Wearing an amulet: Land titling and tenure (in) security in Tanzania

Land reform in Tanzania introduced a new National Land Policy (1995) and Land Laws (1999), changing the way land is governed and administrated. The land reform process promoted formalisation of customary land rights as a means to tenure security for the citizens. This ethnography found that possession of a land title does not guarantee tenure security; when land held under customary rights is allocated by the state for investors or encroached upon by the wealthy and well connected. Nevertheless, land titling is undertaken strategically by each of the three groups who form the core of this ethnography to achieve their different goals: MKURABITA – a government sponsored programme, the Community Organisation for Research and Development Services (CORDS) – a pastoralist NGO, and the smallholders and pastoralists village residents, to achieve their different goals. The government of Tanzania are focussed on attracting inward investment, loans and development. Civil society groups promote titling for their members as a defensive mechanism against encroachment and smallholders and pastoralists hope that having a title deed just might swing a case in their favour.