Landlords in the making: class dynamics of the land grab in Mbarali, Tanzania

Abstract

This paper reorients the analysis of land grabs in Tanzania towards the role of class dynamics. It draws on primary research on resistance against the privatisation of a state rice farm in Mbeya Region. This is a land grab ahead of its time, as it occurred before the wave of global land enclosures spurred by the 2007/8 crisis. The paper argues that the recent wave of dispossession builds on pre-existing processes of rural social differentiation and class formation, which are played out through the politics of land and its class dynamics. It claims that if engaged scholarship is to support the progressive potential of resistance against land grabs in Africa, the class dynamics of land grabs must be acknowledged.