Land shortage, social change, and social conflict in East Africa

Abstract

Social conflict to some degree is inevitable in any society for it is inconceivable that in the real world the whole network of social roles and relationships and the ideas and values associated with them should be so well adjusted that conflict is removed. Utopia remains a literary and political dream. In situations of rapid social change the degree of conflict is likely to be greater for many of the established modes of mutual adjustment and resolution of conflict are upset as new roles or new conceptions of old roles emerge, as older beliefs, attitudes, and ideas are challenged by new ones and new techniques are introduced. In these circumstances conflict may appear in any area of social life.1 In this paper it is intended to concentrate on one single factor currently causing change and conflict in East Africa: that is, the growing shortage of agricultural land in rural country which results principally from a rapidly increasing population, but also in part from a greater demand for land for new economic purposes (e.g., the growing of cash crops) and from new techniques permitting individuals to work larger areas (e.g., the introduction of the plough).