When institutions fail : development-induced displacement and the fracturing of social cohesion in Tanzania

Abstract

Long considered a bastion of stability in a tumultuous region, Tanzania has registered a worrying uptick in new and observable lines of social tension, including what has been referred to as ‘ethnic’ violence, and ‘tribal’ conflicts. In a country vaunted for its social cohesion, the modern activation of previously dormant ideational cleavages is both troubling and poorly understood. This paper examines the relationship between the prevalent occurrence of development-induced displacements in Tanzania, and the scarcely discussed effect such displacements have had on social cohesion in the country. Via regional case studies, this paper investigates several communal conflicts in detail, presenting original survey and interview data on violence surrounding subsistence and land ownership, linking systemic elite corruption with displacements, degradation narratives, forced migrations and pastoralist-farmer conflicts. Rather than rooted in ethnic animosity, this paper demonstrates a clear relationship between the neo-liberal politics of privatization in Tanzania, and growing identity-based communal conflicts. Key words: Green Grabbing, Accumulation by Dispossession, Development-Induced Displacement, Identity Conflicts, Tanzania