Over the Last three months, acts of unconceivable evil were perpetrated through an eviction operation against indigenous pastoralists in Loliondo. Loliondo is one of the three Divisions of the Ngorongoro District situated in the Arusha Region in Northern Tanzania. The Ngorongoro District Covers an area of about 14037 square Kilometres. Stretching across some 8,300 sq km, is the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, established in 1959 and governed by the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority, and the rest is the Loliondo Game Control Area consisting of the Sale and Loliondo Divisions.

The conflict for which the research team has taken immediate measures to find its causes and give recommendations for its complete arrest, took place from the 1st-14th July 2004 in the frontiers of Engusero Sambu and Kisangiro villages, in the divisions of Loliondo and Sale, respectively, both of Ngorongoro District. Ngorongoro is the third division in the District. One person was killed and another injured in the subject fighting.

This study is focused on the effects of the eviction process of pastoralists from Mbarali to Lindi Rural and Kilwa Districts in Lindi Region. The study sampled six villages out 15 villages in Lindi Rural and Kilwa districts. The study employed semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with district, village authorities, host communities and migrating pastoralists in selected villages.

This is the report relating to the facts finding mission conducted by HAKIARDHI and LHRC as an intervention in response to an outcry from the villagers at Namwawala village in Kilombero district, Morogoro region, owing to the alleged plan of the government to take possession of the village land for investment purposes.

This fact finding is based on one of the claims of a group of peri-urban dwellers in Kimere, Mapinga village in Bagamoyo District, whose land they claim have been invaded by one of the well connected elite with a view to assist them register their rights only to realise later on that he was playing a tricky game to own their land. 

A fact-finding mission team was formed as a result of consultative meetings on the land dispute between the village government and pastoralists in Vilima Vitatu village in Babati district. The team was comprised of the following members: Kassian Mshomba (LHRC), Seif Mangwangi (Majira), Diana Mawalla (PINGOs Forum), Hamadi Sadick, Emmanuel Cornel (PINGOs Forum), Asraji Mvungi (ITV), Rodgers Luhwago (The Citizen), Bakari Mnkondo (Uhuru), Bernard Baha (HakiArdhi) and Chambi Chachage (Independent Researcher).

This chapter is an initial exploration and sharing of experiences and ideas based largely on a case study of a group of small farmers who have occupied and are producing on land that they believe they have an historical right to. The group, called Mahlahluvani – although they include people from other communities and claimant groups – are part of a land claim that has been lodged on the land they now occupy, but the claim is not yet settled.

Land use conflicts are common phenomena in Tanzania and the world at large. One major reason before going to specific cases hinges on the fact that land does not expand while people and other living organizations that depend on it keeps on increasing on the early surface. This un matching ratio between land as basic resources for livelihoods and its users constantly results into land use conflicts.

The land tenure system of Tanzania has passed through different historical milestones which form the basis for the analysis of the land tenure regime in general and tenure relations for land owners and users in particular in the past eight decades. The history dates back to 1923 when the British colonial legislative assembly enacted the Land Ordinance cap 113 to guide and regulate land use and ownership in Tanganyika which was their protectorate colony. Prior to this law, all the land in Tanzania was owned under customary tenure governed by clan and tribal traditions.

A comprehensive legal analysis highlighting  gaps and recommendations in the four selected land related legislations in Tanzania. 

To ensure that there is sustainability at the community level in its land rights and governance training programme, Land Rights Research and Resources Institute (HAKIARDHI), a Tanzanian national level organization that spearheads land rights of small-scale producers, uses land rights monitors (LRMs) in its program areas. In each of the selected villages of the program districts, two LRMs (a man and a woman) who have received land rights training from HAKIARDHI are democratically elected by villagers.

Contemporary waves of large scale land acquisitions for commercial production in developing countries in Africa and other parts of the world have been branded as ‘land grabs’ by many scholars, media and activists. Some scholars have describe this phenomena as the “new scramble for Africa” (Moyo and Yeros, 2011). However, others have refuted such a description on the grounds that the current land deals are being negotiated by sovereign African states in the exercise of powers that they have under national laws (Odhiambo, 2011).