Looking back, looking ahead – land, agriculture and society in East Africa A Festschrift for Kjell Havnevik Edited by Michael Ståhl 1 ISBN 978-91-7106-774-6 © The authors and The Nordic Africa Institute. Cover photo: Stuart Freedman/Panos Photo of Kjell Havnevik: Elnaz Alizadeh Production: Byrå4 Print on demand, Lightning Source UK Ltd. 2 Contents Introduction 5 Michael Ståhl Reflections on the unravelling of the Tanzanian peasantry, 1975–2015 9 Deborah Fahy Bryceson Land cannot give birth to new land 37 Stig Holmqvist Small-scale and large-scale agriculture: Tanzanian experiences 44 Andrew Coulson The rise and fall of the Paris Agenda in Tanzania: A study in trust and mistrust 74 Bertil Odén Promoting gender equality on land issues in Tanzania: How far have we come? 87 Aida Isinika and Anna Kikwa Land grabbing in Africa – a variety of primitive accumulation 97 Rune Skarstein Adjust or change? The debate on African economic structures 114 Mats Hårsmar Private or customary – whither land tenure in East Africa? 134 Opira Otto and Michael Ståhl Consolidating land use in Rwanda: Inclusive and sustainable rural development and lessons from Tanzania 152 Herman Musahara Large-scale land acquisitions in Tanzania and Ethiopia: A comparative perspective 170 Atakilte Beyene Witchcraft, witch killings and Christianity: The works of religion and parallel cosmologies in Tanzania 182 Terje Oestigaard Language, knowledge, development and the framing of common destiny in contemporary Ethiopia: some reflections 200 Tekeste Negash Land reform, natural resources governance and food security: Message from and to Africa and beyond 209 Prosper Matondi About the contributors 225 Kjell Havnevik – curriculum vitae and major publications 229 3 4 Introduction Michael Ståhl This Festschrift is dedicated to Kjell Havnevik and his research. Professor Kjell Havnevik is retiring from the Nordic Africa Institute (NAI) in 2015. For four decades, he has carried out research, taught and supervised students as well as participated in policy debates on different aspects of agricul- ture, the environment and African and international development policies. His output has been voluminous and is internationally recognised. His academic record includes research and teaching positions at universities and research insti- tutes in Tanzania, Norway and Sweden as well as shorter assignments in several other countries1. Yet his intellectual home has over the last three decades been at the Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala. NAI has therefore taken this opportunity to publish a book mainly centred on development issues in Tanzania in the context of rural development in Af- rica – a theme that Kjell has pursued throughout his career. The book brings together research issues with which Kjell himself has been actively involved. It is my hope that this will be more than a traditional Festschrift, inasmuch as it includes reflections on the academic and wider intellectual debate on devel- opment issues from the 1970s until today. The book includes the following contributions. Deborah Bryceson sketches the evolution of politics in Tanzania from the Ujamaa days to the present. Her focus is on the agrarian situation and she argues that the peasantry in Tanzania is unravelling and, indeed, that a process of “de- peasantisation” is under way. She starts by considering the agrarian idealism of the original developmental vision and then traces the subsequent trajectory of change, relying heavily on Kjell’s and her own research findings. In so doing, she poses the question of how and why the original agrarian development aims were side-lined. Moreover, she considers how the economic and social coherence of the Tanzanian peasantry has been eroded over the past 40 years. Stig Holmqvist provides an exposé of the eviction of the Barabaig people from their homeland. In the struggle for land, the losers are the pastoralists who insist 1. Kjell conducted his research at the Chr. Michelsen Institute (Bergen) 1975–1985; at the Bureau of Resource Assessment and Land Use Planning, currently IRA, (University of Dar es Salaam (1978–1980); and at the University of Bergen (1987–1988). He has been adjunct professor at Agder University (Kristiansand) since 2005. He was senior researcher at the Nordic Africa Institute Uppsala (1985–1987, 1988–1992 and 2005–2015 and professor of rural development at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SLU Uppsala (1996–2005). 5 Michael Ståhl on maintaining their way of life, grazing their herds over vast areas. As minority groups, they are marginalised and lack political influence. Both small farmers and large investors cast their eyes at this land. Stig follows some Barabaig fami- lies on their trek from the high plains of central Tanzania to various parts of the country and eventually all the way to the Indian Ocean coast. Andrew Coulson contrasts the farming systems of small-scale farmers and large mechanised estates. He summarises the history of large and small scale farm- ing in Tanzania, looking especially at the myths and misunderstandings that have been used by proponents of large-scale farming in Tanzania to suggest that small scale has little potential. His chapter concludes by reviewing the present position. The evidence suggests that many Tanzanians will continue to be small farmers for at least the next 20 years, and that they can produce surpluses of many crops. Bertil Odén reflects on the relations between the government of Tanzania and the aid community during the period 2005–15. He provides a brief historical overview of aid relations from independence until 2005 before turning to the ensuing years, when the Paris Declaration principles to improve aid effective- ness were implemented. During this period development cooperation relations moved from euphoria to disappointment. His analysis emphasises the role of mutual trust in all sustainable development cooperation. Aida Isinika and Anna Kikwa review to what extent land policies in Tanzania have been gender sensitive. They argue that individual titling is considered a way to strengthen land rights. However, implementation of land policies has main- ly been gender-blind and failed to address the multifaceted relations between women and men, as if the society and households were undifferentiated. Land laws are interpreted against the background of customary law and religious practice, which include provisions that undermine women’s rights. Advocacy for recognition of the rights of women in actual land deals is weak, since the women’s movement in Tanzania has an inherently urban bias, and is therefore slow to react to rural concerns. Rune Skarstein reviews the phenomenon of large-scale land acquisitions in Africa, often referred to as “land grabbing,” which he places in the broader histori- cal perspective of capitalist development by applying Marx’s notion of “primi- tive accumulation.” The process of land grabbing is discussed, with particular emphasis on its consequences for agricultural smallholders. He argues that the process of land grabbing in contemporary Africa is a form of primitive accumu- lation that will lead to injustices as well as explosive social conflicts. Mats Hårsmar reviews how the ideological debates of the 1980s and 1990s over the primacy of economic growth or social development have today developed 6 Introduction into a discussion about how economic growth should be framed in order to lead to social development. Linkages between the character of growth and social development are now more strongly pronounced. He reviews macroeconom- ic studies examining the character of current growth in sub-Saharan African countries and poses the question whether it is sustainable and can lead to struc- tural change. Opira Otto and Michael Ståhl discuss land tenure as a factor in agricultural develop- ment in the densely settled regions of East Africa. They review various tenure regimes and attempts to reform land policies as part of modernisation strategies. How can land-tenure reform help smallholders secure property rights and how can it boost agricultural productivity? Should one aim at full privatisation of land, including individual title deeds, or should one strengthen individual rights through customary arrangements? Herman Musahara analyses Land Use Consolidation (LUC) in Rwanda in relation to its potential to achieve food security and agricultural transformation. The scheme has been instrumental in dramatically raising the yield of major food crops and in improving food security. Musahara analyses the LUC’s prospects for achieving inclusive and sustainable development and what the scheme can learn from other schemes tried elsewhere, specifically in Tanzania. Atakilte Beyene explores why large-scale land and water acquisitions in Tanzania and Ethiopia face similar challenges when implemented, despite the marked dif- ferences in governance systems. What common and/or differentiating attributes can be identified to explain the challenges in the current large-scale investment deals? The focus is on investment patterns and the rights and powers of local communities. Terje Oestigaard analyses the concomitant spread of Christianity and of witchcraft and ritual killings in Sukumaland, Tanzania. Chieftainship has been abolished, the role of the ancestors has diminished and tradition is no longer important in culture and cosmology. Instead Christian churches flourish ‒ as does witch- craft. The author analyses whether the declining role of ancestors is enabling the spread of both Christianity