial masters for agricultural use.

Even after independence, proper reorganization of landownership has not been possible. Widespread protests resulted from the pillarization programmer of the 1970s. Arguably, the programmer did not adequately take into account the needs of pastoral communities, and this turned out to be a source of conflict between the parastatal organizations that were established across the country and pastoralists. Among the land conflicts that have been cited is one between the National Agriculture and Food Corporation (NAFCO) and the Barbaig agro-pastoralists in the Hanang District (Shivji, 1996).

In 1992, the Presidential Commission was formed to probe the land disputes in the country. The commission's report shows that the genesis of land conflicts was the pillarization programmer of the 1970s and that to resolve the matter, it was necessary to settle land disputes in the judicial system. Further, the Land Policy of 1995 underscores the reason for issuance of village land certificates to the owners and also restoration of tenure that provides for ranch lands for the pastoralists. Nevertheless, it has not been possible to implement these recommendations since the nomadic pastoralist communities demand vast grazing areas amid widening demands from a variety of other land users as population growth pressure mounts.5

Aikaeli and Laseko (2015) explain the tense land conflicts in several places in the country at the present as a result of informality and lack of a proper land titling system. Incidences of conflicts between individuals and between groups due to scramble for land in the recent past have taken place in both urban and rural areas. In urban areas, land conflicts are mostly a result of inaccurate information in the registration records of surveyed areas; corrupt allocation of some plots to more than one owner; arbitrary changes of land use for other purposes than the predetermined ones, for example, the reallocation of open spaces to construction; lack of transparency and the existence of elements of corruption in the registration process; etc. There have been more conflicts in rural than in urban areas owing to a number of factors, but the most common conflicts have been between livestock keepers and crop farmers and between investors in natural resource extraction and individuals and societies engaged in farming activities.

Areas where land conflicts were severe include Loliondo (regarding land use for farming vs. natural resource extraction), Tarime, Kilindi, Kilosa, Kiteto, Usangu plains, Mahenge, Mbarali, Hanang and Kilombero, inter alia.