In the last two decades, the twin processes of liberalization and privatization have facilitated the 'capturing' of key markets and assets by foreign interests in many African countries. This is being increasingly perceived in domestic constituencies as a loss of national ownership and has prompted attempts by the state to defend the interests of 'local' firms and businesspeople. These actions have often been portrayed in the literature as manoeuvres that in the guise of nationalism are ultimately characterized by clientelistic and rent-seeking objectives. The analysis of coffee politics and policy in Tanzania carried out in this article challenges this interpretation. It shows that practices affecting the perceived (il)legitimacy of 'foreign' ownership of assets and control of markets constitute elements of a 'politics of ownership'. This politics, although often sporting antiliberal features, does not question the essential nature of market reforms. Rather, it seeks to undermine the domination of 'foreign' interests in key industries through the redefinition of the parameters of competition to the advantage of local actors. IN THE LAST FEWYEARS THE GOVERNMENT OF TANZANIA has made a number of interventions in the country's coffee industry which seem to go against the grain of neo-liberal market reform. This article describes these changes and locates them in the wider literature on liberal reform in Tanzania and Africa. Currently, analyses of the dynamics of reform in Africa tend to fall into two (sometimes overlapping) categories: techno-economistic approaches focusing on 'appropriate interventions' and 'hurdles in the path of implementation';1 and political science approaches focusing on Stefano Ponte is a Senior Researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, Copenhagen. An earlier version of this article was presented at the African Studies Association of the UK Biennial Conference, University of Birmingham, 9-11 September 2002. He is grateful to Jannik Boesen, Ronald Fennel, Graham Harrison, Tim Kelsall, Lisa Richey, Ole Therkildsen and Nicholas Wallis for their helpful comments. Support for the research project which generated the article was provided by the Danish Social Science Research Council and the Centre for Development Research, Copenhagen (now Danish Institute for International Studies). 1. For recent examples on Tanzania, see A. Bigsten and A. Danielson, Tanzania: Is the ugly ducklingfinally growing up?. Research Report No. 120 (Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala, 2002); and World Bank, Tanzania at the Turn of the Century: From reforms to sustained growth and poverty reduction (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2002).