ABSENTEE LANDLORDS AND LAND UTILIZATION IN UGANDA: THE CASE OF KIBAALE DISTRICT, 1894 – 1995.

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ABSTRACT

This research focuses on absentee landlords and land utilization in Uganda, taking the case of Kibaale District in present-day Bunyoro Kingdom. It covers the period between 1894-1995. The study covers the economic history of Kibaale District during the colonial and post-independence period up to 1995.The objectives of this study were to identify the origins of absentee landlords, the commoditization of the land resource and its impact on land use between the landlords and the tenants. The study also examines how land policies of the colonial and post-independence governments tackled the issue of absentee landlords. The significance of this study is to add to the existing knowledge about the land tenure system in Kibaale District especially in relation to the politics of land allocation and utilization during both the colonial and post-independence periods. The study employed a number of theories including the theories of the articulation of the modes of production, neo-patrimonialism, conflict and relative-deprivation. The study adopted an historical approach in data collection and interpretation. Both primary and secondary data were collected. The study employed both the qualitative and quantitative methods of research to analyze and interpret the data. Both primary and secondary methods of data collection were used. A variety of informants were interviewed namely civil servants, peasants, teachers, landlords, landowners, politicians, and Kingdom leadership. The Uganda national archive in Entebbe was also a major source of information especially on correspondences of the colonial administrators. The research established that absentee Baganda landlords disrupted land use in Kibaale District during both the colonial and post-independence period. They were the holders of the land titles, and yet they were always absent which created insecure land-tenure among their Banyoro tenants. This research, therefore, recommends that the  government should effect a land legislation that will solve the land question in Kibaale District.

CHAPTER ONE

  • Background of the study

Land is a crucial resource which has constituted a critical subject of study not only in modern Africa, but generally in the entire developing world. It is both a source of wealth and power. It is a major resource in the production process and the structure of its ownership and utilization can either cause or impede development and social  stability (Museveni, 2001:70). Land plays a key role in poverty eradication. Thus its importance  to  peoples‟  livelihoods  has  led  to  increase  in  its  demand  world  over (Mihanjo, 2001:2). This has often ended up in land conflicts that have in the long run affected its use.

Conflicts over land ownership and use have been a common phenomenon almost world over. In France, before the Revolution of 1789, there existed the feudal system of land ownership whereby land was owned by the church and a few landlords who extracted rent from the tenants. This created a class of landed aristocracy and the landless which created land wrangles whose end result was the Revolution (Thompson, 1966:106). In Latin America and Asia, due to lack of pro-people land legislation a few landlords owned chunks of land most of which was not utilized which forced the landless to seize it hence leading to land conflicts that resulted into loss of lives (Johnson and Bernstein, 1982:3). In Ireland, during the 19th century, due to land appropriation by government, there erupted land conflicts between the English men who were the landlords and the

Irish local small scale farmers who were poor and landless (Roland and Atmore, 1981:258). The above observations indicate that in Europe, Asia and Latin America there was the commoditization of land which created a class of landlords and the landless that ended up causing land conflicts which impacted negatively on land use.

In most parts of colonial Africa, like South and Central Africa, Kenya and Tanganyika, although some Africans owned land, the remaining chunks of land were owned by foreigners which also created land conflicts (Kaniki, 1992). Consequently, Africans were forced to fight for the repossession of their land which led to the loss of lives. In Zambia, due to colonial land tenure policies, there arose a problem of landlords when a few rich men bought land and paid managers to look after it which created a class of absentee landlords and tenants (Okoth, 2006:365). In Zimbabwe there was occupation of land owned by whites by indigenous Zimbabweans in the 1990s, which resulted in a revolution which was marked by a radical agrarian reform (Moyo and  Yeros, 2007:103).