Browsing by Author "Askew, Kelly"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Between dependence and deprivation: The interlocking nature of land alienation in Tanzania
    (Wiley Online Library, 2018-02-16) Bluwstein, Jevgeniy; Lund, Jens Friis; Askew, Kelly; Stein, Howard; Noe, Christine; Odgaard, Rie; Maganga, Faustin; Engström, Linda
    Studies of accumulation by dispossession in the Global South tend to focus on individual sectors, for example, large‐scale agriculture or nature conservation. Yet smallholder farmers and pastoralists are affected by multiple processes of land alienation. Drawing on the case of Tanzania, we illustrate the analytical purchase of a comprehensive examination of dynamics of land alienation across multiple sectors. To begin with, processes of land alienation through investments in agriculture, mining, conservation, and tourism dovetail with a growing social differentiation and class formation. These dynamics generate unequal patterns of land deprivation and accumulation that evolve in a context of continued land dependency for the vast majority of the rural population. Consequently, land alienation engenders responses by individuals and communities seeking to maintain control over their means of production. These responses include migration, land tenure formalization, and land transactions, that propagate across multiple localities and scales, interlocking with and further reinforcing the effects of land alienation. Various localized processes of primitive accumulation contribute to a scramble for land in the aggregate, providing justifications for policies that further drive land alienation.
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    The Formal Divide: Customary Rights and the Allocation of Credit to Agriculture
    (2016) Stein, H.; Odgaard, Rie; Askew, Kelly; Maganga, Faustin P.; Cunningham, Sam
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    Of Land and Legitimacy: A Tale of Two Lawsuits
    (International African Institute, 2013-02) Askew, Kelly; Maganga, Faustin P.; Odgaard, Rie
    Through a comparative analysis of two recent Tanzanian lawsuits concerning pastoralist–farmer disputes over land, this article argues that the judicial system is being employed as a vehicle for legitimizing dispossession. Wealthy elites who find their efforts to acquire vast tracts of land thwarted by protective mechanisms in the Land Act No. 4 of 1999 and Village Land Act No. 5 of 1999 are turning to the courts to get what they want. Having access to deeper pockets and being able to out-lawyer and out-manoeuvre their poorer and often less-educated opponents enables elites (including the government itself) to avail themselves of the judicial system and acquire land through illegitimate means. Yet our analysis also illustrates that Tanzanian courts at times act independently of political influence and secure property rights for at least some of the dispossessed. An unusual mix of conflicting pressures and key personalities in these two cases coalesced to produce unexpected outcomes in favour of the Maasai defendants, whose land and legitimacy were on the line. Winning, however, came at considerable cost.