Asian capitalism, primitive accumulation, and the new enclosures in Uganda

Abstract

The new scramble for farmlands, similar to the colonial practice of allocating productive land for plantation agriculture, needs analysis. The failure of a dual economy resulted in the emergence of Asian capitalism, progressively changed from a colonial cotton frontier to a more lucrative sugar industry. The existence of relatively balance domestic power relations during British colonialism protected the local indigenous population from land alienation. A maximum cap of 10,000 acres was institutionalized to limit the amount of land owned by non-Africans. However, both Metha and Madhvani companies circumvented the cap to acquire more land, an insight not really being appreciated in the current land grab discourse. Using economic historical analysis, this article reviews how Metha and Madhvani accumulated more land, and compares with their current quest for primitive accumulation of 7100 hectares in Mabira Forest Reserve and 40,000 hectares of communal land in Amuru district.

Keywords::

• alienation
• capital accumulation
• colonialism
• dispossession
• land
• plantation economy

Notes

^1. His Majesty's Government, Memorandum on Native Policy in East Africa, cmd, 3573, presented by the Secretary of State for the colonies to Parliament by Command of His Majesty, June, 1930 (London: His Majesty's Stationery Office).

^2. Uganda Protectorate, The Uganda Gazette, Vol. XLIII, No. 30, 11 July 1950 (Entebbe: Government Printer).

^3.www.mehtagroup.com/index.html (accessed 4 December 2012).

^4. Uganda Protectorate, Secretariat Minute Paper No. 11774, Minute 160, Confidential Memorandum, 4 November 1940.

^5.http://www.kakirasugar.com/content/agriculture (accessed 4 December 2012).

^6.http://www.ugandaradionetwork.com/a/story.php?s = 17147 (accessed on 30 December 2012).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David Ross Olanya

D.R. Olanya is a researcher and lectures at the Department of Public Administration and Management, Gulu University, Uganda. His research interests currently focus on the politics of agrarian transformation and resource governance, globalization, and sustainability politics.