Forms of peasant agricultural cooperatives in Uganda: a case study in Lango

This study set out to investigate the extent to which the character of the forms of capital that penetrated the Uganda economy in general, and Lango in particular, has contributed to the reproduction of non-capitalist forms of peasant co-operatives in agriculture within the context of the development of the state-regulated form of peasant cooperatives; and how the interaction between the two resulted in contradictions that overtime led to social differentiation in Lango social formations. The basic assumption of the study is that the character of capital that penetrated Lango society resulted in the transformation/subjugation of forms of peasant co-operative organizations it articulated with, to the degree that their autonomy have largely been compromised in the interest of capital; and that the character of both the colonial and post-colonial state greatly impacted on the trends of the development of peasant co-operatives in Uganda as a whole and Lango in particular. The result of the findings basically confirms these assumptions. It reveals that there exist a dynamic interactions or articulation of production relations between non-capitalist and capitalist forms. And that within this articulation process the pre-capitalist non-state regulated forms of peasant co-operatives, although still surviving in the countryside, do so in form and not content. The analysis shows that massive state assistance to the state-regulated co-operative has been linked with corresponding state control and patronage. And that this overbearing and improper state influence has not only retarded the autonomous and successful development of the co-operative organization but has also contributed to the low participation of members in co-operative affairs. Consequently, the peasants have largely lost control over the state-regulated co-operative organization to the state. On the basis of these findings the study concludes that a broad and popular democratization reform process whose basis is the changing of production relations and the attainment of social transformation be considered. The study recognizes the centrality of peasant co-operatives within this democratization process. It argues for the transformation of marketing-based state-regulated cooperatives into both production-based and marketing-based (popular) peasant co-operatives. This in turn ought to be linked with the non-state regulated production based cooperatives. The ultimate objective in the linkage should be the transformation of the productive forces in peasant agriculture which today are based on these non-state regulated forms of peasant co-operative organization.