CAPÍTULO 6 LUGAR DE LAS RAÍCES
6.3. TRAZADO DEL LUGAR DE LAS RAÍCES
This dissertation is broadly divided into three intertwined sections. The first section anchors the study (chapter 1) and reviews the literature related to Uganda’s colonial and post-colonial history (chapters 2 and 3). The second section provides the theoretical orientation (chapter 4), while chapter 5 contains the research design and methodology. Contained in the third section of this dissertation are the findings of the study (chapters 6, 7 and 8) and the conclusion (chapter 9). The explicit details in the chapters are provided below.
Chapter one introduces the research topic, provides the background to the research problem, presents the objectives of the study, the research questions and identifies the research gap which the research intends to address. This is followed by the scope of the study, time frame, literature on land restitutions and compensation in post-conflict areas as well as land grabbing from the global and African perspectives.
Chapter two reviews the history of Uganda from the pre-colonial, colonial to the post-independence periods. This chapter is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on the colonial period while the second part concentrates on the post-independence period. The chapter shows that the social, economic and political dynamics in post-independence Uganda cannot be appropriately understood outside of the colonial history from which they originated. A discussion of how colonial policies of divide and rule as well as indirect rule favoured particular groups of people and determined the distribution of social services, with more facilities in the
27 south and virtually none in the north follows hereafter. The resultant polarisation of Uganda along ethnic, tribal and regional lines informed the processes that kindled the LRA conflict, whose consequences are the subject of this thesis. This rooted history is not only central in contextualising the study but lends credence to the arguments made in this dissertation.
Chapter three builds on the historical literature in chapter 2 by specifically focusing on the evolution of land tenure in Uganda from the period before the introduction of colonialism to the present independence period (2013). The chapter shows that land tenure in post-independence Uganda continues to be influenced by the colonial policies. The chapter further discusses the multiple land tenure regimes and legal pluralism which emerged from the 1900 Buganda Land Agreement that was signed between Buganda Kingdom and the British colonial government and shows how the alienation of private estates to individuals transformed the political economy of the country. A discussion of the land tenure changes that have taken place from the time Uganda attained independence in 1962 to 2013 shows how post-independence land reforms have tried to disentangle the overlapping land tenure regimes and legal pluralism that came with colonialism but with limited success. Dispossession and contestations over land including land grabbing in northern Uganda in general and Amuru district in particular is, in part, aggravated by multiple claims to land.
Chapter four presents the political economy theoretical orientation which underpinned the study. The chapter starts with an examination of the notion of political economy from a broader perspective before narrowing it down to the political economy and social relations buttressed around land. This is followed by an identification of three ‘spaces’ where social relations under agrarian political economy can plausibly be analysed, that is, global, national and local. From the global perspective, the chapter demonstrates that neoliberalism that was introduced in developing countries in the 1980s has continued to restructure the social relations around land. At the national level, developing countries facilitate the transformation of social relations by enacting land-related laws, regulations and establishment of specific institutions. The impacts arising from these transformations are realised by the local communities in the countryside of developing countries, including Amuru district, with dispossession and grabbing of land belonging to small holder farmers and peasants being the most vivid.
28 Chapter five provides a detailed account of the research design and methodology that was used in the study. The research is qualitative in nature. The data which informed this dissertation was obtained from secondary sources, individual in-depth interviews and focus group discussions.
The chapter further provides a description of the social, economic and political/governance dynamics in Amuru district where the research was conducted. Reflections on the fieldwork process, ethical issues, study limitations and validity are presented thereafter. Before concluding this chapter, a description of how the data was analysed and presented is undertaken.
Chapter six analyses the first case. It interrogates the process through which a family-owned Ugandan company called the Madhvani Group acquired 40,000 hectares for the establishment of a sugarcane plantation in Lakang village of Amuru district. The chapter presents the history of sugarcane production in Uganda and the Madhvani Group before examining the narratives which the GoU employs to justify the expropriation of community land. The history of the contested land in Lakang village and an assessment of whether the sugarcane industry could be a development opportunity are presented. In the chapter, I also interrogate how the allocation of community land to the Madhvani Group is gradually restructuring the local political economy in Lakang village, affecting rural agrarian livelihood systems and interfering with people’s identity, belonging and spirituality in the district. The chapter further unpacks the mechanisms that have been employed by the local communities of Apaa to block and resist the appropriation of their land.
Chapter seven analyses the second case. It interrogates the mechanisms and processes through which the Lake Albert Safaris Limited (LASL), which is owned by South African nationals, acquired about 834km² in Apaa village of Amuru district for the establishment of a privately run conservation area. The chapter shows that the expropriation of community land for conservation purposes is increasing in Uganda and that liberalisation of the economy has been at the centre of these processes. It details a series of evictions that have taken place in Apaa village to pave the way for LASL. The specific details embedded in the land management concession that was signed between LASL in the one hand, and the UWA and Adjumani District Local Government (ADLG) on the other hand are presented and assessed thereafter. The chapter shows that the GoU has been central in facilitating the expropriation of community land as it deployed the police and military personnel as well as game rangers and wardens to evict the local
29 communities. The chapter further shows that local communities lost their rights to land, property was destroyed, lives were lost, youths were incarcerated and that the eviction processes created a new form of ‘environment-induced IDPs’ in Apaa village of Amuru district.
Chapter eight interrogates the processes of accumulation ‘from below’ that are underway within Amuru district. This chapter shows that the local communities of Amuru district are not a monolithic group, meaning that land grabbing in the district is not only about ‘others’ (external capitalists) vis-à-vis ‘us’ (local communities) but it is also about local elites within the local communities expropriating land which belongs to the marginal rural poor. In this chapter, I show how land grabbing ‘from below’ and ‘from above’ are intertwined, with the latter stimulating a string of small-scale land grabs ‘from below’. I classified the small-scale land grabs ‘from below’ into four broad categories which are ‘inter and intra-community’ as well as ‘inter and intra-family’. Whereas land grabbing processes ‘from below’ have resulted in the accumulation of more capital and empowered the local elites, the loss of rights to land has disenfranchised the rural poor, with widows, orphans and formerly abducted children being the most affected.
Chapter nine concludes the study. Land grabbing debates in Amuru district were kindled by the redevelopment discourses of the state which targeted the utilisation of community land for large-scale establishments, agricultural or otherwise. These establishments, the government argued, were plausible platforms on which the processes of reconstitution of the destroyed households and revitalisation of livelihood systems that were disrupted by LRA conflict would be anchored.
However, the state’s redevelopment trajectories have benefited government bureaucrats, domestic and foreign investors, people aligned to the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) and local elites within Amuru district who have merchant capital and connections, as opposed to facilitating the processes of revitalisation of livelihoods and reconstruction of households by the marginal and disempowered rural poor communities. By detaching the local communities from the main means of production, land, the land grabbing processes that are underway have perpetuated misery and further subjugation of the returnee peoples. These processes are gradually creating proletarian classes in Amuru district. Repossession of land which the local communities abandoned at the height of the conflict needs to be considered by the Ugandan state as an option as it would provide an appropriate foundation to household reconstruction and livelihood recovery. In case the local people cannot repossess their land,
30 restitution and compensation ought to be considered as alternatives. The central aspect is for the local communities to own land which is important in the households and livelihoods of most people in Amuru district.
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