Land conflicts and social differentiation in eastern Uganda

Abstract

Rising competition and conflict over land in rural sub-Saharan Africa continues to attract the attention of researchers. Recent work has especially focused on land governance, post-conflict restructuring of tenure relations, and large-scale land acquisitions. A less researched topic as of late, though one deserving of greater consideration, pertains to how social differentiation on the local-level shapes relations to land, and how these processes are rooted in specific historical developments. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Teso sub-region of eastern Uganda, this paper analyses three specific land conflicts and situates them within a broad historical trajectory. I show how each dispute illuminates changes in class relations in Teso since the early 1990s. I argue that this current period of socioeconomic transformation, which includes the formation of a more clearly defined sub-regional middle class and elite, constitutes the most prominent period of social differentiation in Teso since the early 20th century.

Cattle Rustling and Competing Land Claims: Understanding Struggles Over Land in Bunambutye, Eastern Uganda

“…Research in Uganda provides similar explanations for the conflicts, including social differentiation (Kandel 2017), the changing value of land and systems in land governance (Leonardi & Santschi 2016), land grabbing (Sjögren 2014), appropriation of land as a political resource (Medard & Golaz 2013), competition over the access and use of natural resources such as grazing lands and water resources, and disputes over territorial land and boundary demarcations (Sjogren 2014;Khanakwa 2012).…”

“…The overthrow of the Amin regime by the Uganda National Liberation Front (UNLF) and the Tanzanian People’s Defence Force (TPDF) in 1979 increased the proliferation of arms in Karamoja, resulting in unprecedented violence in the region (Meyerson 2019; Gray 2004). In the context of the disorder following Amin’s downfall, and amid the famine of 1979 in Karamoja as well as the arms proliferation, Karimojong men intensified raids on the neighboring districts of northeastern Uganda (Mkutu 2008; Gray 2004; Närman 2003), resulting in massive displacement in the Teso and Acholi regions during the late 1980s and early 1990s (Kandel 2017; Sjögren 2014).…”

“…International scholars have offered multiple interpretations of the conflicts, including increasing population (Downs & Reyna 1988), social differentiation and class formation (Peters 2013), the rise in social transformations and inequality (Peters 2004), land reforms (Berry 1993), and large-scale land expropriation—or “land grabbing” (Cotula 2012; Peters 2004; Sjögren 2014). Research in Uganda provides similar explanations for the conflicts, including social differentiation (Kandel 2017), the changing value of land and systems in land governance (Leonardi & Santschi 2016), land grabbing (Sjögren 2014), appropriation of land as a political resource (Medard & Golaz 2013), competition over the access and use of natural resources such as grazing lands and water resources, and disputes over territorial land and boundary demarcations (Sjogren 2014; Khanakwa 2012).…”

“…Cemented graves and cement pillars came to constitute important markers of belonging and evidence of ancestor presence on the land (Meinert et al 2017). Other studies on northern Uganda (Sjögren 2014) and eastern Uganda (Kandel 2017) have demonstrated how violence in those regions led to massive displacement and separation of people from their land, subsequently making the land vulnerable to opportunistic actors.…”

Unravelling Church Land: Transformations in the Relations between Church, State and Community in Uganda

“…What is also noteworthy is that the Pentecostal pastor, the Catholic priest, and many of the committed Catholics involved in the dispute all belong to a rural elite increasingly investing in land for the construction of schools, guesthouses and other businesses. This privatization trend is contributing to social differentiation in rural areas in ways that also profoundly influence churches (see Kandel, ).…”