SPECIAL REPORT: Land grabbing in Tanzania: The truth, fallacies and fights- part 1

The then minister for Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development, Prof Anna Tibaijuka, listens to Kapunga Rice Project Limited managing director Justin Vermaak when she visited the farms in Mbarali. PHOTO | FILE 

By Songa wa Songa,The Citizen Reporter

In Summary

• To find out who is telling the truth and who is telling lies and where, The Citizen studied some of the reports and visited a number of disputed projects with the view to present an objective analysis of the subject that is deeply dividing the nation

Dar es Salaam. For years now, the decision by the government to invite and accommodate investors in large scale farming has divided the nation into two main groups—those who view this move as
legalizing land grabbing and the other group that sees this move as a modern way of introducing commercial farming in Tanzania.

 Following the division, large-scale investors, both foreign and locals, equipped with their granted right of occupancy papers issued by the government are dubbed villains.

On  the other side of the story, are the indigenous—those who have lived in those areas for years—mainly small-scale farmers, who defend themselves with their customary right of occupancy. This group has become and is viewed as the helpless victims.

The warring alliances

Evidently, there are two warring alliances: the government-investor versus NGO-smallholder farmers. Both alliances scramble for the arsenal with which to thwart the enemy—the media.

NGOs working in the country to promote and protect human rights and those dealing specifically with land rights conduct studies, announce the findings to the media that reveal ‘abuses and violations’ in land acquisitions by investors.

Analysis by this paper has shown that such findings tend to tell only one side of the story—the ills committed by the government and the investors. To make the reports more powerful, testimonies from the victims are also thoroughly recorded.

But such ‘offensive’ does not go without a ‘defensive’ counterattack. The government-investor alliance would also gather an army of reporters, present all documents showing that all due procedures were followed and that such investments are key to the development of not only the country but also the locals—the smallholder farmers and villagers, few of whom are unfortunately used to oppose progress. Beneficiaries from the village testify before reporters that the project is actually a God-sent blessing to that lucky community.

Of course, these accounts also tell one side of the story—how procedures were followed and the potential benefits of the project to the country and local community.

If the definition of land grab is looked at the other way round, it appears that in some cases, it is the government-investor alliance that accuses NGO-smallholder farmers of grabbing its land, with documents to prove so.

To find out who is telling the truth and who is telling lies and where, this reporter studied some of the reports and visited a number of disputed projects with the view to presenting an objective analysis of the subject that is deeply dividing the nation.

The blame game

The land grab topic is divisive because NGO-smallholders alliance has convinced a large section of Tanzanians to believe that large-scale agricultural investors are bad. They are inconsiderate people who care less about the plight of poor peasants as what they are interested in is the poor man’s land that they are out to grab.

Another message is that we have a bad government. Yes, the government that helps foreigners in the name of investors or whatever, to grab poor villagers’ land.