Donor funding weakened Barabaig land-rights movement in Tanzania

From the 1960s to the 1990s, Barabaig pastoralists in Hanang District of Arusha Region, Tanzania, sustained a vibrant grassroots social movement that agitated to reclaim the grazing land from which they had been removed under Tanzania’s post-independence nationalisation programme. This land had been taken over for development of parastatal wheat farms. However, by the year 2000, the movement had largely fizzled out, even though many of its goals remained unmet.

In the paper “International donor funding and social movement demobilization: the Barabaig land-rights movement in Tanzania” (published in 2019 in Africa Today 66(1): 73–95), Kristin McKie analyses why such a long-standing land-rights movement was weakened. She argues the leaders’ pursuit of foreign donor funds depoliticised the social movement’s goals and separated the leaders from their base. This caused rank-and-file members to feel alienated and led to demobilisation of the movement.

She recommends that, instead of funding social movements in ways that alienate the leaders from their base, international donors can support such movements indirectly, e.g. by countering attempts by governments and corporations to delegitimise or repress social movements, by providing support to ombudspersons tasked with upholding human and civil rights, and by adapting grant-giving and reporting practices to align better with social movements’ long-term time horizons, including establishing trust funds controlled by local organisations.

Posted on 19 March 2024 in Pastoralism, Mobility & Land Tenure, Pastoralism, Policy & Power