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ABSTRACT
This paper argues that land alienation that occurred in the Tati District (North East District) of Botswana can best be returned to its original inhabitants through land restitution. This is because the Tati is unique from other districts in that other districts did not suffer from severe or intense colonial land alienation, whilst the Tati, in many ways, resembled the overcrowded and impoverished African reserves of the settler dominated territories of Zimbabwe, Kenya and South Africa, which had large prosperous farms for white farmers. It holds that a historical wrong was committed in the Tati and that this justifies land restitution. The paper concurs with the contention that the Market Based Land Reform (MBLR) programme which adopts the ‘Willing Buyer–Willing Seller’ (WBWS) approach adopted by the Botswana government since independence to ease the land shortage in the Tati District has not succeeded. The land restitution process in South Africa is used as a case for adoption in Tati. The paper acknowledges the complexities of the process there, and proposes that the situation in Botswana is somewhat different. It is argued that in Botswana, the economic empowerment measures that are currently in place, particularly the agricultural schemes would to a large extent overcome some of the major challenges of land restitution in the Tati.
Note on the contributor
Wazha g. Morapedi is an Associate Professor of history at the University of Botswana. He teaches Botswana, Central African and Latin American history. His research interests are on comparative agrarian history, labour migration and the liberation struggle in struggle in Southern Africa.
Notes
1 Amongst those who have discussed the land issue in detail especially in the Tati are B. Manatsha, ‘The Political Economy of Land Reform in Post Independence Botswana, 1966–2000’ (MA thesis, Hiroshima University, 2008); I. Schapera, ‘The Native Land Problems in the Tati’, Botswana Notes and Records, 3 (1971); C. Kerven, ‘Underdevelopment, Migration and Class Formation in the North East District of Botswana’ (PhD thesis, University of Toronto, 1977); H. Tapela, ‘The Tati District of Botswana, 1866–1966’ (PhD thesis, University of Sussex, 1976); P. Kinlund, Does Land Degradation Matter? Perspectives from the North East District of Botswana (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1996); R. Werbner, ‘The Quasi-Judicial and the Experience of the Absurd: Re-making Land Law in North Eastern Botswana’, in R. Werbner, ed., Land Reform in the Making: Tradition, Public Policy and Ideology in Botswana (London: Rex Collings, 1982); B. Egner, Interim Report of the Tati Settlement Project (Francistown: BW, 1971); K. Kobokobo, ‘Labour Migration and its Economic Impact on the North East District: The Case of Bukalanga, 1870–1939’ (BA Research Project in History, University of Botswana, 1982); J. Mupindu, ‘Creation of the Tati Company and Land Alienation. A Case Study of the North East District of Botswana, 1888–1930’ (BA Research Project in History, University of Botswana, 1983); M. Mogotsi, ‘Failure to Reclaim Lost Land: The Khurutshe and British Tati Imperialism, 1890–1913’ (BA Research Project in History, University of Botswana, 1983). Of these, the only study which has a component on land restitution is B. Manatsha’s work.
2 R. Palmer, ‘Mugabe’s “Land Grab” in Regional Perspective’, in C. Stoneham and T.A.S. Bowyer-Bower, eds, Land Reform in Zimbabwe: Constraints and Prospects (London: Ashgate, 2000), 18.
3 T. Tlou and A. Campbell, History of Botswana (Gaborone: Macmillan, 2005), 241; M. and M. Russell, Afrikaners of the Kalahari: White Man in a Black Country (Cambridge: CUP, 1979); Tapela, ‘The Tati District’, ii; P. Mgadla, ‘The History of the Town and Area of Lobatse from Pre-Colonial Times to 1965 (BA Research Project, University of Botswana, 1976); I. Mazonde, ‘The Development of Ranching and Economic Enterprise in Eastern Botswana’ (PhD thesis, University of Manchester, 1987); J. Croston, ‘An Economic and Social History of Freehold Land Tenure Districts of the Bechuanaland Protectorate (Botswana), 1903–1966’ (PhD thesis, Boston University, 1993).
4 B. Mathuba, ‘Botswana’s Land Policy’, paper presented at an International Workshop on Land Policies in Southern Africa, Berlin Germany, 26–27 May 2003, 5; Population and Housing Census (Gaborone: Central Statistics Office, 2001).
5 See, among others, Tapela, ‘The Tati District’, 59; Schapera, ‘Native Land Problems’, 219–225; Mupindu, ‘Creation of the Tati Company’, 1–11.
6 Schapera, ‘Native Land Problems’; Tapela, ‘The Tati District’; Mupindu, ‘The Creation of the Tati Company’, 1–6; Mogotsi, ‘Failure to Reclaim Lost Land’, 2–4.
7 Tapela, ‘The Tati District’, 22–23; Mupindu, ‘Creation of the Tati Company’, 1–6.
8 Tapela, ‘The Tati District’, 115–130; Schapera, ‘Native Land Problems’, 224; Mupindu, ‘The Creation of Tati Company’, 12; Mogotsi, ‘Failure to Reclaim Lost Land’, 10. Even in 1971, a report by Brian Egner on ‘The Tati Settlement Project’, mulled at the possibility of making land available for Tati resettlement in the Central District, at Nata or elsewhere. Harsh measures such as forceful destocking of cattle was also suggested, see Egner, Interim Report, 14, 18.
9 Tapela, ‘The Tati District’, 59.
10 Schapera, ‘Native Land Problems’, 223–224; Tapela, ‘The Tati District’, 62–69; Mogotsi, ‘Failure to Reclaim Lost Land’, 1.
11 Schapera, ‘Native Land Problems’, 224; Mogotsi, ‘Failure to Reclaim Lost Land’, 7–10; Mupindu, ‘Creation of the Tati Company’, 12.
12 Schapera, ‘Native Land Problems’, 225; Mogotsi, ‘Failure to Reclaim Lost Land’, 13.
13 Schapera, 225; Tapela, ‘The Tati District’, 108; Mupindu, ‘Creation of the Tati Company’, 13.
14 Tapela, ‘The Tati District’, 174.
15 R. Palmer, ‘The Agricultural History of Rhodesia’, in R. Palmer and N. Parsons, The Roots of Rural Poverty in Central and Southern Africa (London, Heinemann, 1977), 238.
16 Schapera, 233–237 ‘Native Land Problems’, 233; Tapela, ‘The Tati District’ 69; Kerven, ‘Underdevelopment’, 220.
17 Schapera, ‘Native Land Problems’, 233; Kerven, ‘Underdevelopment’, 228.
18 Schapera, ‘Native Land Problems’, 233; Also, see Mupindu, ‘Creation of the Tati Company’, 12–13.
19 See Werbner, ‘The Quasi-Judicial’, 142; Tapela, ‘The Tati District’, 17; Kerven, ‘Underdevelopment’, 228.
20 Schapera, ‘Native Land Problems’, 225; Mogotsi, ‘Failure to Reclaim Lost Land’, 13.
21 I. Schapera, Migrant Labour and Tribal Life: A Study of Conditions in the Bechuanaland Protectorate (London: Oxford University Press, 1947), 237.
22 Kobokobo, ‘Labour Migration’, 9.
23 Kerven, ‘Underdevelopment’, 180.
24 Botswana National Archives (hereafter BNA) S. 238/7/1, R.W. Thornton, Report on the Land Leased from the Tati Company by the Bechuanaland Protectorate Government as a Native Reserve, 1943.
25 Schapera, ‘Native Land Problems’, 237.
26 Kinlund, ‘Does Land Degradation Matter?’, 84.
27 Tapela, ‘The Tati District’, 130.
28 Kinlund, ‘Does Land Degradation Matter?’, 83–120.
29 Manatsha, ‘Political Economy’, 110, quoting the North East District Development Plan 6, 2003–2009, p71.
30 Manatsha, ‘Political Economy’, 110, quoting The Greater Francistown Planning Area Structure Plan, 1997–2001, 114–115.
31 Manatsha, ‘Political Economy’,110.
32 Kinlund, ‘Does Land Degradation Matter?’, 84, 166–167; Werbner, ‘The Quasi-Judicial’, 135, 141.
33 Kerven, ‘Underdevelopment’, 19 and 419.
34 Kinlund, ‘Does Land Degradation Matter?’, 167.
35 Manatsha, ‘Political Economy’, 113.
36 Kinlund, ‘Does Land Degradation Matter?’, 170.
37 Manatsha, ‘The Political Economy’, 113.
38 Ibid.
39 Mmegi, 8 August 2003.
40 Botswana Daily News, 8 October 2008.
41 Manatsha, ‘Political Economy’, 106–111.
42 Land Policies for Growth and Poverty Reduction (World Bank Report, 2003, Washington DC: World Bank and OUP, 2003), 15–16.
43 Manatsha, ‘Political Economy’, 110, quoting G. Griffin et al., ‘Poverty and the Distribution of Land’, Journal of Agrarian Change, 2, 31 (2002), 321.
44 Manatsha, ‘Political Economy’, quoting the Tribal Land Act (Amended) 1993, ch 10, s 1.
45 Manatsha, ‘Political Economy’, 113 quoting C. Ng’ong’ola, ‘The Post-Colonial Era in Relation to Land Expropriation Laws in Botswana, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe’, International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 41, 1 (1992), 85.
46 Manatsha, ‘Political Economy ’, 144.
47 Ibid., 166. Quoting the Constitution of Botswana, ch II, s 8.
48 Manatsha. ‘Political Economy’, 166.
49 ‘Government sets Task Force on North East Land’, Botswana Daily News, 8 August 2003.
50 Ibid.
51 Manatsha, ‘Political Economy’, 112.
52 Ibid., 115.
53 Ibid., 87.
54 ‘Government sets Task Force on North east Land’, Botswana Daily News, 8 August 2003.
55 Manatsha, ‘Political Economy’, 15.
56 S. Moyo, ‘The Political Economy of Land Acquisition and Redistribution in Zimbabwe, 1990–1999’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 26, 1 (2000), 8.
57 Manatsha, ‘Political Economy’,112 .
58 The Voice, 16 November 2007.
59 Manatsha, ‘Political Economy’, 110.
60 ‘Tati Company Stole our Land’, The Voice, 30 March 2007.
61 Kinlund, ‘Does Land Degradation Matter?’, 167.
62 Moyo, ‘Political Economy’, 8.
63 A. De Jainvy, The Agrarian Question and Reformism in Latin America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1981), 384–385; M. Sachikonye, Inheriting the Earth: Land Reform in Southern Africa (London: Catholic Institute for International Relations, 2004), 5.
64 R. Attfield, J. Hattingh, and M. Matshabaphala, ‘Sustainable Development, Sustainable Livelihoods and Land Reform in South Africa: A Conceptual and Ethical Enquiry’, Third World Quarterly, 25, 2 (2004), 408–409.
65 C. Stoneman and T.A.S. Bowyer-Bower, ‘Land Reform’s Constraints and Prospects: Policies, Perspectives and Ideologies in Zimbabwe Today’, in T.A.S. Bowyer-Bower and C. Stoneham, eds, Land Reform in Zimbabwe: Constraints and Prospects (London: Ashgate, 2000), 1.
66 T.A.S. Bowyer-Bower, ‘Theory into Practice: Perspectives on Land Reform of the Farmers Union of Zimbabwe’, in C. Stoneham and T.A.S. Bowyer-Bower, eds, Land Reform in Zimbabwe: Constraints and Prospects (London: Ashgate, 2000), 56; Land Restitution in South Africa: Our Achievements and Challenges, 2003; https//www.land.pwv.gov.za/restitution/LAND, accessed 30 August 2012
67 R. Grover and M. Flores-Borquez, ‘Restitution and Land Markets’, Impact of New Land Law on Good Administration, Conference paper presented at the FIG May 21-27 2004 Working Week, Athens 1. Also available at https//www.fig.net/resources/proceedings/Athens/papers/ts17/TS171GroverFlores.pdf
68 B. De Villiers, ‘Land Reform: Issues and Challenges – A Comparative Overview of Experiences in Zimbabwe, Namibia, South Africa and Australia’, Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Occasional Paper, Johannesburg, 2003, 4.
69 Ibid., 10.
70 See, among others, R. Hall, ‘A Comparative Analysis of Land Reform in South Africa and Zimbabwe’, in M. Lee and K. Colvard, eds, Unfinished Business: The Land Crisis in Southern Africa (Pretoria: Africa Institute of South Africa, 2003), 262; T. Ka Plaatje, ‘Taking Matters Into Their Own Hands: The Indigenous African Response to the Land Crisis in South Africa, 1990–2001’, in Lee and Colvard, Unfinished Business, 301.
71 Schapera, ‘Native Land Problems in the Tati’, 233.
72 T. Roux, ‘Land Restitution and Reconciliation in South Africa’, paper presented at a special event on Transitional Justice in South Africa, University of Cambridge, 3–4 November 2006, 26.
73 Kobokobo, ‘Labour Migration’, 21.
74 T. Ka Plaatje, ‘Taking Matters’.
75 Kerven, ‘Underdevelopment and Class Formation’, 180; Kinlund, ‘Does Land Degradation Matter?’, 83–84, 223–225.
76 See Moyo, ‘Political Economy’, 6.
77 Kerven, ‘Underdevelopment and Class Formation’, 218.
78 Mogotsi, ‘Failure to Reclaim Lost Land’, 1, 9, 12.
79 Attfield et al., ‘Sustainable Development’, 410–411.
80 Ibid.
81 Lee and Colvard, ‘Introduction’, in Lee and Colvard, Unfinished Business, xi.
82 Ibid., xi.
83 W.H. West, ‘Land Tenure Policy and Management in English Speaking African Countries’, in L. Ngcongco, J. Arntzen and S.D. Turner, eds, Land Policy and Agriculture in Eastern and Southern Africa (Tokyo, United nations University, 1986), 1.
84 Land Restitution in South Africa: our Achievements and Challenges, 2003 http://www.land.pwv.gov.za/restitution/LAND, accessed 25 September 2012.
85 ‘Tati Company Stole our Land’, The Voice, 30 March 2007.
86 Ibid.
87 S. Jacobs, ‘Past Wrongs and Gender Rights: Issues and Conflicts in South Africa’s Land Reform’, The European Journal of Development Research, 10, 2 (1998), 71.
88 Lee and Colvard, ‘Introduction’, in Lee and Colvard, Unfinished Business, xii.
89 Ibid., xiv.
90 N. Thomas, ‘Land Reform in Zimbabwe’, Third World Quarterly, 24, 4 (2003), 694.
91 Attfield et al., ‘Sustainable Development’, 412.
92 Grover and Borquez , ‘Restitution and Land Markets’, 10.
93 M. Everyngham and C. Jannecke, ‘Land Restitution and Democratic Citizenship in South Africa’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 32, 3 (2006), 551.
94 See, among others, Jacobs, ‘Past Wrongs’, 71; Walker, ‘Limits of Land Reform’, 806; Everyngham and Jannecke, ‘Land Restitution’.
95 Roux, ‘Land Restitution’, 14.
96 Hall, ‘A Comparative Analysis’, 217.
97 Roux, ‘Land Restitution’, 14.
98 W. Morapedi, ‘Land Restitution and Communities of the North Eastern Botswana: The Role of History Today’, Working Paper presented at the History department seminar, University of Botswana, 26 September 2007; Manatsha, ‘Political Economy’, 150, 162.
99 Roux, ‘Land Restitution’, 16.
100 Ibid.
101 ‘Is CEDA Young Farmers Fund a Good Idea?’, The Gazette, 31 January–6 February 2007.
102 Ibid.
103 W. Morapedi, ‘ALDEP Re-designated ISPAAD: An Appraisal of Continued Stagnation of Crop Production in post-independence Botswana’, Botswana Notes and Records, 48 (2016), 291.