Doctoral thesis
This thesis is a historical analysis of farmers and pastoralists land conflicts in
Morogoro Region, Kilosa and Mvomero districts from the 1890s to 2015. The
evidence for this thesis was drawn from oral interviews, written archival documents,
missionary writings, ethnographic accounts, and observational notes. Content analysis
was deployed to shed light on the several themes raised in the study. The study argues
that, farmer-pastoralist land conflicts have for many decades been a typical element in
the Region. The conflicts during pre-colonial times were anchored to a sense of
particular link between geographical territory and a category of people. During the
colonial era, land conflicts in the Region increased because land attained commercial
value. The colonial government through the use of various land legislations,
ordinances and policies facilitated establishment of plantations and estates. Further,
land alienation, incoming of more pastoralists, migrant labourers, and natural increase
of native population made land scarce. This forced pastoralists to graze their livestock
in proximity to farmers thus sowing the seeds of land conflicts. The intensity and
prevalence of conflicts in the post-colonial era were partly caused by the socialist
policy and to a large extent, by the free market economy. Many development projects
like NARCO and NAFCO became avenues for the conflicts. Privatisation and
liberalisation policy intensified land markets. The suspension of Leadership Code and
Party Membership Rules in 1991, promoted land grabbing, suppression of customary
land tenure, evictions of pastoralists, corruption, and owning of large tracts of land for
speculations. The study has revealed that, the land conflicts have transformed a few
Maasai pastoralists into modern pastoralists. Also, many pastoralists have changed
their perception of land by diversifying their economic activities. Such conflicts have
the potential of threatening human and national security. Generally, the conflicts were
caused by the economics of the scarcity of land as opposed to the physical shortage.
The conflicts were embedded in the unique history of the interactions between Maasai
pastoralists and farmers. Persistence of the conflicts was dictated by the evolving
economic, political and social forces. The continuity and discontinuity of such
conflicts over the time relied on national and global politics and socio-economic
changes narrated in the present thesis. The findings sheds light on the complex
problem of land conflicts between farmers and pastoralists, an area that has not
received sufficient consideration from historians writing economic history of Tanzania.