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

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.