Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-rvbq7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-12T01:34:33.495Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Land investments in Tanzania: assessing the role of state brokers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2018

Joanny Bélair
Joanny Bélair*
Affiliation:
School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
*
Email: jbela029@uottawa.ca
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Focusing on one of the most targeted areas for land investments in Tanzania (Rufiji district), this article compares the involvement of two Tanzanian state agencies in land acquisition, in the context of the central government's new strategy on productive investors. Given the fragmented and contentious authority of many African states, I investigate the impact of state intermediaries on the relationships between investors and local populations and consider bureaucrats as a group of actors to analyse flows of power within the state. I make two main points. First, the central state's weak infrastructural power and resulting lack of local knowledge, and, conversely, local bureaucrats’ possession of these valuable resources, reverses the flow of power from local to central. Second, a central monitoring process might have a negative effect. Instead of protecting vulnerable populations, it fosters institutional innovations that protect local bureaucrats’ opportunities for accumulation with investors, to the detriment of local populations.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 56 , Issue 3 , September 2018 , pp. 371 - 394
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Allina-Pisano, J. 2008. The Post-Soviet Potemkin Village. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Baglioni, E. & Gibbon, P.. 2013. ‘Land grabbing, large- and small-scale farming: what can evidence and policy from 20th century Africa contribute to the debate?’, Third World Quarterly 34, 9: 1558–81.Google Scholar
Berry, S. 1993. No Condition is Permanent: the social dynamics of agrarian change in sub-Saharan Africa. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Blundo, G. 2011. ‘Une administration à deux vitesses: projets de développement et construction de l’état au Sahel’, Cahiers d’études Africaines 202–203: 427–52.Google Scholar
Boone, C. 2003. Political Topographies of the African State: territorial authority and institutional choice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Borras, S.M. Jr. 2011. ‘Global land grabbing and trajectories of agrarian change: a preliminary analysis’, Journal of Agrarian Change 12, 1: 34–59.Google Scholar
Borras, S.M. Jr & Franco, J.C.. 2013. ‘Global land grabbing and political reactions from below', Third World Quarterly 34, 9: 1723–47.Google Scholar
Buur, L., Nystrand, M.J. & Pedersen, R.H.. 2017. ‘The political economy of land and natural resource investments in Africa: an analytical framework’, Danish Institute for International Studies. Working Paper 2: 1–48.Google Scholar
Castellanos-Navarrete, A. & Jansen, K.. 2015. ‘Oil palm expansion without enclosure: smallholders and environmental narratives’, Journal of Peasant Studies 42, 3–4: 791–816.Google Scholar
Cotula, L. 2012. ‘The international political economy of the global land rush: a critical appraisal of trends, scale, geography and drivers’, Journal of Peasant Studies 39, 3–4: 649–80.Google Scholar
Edelman, M. 2013. ‘Messy hectares: questions about the epistemology of land grabbing data’, Journal of Peasant Studies 40, 3: 485–501.Google Scholar
Edelman, M., Oya, C. & Borras, S.M. Jr. 2013. ‘Global land grabs: historical processes, theoretical and methodological implications and current trajectories’, Third World Quarterly 34, 9: 1517–31.Google Scholar
Exner, A., Bartels, L.E., Windhaber, M., Fritz, S., See, L., Politti, E. & Hochleithner, S.. 2015. ‘Constructing landscapes of value: capitalist investment for the acquisition of marginal or unused land – the case of Tanzania’, Land Use Policy 42: 652–63.Google Scholar
Ferguson, J. & Gupta, A.. 2002. ‘Spatializing states: toward an ethnography of neoliberal governmentality’, American Ethnologist 29, 4: 981–1002.Google Scholar
Government of Tanzania. 1995. National Land Policy 1995.Google Scholar
Greco, E. 2016. ‘Village land politics and the legacy of ujamaa’, Review of African Political Economy 43, suppl. 1: 22–40.Google Scholar
Hagmann, T. and Péclard, D.. 2010. ‘Negotiating statehood: dynamics of power and domination in Africa’, Development and Change 41, 4: 539–62.Google Scholar
Hall, R., Edelman, M., Borras, S.M. Jr, Scoones, I., White, B. & Wolford, W.. 2015a. ‘Resistance, acquiescence or incorporation? An introduction to land grabbing and political reactions from below’, Journal of Peasant Studies 42, 3–4: 467–88.Google Scholar
Hall, R., Scoones, I. & Tsikata, D., eds. 2015b. Africa's land rush: rural livelihoods and agrarian change. Woodbridge: James Currey.Google Scholar
Haulle, E. 2015. ‘Land resource in Tanzania: whose state, whose resource?’, International Journal of Social Science Studies 3, 6: 70–8.Google Scholar
Herbst, J. 2000. States and Power in Africa: comparative lessons in authority and control. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Hoag, H.J. 2003. ‘Designing the delta: a history of water and development in the Lower Rufiji River Basin, Tanzania 1945–1985.’ PhD Thesis. Boston, MA: Boston University.Google Scholar
Kamuzora, P., Ngindo, C. & Mutasingwa, L.. 2009. Ethical Issues in Urban Land Administration in Tanzania. Institute of Development Studies, University of Dar es Salaam.Google Scholar
Lavers, T. & Boamah, F.. 2016. ‘The impact of agricultural investments on state capacity: a comparative analysis of Ethiopia and Ghana’, Geoforum 72: 94–103.Google Scholar
Locher, M. & Sulle, E.. 2014. ‘Challenges and methodological flaws in reporting the global land rush: observations from Tanzania’, Journal of Peasant Studies 41, 4: 569–92.Google Scholar
Mamonova, N. 2015. ‘Resistance or adaptation? Ukrainian peasants’ responses to large-scale land acquisitions’, Journal of Peasant Studies 42, 3–4: 607–34.Google Scholar
Mandani, M. 1996. Citizen and Subject: contemporary Africa and the legacy of late colonialism. Princeton: NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Mann, M. 1984. ‘The autonomous power of the state: its origins, mechanisms and results’, European Journal of Sociology 25, 2: 185–213.Google Scholar
Martin, W.G. & Palat, R.A.. 2014. ‘Asian land acquisitions in Africa: beyond the ‘new bandung’ or a ‘new colonialism’’, Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy 3, 1: 125–50.Google Scholar
Migdal, J.S. 1997. ‘Researching the state.’ In Comparative Politics: rationality, culture, and structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 162–92.Google Scholar
Migdal, J.S. 2001. State in Society: studying how states and societies transform and constitute one another. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Oya, C. 2013a. ‘Methodological reflections on ‘land grab’ databases and the ‘land grab’ literature ‘rush’’, Journal of Peasant Studies 40, 3: 503–20.Google Scholar
Oya, C. 2013b. ‘The land rush and classic agrarian questions of capital and labour: a systematic scoping review of the socioeconomic impact of land grabs in Africa’, Third World Quarterly 34, 9: 1532–57.Google Scholar
Pedersen, R.H. 2016. ‘Access to land reconsidered: the land grab, polycentric governance and Tanzania's new wave land reform’, Geoforum 72: 104–13.Google Scholar
Peluso, N.L. & Lund, C.. 2011. ‘New frontiers of land control: introduction’, Journal of Peasant Studies 38, 4: 667–81.Google Scholar
Purdon, M. 2013. ‘Land acquisitions in Tanzania: strong sustainability, weak sustainability and the importance of comparative methods’, Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 26, 6: 1127–56.Google Scholar
Rasmussen, J. & Strøh Varming, K.. 2016. ‘Governing economies in areas of limited statehood: anthropological perspectives’, Danish Institute for International Studies, Working Paper 4.Google Scholar
Rubada. 2013. ‘Rufiji Basin Development Authority (Rubada), Strategic plan for the period 2013/14–2017/18.’Google Scholar
Scoones, I., Hall, R., Borras, S.M. Jr, White, B. & Wolford, W.. 2013. ‘The politics of evidence: methodologies for understanding the global land rush’, Journal of Peasant Studies 40, 3: 469–83.Google Scholar
Scott, J.C. 1998. Seeing Like a State: how certain schemes to improve the human condition have failed. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Soares de Oliveira, R. & Taponier, S.. 2013 ‘?O governo está aqui? Post-war state-making in the Angolan periphery’, Politique Africaine 130: 165–87.Google Scholar
Soifer, H. 2008. ‘State infrastructural power: approaches to conceptualization and measurement’, Studies in Comparative International Development 43, 3–4: 231–51.Google Scholar
Wily, L.A. 2012. ‘Looking back to see forward: the legal niceties of land theft in land rushes’, Journal of Peasant Studies 39, 3–4: 751–75.Google Scholar
Wolford, W., Borras, S. Jr, Hall, R., Scoones, I. & White, B.. 2013. ‘Governing global land deals: the role of the state in the rush for land’, Development and Change 44, 2: 189–210.Google Scholar

Newspapers

Daily News, Dar es Salaam; The Citizen, Dar es Salaam; Reuters News Agency, Dar es Salaam; Tanzania Invest, Dar es Salaam.Google Scholar

Interviews

Official, Ministry of Land, LIU, 9.2016.Google Scholar
Official, Rubada, 9.2016.Google Scholar
TIC Officer in the planning department, 10.2016.Google Scholar
District official, Rufiji. 11.2016Google Scholar
Rubada liaison, Rufiji, 11.2016.Google Scholar
Village leaders, Rufiji, 11.2016.Google Scholar
Guard investor A, 11.2016.Google Scholar
Farmer, Rufiji, 11.2016.Google Scholar
Land rights monitor, Rufiji, 11.2016.Google Scholar
Local leaders, Rufiji, 12.2016.Google Scholar