accumulation by land dispossession and labor ... - Land Portal

een set with beacons and sold to the investor by Kidabaga Village Council.‘ They thus
insisted:
[T]unaomba turudishiwe mashamba yetu na siyo kulipwa chochote; maana tangu awali
hatukukusudia kutoa kwa mwekezaji. Aidha mashamba hayo ndiyo tegemeo la kutafutia
riziki ya familia zetu [We request our farms to be returned to us and not to be paid
anything; because from the beginning we didn‘t intend to give it to the investor. Besides
those farms is what we depend on to sustain our livelihoods and those of our families]
The villagers who wrote the letter then listed Kikala, Msimzi, Idulangaja, Lwendi, Dzefi
and Mapakapaka as the areas they needed to be returned. To that end they asked for the
boundary that was ‗accidentally set‘ to be ‗rectified.‘ However, they affirmed that they
are in agreement with the government in giving the Witamasiva area to the investor.
Undated minutes of Kidabaga Village Council that sat around this time show how the
village leaders attempted to resolve this situation. It notes that they went to ‗survey‘ the
area and agreed to ‗demarcate‘ areas belonging to individuals and those belonging to the
District Council. Moreover, they agreed that the acreage of each area ought to be known.
It was also agreed to summon the investor to compensate the farmland‘s owners. Yet by
the end of that year the problem remained unresolved.
As the New Forests Company started preparing the ‗acquired‘ land for planting trees, the
pressures from both ‗above‘ and ‗below‘ mounted on the Kidabaga Village leadership to
sort out these problems. In a desperate letter dated 30 December 2009, the VEO reminded
the DED about the latter‘s promise to resolve two issues: (1) complaints from people in
Kidabaga and Kiwalamo that their areas have been acquired without agreement and (2)
requests from Kidabaga villagers who wanted to know the exact acreage of the area that
was being compensated for Tsh 1,690,000. The letter also notes that on the very same day
Kiwalamo villagers who farmed in the area complained that certain people were clearing
it and digging holes without any prior notice.
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