Social-Cultural Impacts of Development Projects: Expansion of Morogoro Highway in Tanzania

Abstract

Abstract Land is one of the contentious development and political issue facing Tanzania and many Sub Saharan African countries. Most of these issues focus on the privatization of land as a result of neo-liberal economic reforms, evictions and conflicts generated. To understand development as a concept and its outcome, arguments in this paper are drawn from the study that explored socio-cultural impacts of the construction of Morogoro highway in Tanzania. Further, the paper makes an analysis of the land patterns and the meanings people attach to the land. Finally, we make an analysis of the social movements established by people in response to evictions along the highway. The study was conducted along Morogoro highway in Dar es Salaam and Pwani regions. It employed mainly qualitative approach, where archival information from NBS, Our World Data, indepth interviews, focus group discussions and observations were used. Key findings indicate that there is a gap between the meanings assigned to development projects and the socio-cultural configurations attached to land. This has resulted into myriad conflicts and evictions. A central argument in this paper is that for the land development program to be meaningful, there is a need to involve all land actors in the process.