Peasant Struggles Research Articles

Post-Extractivist Horizons in Latin America: Between Utopias and Struggles for Re-Existence Against Neo-Extractivism

The triumph of neoliberal globalisation has been presented as the end of history, with no viable alternatives available. In Latin America, however, the structural adjustment programmes imposed by international financial institutions and the increased role of transnational corporations were resisted by social and popular movements that eventually translated into progressive politics and policies. Nevertheless, despite anti-capitalist and pro-environment rhetoric, extraction of natural resources has continued to expand under progressive governments, with devastating effects on environmental justice and Indigenous peoples’ rights. Focusing on socio-territorial struggles for re-existence in Bolivia through the cases of peasant struggle in Tariquía and the establishment of the National Coordinator for the Defence of Indigenous Territories and Protected Areas (CONTIOCAP), we investigate how Indigenous and peasant organisations resist extractive projects and organise collective life in alternative ways. We show how social actors, especially women, defend, propose and imagine post-extractivist alternatives as a societal horizon – both utopian and possible – to the current socio-ecological crisis, in a context of disillusionment with the government’s rhetoric of vivir bien as a state-led ecological and Indigenous policy. We argue that by defending life, women try to heal the human and more-than-human relationality in the territories impacted by progressive neo-extractivism.

Conceptions and Practices of Autonomy among Indigenous and Peasant Movements in Latin America

This paper seeks to categorize the forms of autonomy developed by Indigenous and peasant movements in Latin America into three types: a) de jure autonomies versus de facto autonomies; b) explicit autonomies versus implicit autonomies; and c) (mono)ethnic autonomies versus popular or class autonomies. We argue that the debate between these conceptions takes on a possible strategic importance when it comes to the dialogue between Indigenous and peasant struggles regarding the defense of territory as well as in the conception of peasant autonomy, understood as a strategy of struggle and local self-governance.

Conflict between Fulani herders and village landowners in Ghana: capitalism, climate change, and peasant struggles

In discussions of the capitalism–climate change interplay in the agrarian world, the intrusiveness of corporate and state-guided capitalism has been pre-eminent. This ‘hard capital’ focus obscures indirect linkages like how ‘soft capital’, although disoriented from raping nature, unlike the former, exacerbates climate change effects in ways that accelerate the destabilisation of agrarian economies. This indirect connection is evident in agrarian settings in Ghana’s Northern Region, where the resultant peasants’ revolt is directed at neither corporations nor the state but rather local landowning elites (soft capital), who transfer the burden of the twin pressures of climate change and hard capital (state intervention and privatisation of fertiliser supply) to their labourers. Using Marxian social relations of production as a theoretical lens, this paper unpacks how this capitalism–climate change interface plays out in Gushiegu, Northern Ghana. By highlighting that interface and the resultant agrarian struggles, this paper does two things: (1) invites agrarian scholars to transcend the commercialisation of agriculture and carbon capitalism in analysing how the intersection of capitalism and climate change destabilises the agrarian world; (2) encourages scholarship that transcends the more obvious herder–farmer conflicts over land and water in examining the destabilising effects of the aforementioned intersection.

The Social Reproductive Roots of Agrarian Contention: Gendered Labor amid Peasant Struggles in Tunisia

AbstractThis paper revisits the Tunisian 2010–2011 uprising and its ensuing decade of agrarian contention as a crisis of social reproduction stemming from the combined effects of depletion and dispossession. It traces the lineages of the grievances that continue to animate the Tunisian countryside to the multiple and often enmeshed labours—both productive and reproductive—of peasant and rural women. In underscoring the interconnectedness between these labours and the ebb and flow of various contestations against depletion and dispossession, it recognises social reproduction as a site of deep exploitation as well as an arena of day‐to‐day struggle. Guided by social reproduction theorisations and leveraging a multi‐sited ethnography conducted during July and August 2023, this paper relies on participant observation/observant participation and unstructured interviews conducted with predominately landed and landless peasant women, the testimonies of whom serve as a conduit for an important dialogue between feminist materialist analyses of social reproduction and peasant movements.

Breaking the mold of servitude: subaltern agency and possibilities of freedom in Elias’ Khwabnama

ABSTRACT The critically acclaimed novel Khwabnama by Akhtaruzzaman Elias is set in the 1940s and offers a “magical realist” portrayal of the lives and struggles of ordinary individuals of a rural community, with the emergence of the state of Pakistan and peasant struggles of the time serving as the backdrops. Towards the end of the novel, we see Tamiz, a landless peasant, deciding to alter the course of his journey to most likely join the rebellious farmers in their struggle for a fair share of the crops. In this paper, I analyze the character of Tamiz and the meaning and significance of his decisions and actions in the contexts of the novel and Elias’ oeuvre in an effort to excavate his ideas about subaltern agency and freedom. Tamiz’s action, along with the dreams and the magical elements of the novel, gestures towards barely visible and unspecified visions of freedom, which may be irreducible to languages of national liberation or class struggle, yet express Elias’ affirmation of the indomitable spirit of the subaltern to reject and resist the mold of servitude in which they find themselves.

The Human Right to Land: A Peasant Struggle in the Human Rights System

Abstract Control and access to land are major concerns for peasants of the global south who face the longstanding consequences of colonialism and recent ‘land-rush’. What is the role of human rights in this peasant struggle? The UNDROP marks the international recognition of the right to land. However, as the very project of human rights is facing criticism and the effectiveness of this recognition remains uncertain, the question of whether using the human rights framework is even desirable arises. Arguing for a broader understanding of the actors and processes involved in the application and evolution of human rights, I explain that the process of obtaining the recognition of the right to land involved the mobilisation and re-modelling of human rights by grassroots organisations. I explore the potential of this mobilisation to transform common understandings of human rights, and its distinctive ability to support the necessary paradigm shift to transform peasants’ lives.

Roger Felix V. Salditos and Agrarian Class Struggles in Panay Island, Philippines

Roger Felix V. Salditos was among seven Filipino revolutionaries who were summarily executed by police and military forces in San Jose town, Antique, in the central Philippine island of Panay in 2018. Better known by the pen names Mayamor and Maya Daniel, which he used to sign his paintings and poetry, Salditos was a revolutionary intellectual who spent the better part of his life as a cadre of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) since he left the seminary in 1979. This article examines the underground literary and political writings of Salditos to help illuminate the long history of agrarian class struggles of peasants and Tumandok indigenous peoples in one of the Philippines’ top food-producing regions. His narratives highlight the role of Panay as the only place where the Huk peasant rebellion took root outside Luzon in the 1950s, recalling important episodes of revolutionary contestations in the island amid changing conditions under the Marcos dictatorship and the class offensive of neoliberalism. Despite their partisan character and focus on the local and the superstructural, Salditos’s writings provide an important perspective on the persistence of one of the world’s longest-running rural-based insurgencies, notwithstanding the end of the classical era of peasant wars of the twentieth century and shifting spaces for agrarian contestations in the new century.

The Beginning of the Solution of the Agrarian Question “from below” in the Spring of 1917 on the Example of Krasnoslobodsky Uyezd of Penza Province

Introduction. The article is devoted to the beginning of the peasants’ struggle for land in the conditions after the February revolution of 1917. Materials and Methods. The research uses materials from the Central State Archive of the Republic of Mordovia. In the work on this study, a problem-chronological method was used, as well as a micro-historical approach to consider all-Russian events at the county level. Results. The main content of the study is the beginning of the unfolding of the struggle of peasants with landlords for land. The peasantry, constrained by small land, by appealing to the authorities through writing sentences, seeks to pay attention to this and resolve the land issue in their favor. No less important problems of Krasnoslobodsk peasants were the lack of meadows for feeding and walking livestock, as well as numerous penalties imposed on them by landlords. These legal forms of struggle for the possession of land go in parallel with the pogroms of landlords’ estates and the removal of property and fodder from them. It is also worth noting the growing tension between local peasants and tenants from other settlements, to whom landlords leased their arable land and meadows. Discussion and Conclusion. The study confirmed that the local peasantry is an active participant in solving the agrarian issue “from below”, and its opponents in the form of various kinds of landowners are beginning to give up their positions. At the same time, the parties are trying to appeal to the local authorities, who, basically, are trying to take the position of an outside observer, without seriously interfering in the unfolding agrarian struggle.

Farming for sociologists: A new key text for rural sociologists

First paragraphs: What is farming for? What are the objectives? How should it relate to nature and wider society?” (p. 121) asks Jan Douwe van der Ploeg in his new book, The Sociology of Farming: Concepts and Methods. As an accomplished interdisciplinary scholar making significant contributions to the fields of rural sociology, agroecology, and peasant studies, van der Ploeg offers emerging and sea­soned scholars alike an overview of the wide array of challenges and opportunities in contemporary agrifood systems research. Examples of applied, interdisciplinary, and creative methodological approaches make for an accessible, structured reading experience that thoughtfully guides the reader through rich and substantial content. Chapter by chapter, readers are routinely asked to orient themselves to questions of power, particularly when presented with what is “right” in agriculture. Through discussions of rural development, market dominance, and peasant struggles, the text provides a critical foundation for future study directions.…

Political Ontologies of Colombian Amazonia: Peasant Resistance in Protected Areas

This paper investigates the ontological and material dimensions of peasant struggles in Colombian northwestern Amazonia in a context of increasing international deforestation concerns that press the Colombian government to enforce protected areas through military campaigns and market-based conservation programs. Building on ethnographic research in the region, the paper contributes to ongoing debates in the field of political ecology about the ontological dimension of dispossessions and social struggles. It brings together ontological studies with a perspective of critical geography to propose an integrative political ecology of socio-environmental conflicts that addresses the material and the ontological dimensions of domination and resistance.

Commentary

Commentary

Peasant Struggles in Times of Crises: The Political Role of Rural and Indigenous Women in Chile Today

This article explores the political role of rural and indigenous women in the context of the socio-environmental, health and political crises in Chile, where social movements have pressured the political establishment to decisively move towards a change in Chile’s constitutional foundations. The study analyses the historical political demands and strategies of the National Association of Rural and Indigenous Women (ANAMURI) as a case of the women’s peasant movement with a relevant political role in shaping the social demands in the face of the crises. Following the political ecology of food through the decolonial and ecofeminist perspective and the social movement theory, findings indicate the current relevance of rural and indigenous women as political actors of change, a relevance that has been neglected for most of Chile’s history. With their leadership and socially grounded demands, peasant and indigenous women are influencing the political agenda decisively using strategies that are shared with other peasant movements in Latin America. Rural and indigenous women are fundamental political actors that should undoubtedly be considered when studying struggles for social change in the 21st century.

Ránquil: Rural Rebellion, Political Violence, and Historical Memory in Chile by Thomas Miller Klubock

Reviewed by: Ránquil: Rural Rebellion, Political Violence, and Historical Memory in Chile by Thomas Miller Klubock J. Patrice McSherry Klubock, Thomas Miller. Ránquil: Rural Rebellion, Political Violence, and Historical Memory in Chile. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2022. Thomas Klubock has amassed a rich store of information about the injustices faced by Chilean campesinos in the years preceding the historic Ránquil rebellion of 1934 and the event itself. Thick with description and detail derived from hitherto unused judicial archives and unknown documents, the book adds depth to our understanding of peasant struggles in the south of Chile and the context surrounding the 1934 rebellion. Ránquil was the largest rural revolt in Chile's history. The author fleshes out the roles of the Sindicato Agrícola [End Page 231] Lonquimay, the Democratic Party and the Chilean Communist Party, and wealthy landowning families such as the Puelmas and Bunsters, as well as key peasant leaders such as Juan Segundo Leiva Tapia. Klubock shows that many of the peasants who participated in the rebellion were "disappeared" and murdered, previewing the savage repression to come forty years later under the Pinochet dictatorship. The book leads with an excellent introduction that presents the author's key conceptual observations. "Ránquil is a reminder that political violence and state terror have a long history in Chile," he notes, and continuing movements against inequality "are rooted in the repression of campesinos' recurrent struggles to build a more free and just society" (25). Many of the activists involved—Klubock details the role of indigenous Pehuenche and female campesinos as well as that of male unionists and peasants—sought to initiate a socialist revolution. One of Klubock's major points is that the rebellion was not exceptional or unusual but was rather "the most visible and pronounced clash in a long history of conflicts" in the region (2). Peasants had contested the property rights and deceitful maneuvers of wealthy owners since the nineteenth century. Another important observation is that the peasant movement was revolutionary, aiming to install a socialist transformation. The peasants of Bío Bío were "moving from a pragmatic strategy of working through the legal system and petitioning authorities in Santiago to revolutionary insurrection" (3), writes Klubock. This dimension of the struggle has often been lost in historical treatments of the conflict, Klubock notes; he gathers "considerable evidence that a number of the Sindicato Agrícola Lonquimay leaders were aligned with the Communist Party and articulated its ideological discourse" (12). The author highlights two parallel and opposing tendencies in Chile's history. On the one hand, dissident movements have appealed to the law and to the state to resolve conflicts, and at times the state has responded with reforms and upheld justice and rights. On the other, the state has regularly resorted to repression and violence and narrowed democratic rights to crush challenges and preserve the social order (13). Surprisingly, in his first presidential term, army general Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, who served twice as president, tried to institute reforms to break up large estates in the south and extend labor rights to those who worked the land (87–90). Many campesinos regarded him as an ally in their struggles against the oligarchic families that dominated the region. [End Page 232] Klubock argues that the Ránquil rebellion, when not forgotten by historians, has been categorized as a spontaneous uprising and not part of an organized collective movement. This "impedes a serious historical engagement with [peasants'] political consciousness," he asserts (17–18). Another of his arguments, which I found less persuasive, is that pardons and historical oblivion regarding massacres and repression by state security forces permitted "national reconciliation, functioning as a precondition for Chilean democracy and the legitimacy of the state" (21) as well as the development of a stable multiparty system. But while Chile was stable for long periods, stability is not the same as democracy. There is substantial literature on the long-term consequences of impunity that challenges his assertion that olvido is a necessary precondition for democracy. Similarly, the assumption that impunity and amnesia enhanced the legitimacy of the state is open to question. Chile's unresolved...

The Peasant Question Under Nyerere’s Socialism

This essay is a succinct overview of the manner in which the first president of Tanzania attempted to address the peasant question in the country. In the immediate aftermath of independence (1961–1966), Nyerere’s government bought into the World Bank’s recommendation of village settlement schemes and range development to pull the peasantry and the pastoralist out of the backward, traditional agriculture to modern, more productive agriculture and pastoralism spearheaded by what the WB called progressive farmers. Selected ‘progressive farmers’ would be resettled in new environment administered by hired management which would teach them modern husbandry under close supervision. Village settlement scheme was established at a great cost. By 1966 it was clear that both these projects were disastrous. With the adoption of the country’s socialist blueprint, the government adopted the policy of ‘small is beautiful’, so to speak. Peasant agriculture would be improved through extension services and collective production in Ujamaa villages. Peasants were not particularly enthusiastic about Ujamaa villages. Very few were established making the party diehards, including Nyerere, exasperated. In 1973 the President ordered that living in villages was compulsory and thus began the forced villagisation from 1971–1974 by which time it was estimated that some five million people were forcefully resettled in the so-called development villages. In hindsight, it can be surmised that this move both discredited the Ujamaa project and Nyerere could have lost his peasant base. Beginning late 1970s and early 1980s the country experienced its worst economic crisis due to a variety of internal and external reasons providing imperialism and internal proto-bourgeoisies an entry point for imposing the notorious structural adjustment programmes. The essay briefly discusses the fate and the fight of the peasant under the subsequent neo-liberal phase predicated on the so-called free market, private property regime and private investment exposing the peasant to the vagaries of capitalism and its crisis. The essay ends with outlining some elements of an alternative discourse to spearhead the peasant struggle for autonomous, sovereign development. JEL Codes: P32, Q15, Q24

TERRITÓRIO DA EDUCAÇÃO DO CAMPO, A QUESTÃO AGRÁRIA E ESCOLAS DO CAMPO EM ASSENTAMENTOS DE REFORMA AGRÁRIA EM ESPERANTINÓPOLIS-MA

Refletir sobre o território da educação do campo no município de Esperantinópolis-MA, sobretudo nos assentamentos de reforma agrária. O mesmo traz reflexões acerca da produção do território a partir das experiências de educação do campo, discutindo ainda sobre o território da educação do campo e a questão agrária no Brasil, enfatizando os conceitos de território e territorialidades camponesas e uma reflexão sobre a questão agrária e as escolas do campo no Maranhão. Partimos de busca de bibliografia, com debate em torno das categorias de educação do campo e território, bem como a produção acerca da questão agrária no Maranhão. As categorias de Educação do Campo e Território se conectam na produção da questão agrária do país. Os projetos de educação do campo implantados foram conquistas dos movimentos sociais, dessa maneira, o PRONERA no município em questão deve ser analisado no conjunto da luta camponesa.

UKRAINIAN SOVIET HISTORIOGRAPHY OF 1940-60S ABOUT RELATIONS BETWEEN THE ZAPOROZHIAN HOST AND RUSSIA DURING THE HAYDAMATSKIY MOVEMENT IN THE XVIII CENTURY

The purpose of the research is to analyze the works of Ukrainian Soviet historians of the 1940s and 1960s, who are devoted to the Haidamat movement and the role of Cossacks in it. Changes in the Soviet paradigm regarding the interpretation of the history of the Zaporozhian Host and the social and political aspects of Zaporizhzhya-Russian relations during the spread of the Haydamak movement in the 18th century are traced.The influence of the resolutions of the congresses of the CPSU on the coverage of the 300th anniversary of the "reunification of Ukraine and Russia" and the 200th anniversary of the Koliivshina has been studied. Among the methods that were used during the preparation of the article - general scientific and general historical, analysis of the Soviet historiography of the problem, comparison and generalization. The scientific novelty is emphasized by the fact that in modern Ukrainian historiography there are no works dedicated to the study of the history of Zaporizhzhya-Russian relations during the Haydamak movement of the 18th century. The author of the article proposes to fill this historiographical gap. 
 Conclusions. In the context of the study of the Haydamak movement of the 18th century, Soviet historians considered Zaporozhye-Russian relations as a component of the struggle of peasants against feudal lords in Right-Bank Ukraine. This was due to the promotion and consolidation in Soviet historiography of the idea of the "leading role" of the peasantry, instead of the Cossacks, in the wars and uprisings of the outlined period. Soviet historians consciously supported the policy of the Central Committee of the CPSU, participating in the transformation of historical science into a political tool, manipulating facts to suit the ruling ideology.

A Nova ´Revolução Brasileira´: o maoísmo para enfrentar a ditadura militar no Brasil dos anos 1960 e 1970

In a world where Asia occupies again her historical role, after two centuries of European and North American domination – an “aberration”, according to Kishore Mahbubani –, the lega-cy of traditions from this continent in Latin American in-tellectual life and politics appears slightly. Thus maoism in-formed several political currents and generations of political activists, such as PCB, AP or PCdoB. Apart from definitions, they were interested in the way of thinking of Chinese communists, unlikely winners, which opened perspectives as to how to conceive revolution in Brazil in a way more cohe-rent with its historical originality, geographical complexity, and level of development. Aspects formerly seen as hindran-ces became beacons of hope: rural economic preponderance, especially peasant struggles in the Northeast or Maringa etc. Some examples from the continent favoured this bet. Ten years after the proclamation of the People's Republic of Chi-na, a Cuban revolutionary movement achieved power coming from the rural areas. The phrase “the countryside surrounds the city”, gaining power in the 1960´s, seemed to be realized here as well as with national liberation wars in Viet Nam, Asia, Africa and Latin America (Naxalites, MPLA, Sendero luminoso etc.). For young Brazilian activists, under strong repression from the military dictatorship since 1964, especially with AI 5 in 1968, maoism offered a new horizon. Apart from the change in model, perspectives opened in the arts, or currents such as feminism etc., the Little Red Book (although clandestine) representing an incentive to struggle, and a solidarity link with other fighters around the world.

Final Reflections on the Farmers’ Movement

The end of the yearlong farmers agitation on November 19, 2021, led mostly by farmers from Punjab and Haryana at the borders of Delhi marked a tremendous success in its resistance to legislation of the central government and corporatization of agriculture in India. The movement defeated forces internal to India that favored agro-industries as well as larger global policy-making that favors the same. In India,
 such policies date back to at least the 1990s and the shift to “liberalize” India.1 As documented in the two previous issues published by Sikh Research Journal, the farmers’ movement witnessed participation from a cross section of the Indian population, cutting across societal, professional and geographical barriers. The farmers even traveled to various states of the country to influence state legislative elections of 2021 in an effort to defeat the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Although those efforts were successful only in some instances, the movement was able to create an alternative vision for the people of the nation. The movement brought together actors and groups with disparate interests and goals. Many observers have found those unexpected alliances and extensions in the movement to be noteworthy. Also, the success of the farmers’ movement can be attributed to Punjab’s long history of peasant struggles.

Dreams as narrative stage in "Hanımın Çiftliği

Orhan Kemal’in Vukuat Var, Hanımın Çiftliği ve Kaçak adlı romanlarından oluşan “Hanımın Çiftliği” üçlemesi, dönemin sosyal ve siyasi dönüşümlerine toplumcu gerçekçi bir bakışla yaklaşır. Kente eklemlenen ancak dâhil olmayan mahallelerde yaşayan, fabrikalarda çalışan yeni bir sınıfın insanları yani işçiler ve aileleri ile toprak ağaları tarafından sömürülen köylüler, sorunlarına, koşullarına ve yaşam tutumlarına eleştirel bir bakışla odaklanılan sınıflardır. Mezkûr eserlerin önemli özellikleri arasında, aslında toplumcu gerçekçi bir perspektifle odağa alınan işçiler ve köylülerin idealize edilmemeleri, bu sınıflara mensup olan roman kişilerinin insan hakikatlerinin korunması yer alır. Bu noktada romanlarda dikkat çeken bir özellik göze çarpar; işçiler ve köylüler aslında hayatta kalmakta ama yaşamamaktadır ancak bu insanların emekleri patronları ve ağaları yaşatmaktadır. İşçilerin ve köylülerin bu durumdan duydukları rahatsızlık belirgindir ancak bu rahatsızlık örgütlü ve bilinçli bir hak mücadelesine dönüşmez. Onların, bu mücadeleyi vermek yerine, özünü sınıf değiştirmek olarak özetleyebileceğimiz bir talih dönüşümünü hayal ettikleri görülür. Hayaller, romanlarda âdeta gerçekliğin koşutu sayılabilecek bir anlatı katmanı oluşturur. Kişilerin iç dünyalarını ve örtük eleştirel tonu daha derinlikli kavramanın imkânını sunan, bu hayaller katmanıdır. Hayaller ile insanların dâhil oldukları sosyoekonomik sınıflar arasındaki ilişki, önemli veriler sunar. Kişilerin hayalleri, gerçekte yaşanmayan ancak kurmaca içinde kurmaca gibi zihinlerde kurgulanan başka yaşamların imkânını sorgular. Bu hayaller katmanındaki yaşantılara dikkat edildiğinde ise hem köylülerin hem de işçilerin verdikleri mücadelenin toplumsal ve ekonomik anlamda bir üst sınıfa dâhil olmak olduğu fakat bu üst sınıfa dâhil olmaya dair hayallerin de kısıtlı bir yaşam deneyimi ile biçimlendiği görülür.

Iringa Dipping Scheme in Mufindi 1940s -1958; ‘Development’ Resisted by Peasants

This paper discussed the history of Iringa Dipping Scheme in Mufindi during the British colonial administration in the post Second World War period. Different schemes were introduced in Tanganyika. Among them were Sukumaland Development Scheme 1947, Uluguru Land Usage Scheme 1949, the Mbulu Development Scheme 1949 and Iringa Dipping Scheme 1951 to mention just a few. Most of these schemes were established with the main concern of land improvement and soil conservation which apparently was the result of colonial policies of overexploitation of resources. The colonial government claimed that Iringa dipping scheme was introduced to prevent cattle against tick borne diseases but the implementation was associated with compulsory state repression. Forceful implementation of the dipping scheme in Mufindi prompted peasant resentment to the scheme. However, the findings of this paper revealed that the establishment and development of Iringa Dipping Scheme was a response towards the economic crisis which was manifesting in the growing demands of beef and other raw materials in Britain and Tanganyika in the meat and related industries. The intensification of peasant resentment to the exploitative scheme through fees which they were forced to pay and the bother entailed in bringing their cattle to the dips. Peasant’s resistance and resentment culminated into the collapse of the dipping scheme of Mufindi in 1958. Should be grasped within the context of peasant struggle against exploitative system which was developed in post-war period. This paper employed historical research design utilizing qualitative approach. Primary and secondary sources were integrated together. Archival data were generated from Tanzania National Archives, University of Dar es Salaam, Sokoine University of Agriculture and Mufindi District. Oral histories were generated from the indigenous people to corroborate the archival data. Political economy theory was used to inform the study.