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

agreement – obliged the investor to return a certain percentage/acreage of land after every
year or two upon failure to utilize it. This ‗contract narrative‘ highlights the confusion
around the process – and power – of transfer of land from one category to another. This
was particularly evident in Migeregere Village where the villagers and their leaders were
adamant that the ‗contract‘ they entered into with the investor regarding their land was
legally binding and, by implication/extrapolation, more powerful than the ‗derivative
title‘ that the investor would have. However, they didn‘t even have their copy of the
‗contract‘ as it was claimed that it was taken, two years ago, by the lawyer, who came
with the investor, with the promise that it will be returned to them upon being typed and
printed.
In another village they only have an unsigned document entitled ―Muhtasari wa Mkutano
wa Wajumbe wa S/Kijiji Nainokwe Uliofanyika Siku ya Tarehe 27/08/2008‘, that is,
‗Minutes of the Nainokwe Village Council that was held on 27 August 2008.‘ However,
it does not record anything about the agreement of returning a certain portion of the land
if the investor fails to use it. In fact, as one of the villagers remarked, and others nodded
in agreement, the lawyer said it was impossible to include that agreement in the actual
contract. This honest clarification from the lawyer, it can be inferred, was based on the
fact that as far as land entitlement is concerned, in the processing of derivate titles for
investors through transferring village land to general land, such an agreement has no legal
power over the derivative title. In other words, what transpired was only ‗a gentlemen‘s
agreement‘ between the investor and the villagers. The agreement was mainly used to
justify the transfer of their land. As such it is the Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC) that
has power to engage BioShape in regard to any entitlement breach.
The issue of the actual size acquired by BioShape in Kilwa is as puzzling as it is in the
case of New Forests Company in Kilolo. Three researchers, drawing from more or less
similar sources, have different figures for the overall concession in the former district:
34,000 hectares, 34,736, hectares, and 37,000 according to Sulle & Nelson (2009),
Francis Songela & Andrew Mclean(2008) and FAO (2010) respectively. The case of
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