Wearing an amulet: Land titling and tenure (in) security in Tanzania A dissertation presented by Anne Fitzgerald to the Department of Anthropology in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology Maynooth University Department of Anthropology February 2017 Head of Department: Dr Mark Maguire Supervisor: Dr Abdullahi El Tom Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................... iv Declaration ................................................................................................................................ v Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. vi List of Acronyms ...................................................................................................................... vii Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 1 Locating Land Reform in Tanzania....................................................................................... 10 Methodology ....................................................................................................................... 16 Thesis Questions .................................................................................................................. 19 Imagining Tradition ............................................................................................................. 20 Loans for Development ....................................................................................................... 26 Bourdieu and the Theory of Practice .................................................................................. 27 Doing Ethnography .............................................................................................................. 34 Layout of the thesis ............................................................................................................. 47 Chapter One – The Road to Development .............................................................................. 50 The Fetish of ‘Development’ ............................................................................................... 50 The Rush for African Land ................................................................................................... 51 The Schemes and Dreams of Development ........................................................................ 56 Developing Tanzania – Yesterday’s dreams ........................................................................ 63 The SAGCOT Scheme – Dreaming of development today................................................... 67 The Presidential Commission of Enquiry into Land Matters – The Shivji Commission (1994) ............................................................................................................................................. 75 National Land Policy 1995 ................................................................................................... 79 The World Bank – Donors, consultants and workshops...................................................... 84 The Land Laws of Tanzania 1999 ......................................................................................... 89 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 96 Chapter Two - MKURABITA in Manyoni: Three Villages, Four Years and a Printer Cartridge . 98 Village Structures and Land Use Planning ......................................................................... 100 The Strategic Plan for the Implementation of the Land Laws (SPILL) ............................... 105 Formalising the Informal ................................................................................................... 108 Ground level bureaucracy ................................................................................................. 116 MKURABITA in Manyoni District ....................................................................................... 118 Waiting for Formalisation .................................................................................................. 119 Social Differentiation ......................................................................................................... 124 Hoping for tenure security ................................................................................................ 128 Land Use Planning ............................................................................................................. 130 The Local Land Market ...................................................................................................... 132 The District Office .............................................................................................................. 135 Debt and Development ..................................................................................................... 139 Women’s Access to Land ................................................................................................... 145 Land Disputes .................................................................................................................... 149 Endgame ............................................................................................................................ 151 Chapter Three - Monduli District: pastoralists and agro-pastoralists ................................... 156 Becoming Maasai .............................................................................................................. 157 Dispossession through Conservation: ‘Museum Parks without People’ ........................... 165 Good Fences Make Good Neighbours – Mapping the Boundaries of Village Lands ......... 182 A Tale of Two Villages ........................................................................................................ 185 The Disputed Territory ...................................................................................................... 187 The Amulet: Formalisation as Protection .......................................................................... 194 Disputing Processes ........................................................................................................... 198 Loans.................................................................................................................................. 201 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 202 Chapter Four - The Gendered Life of Things ......................................................................... 205 Woman’s Work/Men’s Work ............................................................................................ 209 Family Matters: Women’s Access to Land ........................................................................ 216 Inheritance Rules ............................................................................................................... 223 Women of Manyoni District .............................................................................................. 230 Legacies ............................................................................................................................. 232 Gendered Access to Land and Livestock in Monduli District ............................................ 235 Female and male breadwinners ........................................................................................ 236 Rights to Land .................................................................................................................... 239 Civil Society Activism ......................................................................................................... 243 Women and the Land Law ................................................................................................. 248 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 253 Chapter Five - The Disputing Process .................................................................................... 255 Justice and the ‘Have Nots’ ............................................................................................... 257 Legal Pluralism ................................................................................................................... 261 ii The Living Law ................................................................................................................... 265 Legal Traps: Emboley Murtangos- Kiteto District ............................................................. 268 Legal Tropes....................................................................................................................... 276 The Disputing Process in Manyoni District ........................................................................ 278 Legal Aid in Morogoro ....................................................................................................... 288 Telesia’s Story .................................................................................................................... 290 What Chance for the ‘Have Nots? ..................................................................................... 297 Chapter Six – Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 299 Semi-autonomous villages ................................................................................................ 305 Getting Justice ................................................................................................................... 313 Post script .............................................................................................................................. 316 ANNEX A ................................................................................................................................ 319 Map of Tanzania and research field sites, Manyoni district in Singida Region and Monduli district in Arusha Region. ...................................................................................................... 319 ANNEX B ................................................................................................................................ 320 Map of Tanzania with National Parks .................................................................................... 320 ANNEX C ................................................................................................................................ 321 Main bodies responsible for the administration of the Land Disputes Resolution system .. 321 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................... 322 iii Abstract Land reform in Tanzania introduced a new National Land Policy (1995) and Land Laws (1999), changing the way land is governed and administrated. The land reform process promoted formalisation of customary land rights as a means to tenure security for the citizens. This ethnography found that possession of a land title does not guarantee tenure security; when land held under customary rights is allocated by the state for investors or encroached upon by the wealthy and well connected. Nevertheless, land titling is undertaken strategically by each of the three groups who form the core of this ethnography to achieve their different goals: MKURABITA – a government sponsored programme, the Community Organisation for Research and Development Services (CORDS) – a pastoralist NGO, and the smallholders and pastoralists village residents, to achieve their different goals. The government of Tanzania are focussed on attracting inward investment, loans and development. Civil society groups promote titling for their members as a defensive mechanism against encroachment and smallholders and pastoralists hope that having a title deed just might swing a case in their favour. iv Declaration I hereby state that this dissertation has not been submitted in part or in whole to any other institution and is, except where otherwise stated, the original work of the author. Signed __________________ v Acknowledgements I want to thank my supervisor Dr Abdullahi El Tom whose patience and belief in my project was unwavering. This research would not have been possible without the help and support from the staff at Maynooth University, including Ms Denise Erdmann and Ms Jacqui Mulally. I was very fortunate in my choice of two research assistants, Denis Kobelo and Emanuel Ndulet, and cannot thank them enough. They showed great patience and understanding, and made the fieldwork in Tanzania such an enriching experience. To my informants the villages, homes and shops, in Tanzania, too many to mention, thank you for sharing your experiences and opinions so openly. I wish to say a special thanks to Dr Catriona Coen, whose endless encouragement kept me going, even when I wanted to give up. Last, but not least, my family, my dear sister Maura, who always believed in me, and my children, David, Sallay, Emma and Thomas, whose support got me to the finish line. A grateful thanks to the Pat and John Hume Scholarship programme which supported my research. vi List of Acronyms BLC Board of Land Commissioners CCRO Certificate of Customary Rights of Occupancy CGRO Certificate of Granted Rights of Occupancy CBNRM Community Based Natural Resource Management CORDS Community Organisation for Research and Development Services CVL Certificate of Village Land CVL Certificate of Village Land DLO District Land Office EARC East Africa Royal Commission ERM Environmental Resource Management GDP Gross Domestic Product GLTF Gender Land Task Force GoT Government of Tanzania GPS Global Positioning System Haki Ardhi/LARRI Land Rights Research and Resources Institute HDI Human Development Index IFAD The International Fund for Agricultural Development ILD Institute of Liberty and Democracy IMF International Monetary Fund LHRC Legal and Human Rights Centre LTSG Land Tenure Study Group LUP Land Use Planning MC Ministerial Committee MKURABITA Mpango wa Kurasimisha Rasilimali na Biashare za Wanyonge Tanzania. (Property and Business Formalisation Programme). MLHHSD Ministry of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development MNRT Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism NAFSN New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition vii NCAA Ngorngoro Crater Conservation Area Authority NGO Non-governmental Organisation NLC National Land Commission NLP National Land Policy NORAD Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation NVRS National Village Re-settlement Scheme PLUM Participatory Land Use Planning PWC Pastoral Women’s Council RLO Regional Land Office SAGCOT Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania SPILL Strategic Plan for the Implementation of the Land Laws TANAPA Tanzania National Parks Authority TIC Tanzania Investment Centre TNRF Tanzania Natural Resource Forum TR & D Tropical Research and Development Inc UCRT Ujamaa Community Resource Team UNDP United Nations Development Programme URT United Republic of Tanzania VICOBA Village Bank VLUP Village Land Use Plan WMA Wildlife Management Areas WSRTF Wildlife Sector Review Task Force . viii Wearing an amulet: Land titling and tenure (in) security in Tanzania Figure 1 Devotional Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic religious objects blessed by a priest and worn as a sign of devotion to the faith and protection against losing the faith. ‘amulets – were magically potent objects worn for protection against witchcraft, illness, the evil eye, accidents, robbery, etc., also to enhance love, wealth, power, or victory. Houses, walls, and towns could be protected in the same way. Any kind of material might be employed: stones and metals as well as (parts of) animals and plants, since, to every sort of material could be attributed an inherent ‘magical’ virtue…. Belief in amulets remained active in Greece and Italy in all classes of the population throughout antiquity and into modern times’ (Oxford Dictionary of Classical World 2007). ix