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2019 | Book

The Scramble for Land and Natural Resources in Africa Read chapter Read first chapter

Reclaiming Africa

Scramble and Resistance in the 21st Century

Editors: Sam Moyo, Praveen Jha, Dr. Paris Yeros

Publisher: Springer Singapore

Book Series : Advances in African Economic, Social and Political Development

Part of: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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About this book

This book presents the findings of research conducted by scholars and activists associated with the Agrarian South Network, based mainly in Africa, Asia and Latina America. The research articulates a Southern perspective on the “new scramble” for Africa, with a view to strengthen tri-continental solidarities. The book explains the significance of the new scramble in terms of the economic structures inherited from the late-nineteenth-century scramble and the subsequent post-independence period. The renewed competition for Africa’s land and natural resources and the resumption of economic growth at the turn of the millennium have revived concerns regarding the continent’s position in the world economy and the prospects for its development in the twenty-first century. In this regard, the book addresses two related issues: the character of the expansion of Southern competitors in relation to the more established Western strategies; and the impact of the renewed influx of investments in land, minerals, and associated infrastructure. The findings are presented with empirical rigor and conceptual clarity, to enable the reader to grasp what really is at stake in the twenty-first century – an epic struggle to reclaim Africa from the monopolies that exercise control over its land, minerals, labour, and destiny.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter

Introduction

Frontmatter
The Scramble for Land and Natural Resources in Africa
Abstract
This chapter explores the historical and systemic dynamics of the new scramble for Africa, as well as the current land-grabbing patterns and agents. It is argued that, despite the emergence of new competitors from the South, the key drivers of the scramble remain the Western monopolies and their state patrons, in the context of terminal systemic crisis and transition. It is also argued that the scramble has set off new structural tendencies on the continent, which are transforming Africa’s trajectory in the twenty-first century. The tendencies point towards a convergence of economic and social characteristics among the regions, within the overall trend of intensified marginalization and subordinate integration into the world economy. Yet, new forms of resistance have also emerged, from the local to the national and regional levels, which have made concrete and substantial advances, especially in Southern Africa.
Sam Moyo, Praveen Jha, Paris Yeros

New Competitors for Africa’s Land and Natural Resources

Frontmatter
Chinese Expansion in Africa in the Twenty-First Century: Characteristics and Impacts
Abstract
China’s new position in the international economy, and especially the rise of Sino-African commercial and financial relations, has contributed strongly to the improvement of macroeconomic conditions in Africa. Export volumes and export profits have increased, while investments and aid have created new opportunities. However, the new relationship has raised once again the fundamental question regarding African countries’ dependence on primary goods exports. This analyzes the general features of Chinese expansion in Africa in the first decade of the twenty-first century, focusing on China’s foreign policy towards Africa, the new commercial and financial relations, and their impact on socioeconomic trends and structural change in Africa.
Valéria Lopes Ribeiro
South Africa and the New Scramble: The Demise of Sub-imperialism and the Rise of the East
Abstract
This chapter argues that South Africa today cannot be considered a sub-imperialist state, despite its economic weight in Africa and Southern Africa, in particular. The question is how South Africa’s relationship with Northern states and its African neighbours is changing in its reorientation to the East. The chapter discusses the different theoretical conceptions applied to South Africa, before assessing South Africa’s historical and current power across the region and continent, empirically and historically. It is argued that South Africa has undergone transformations that are distinct from other semi-peripheral states. Furthermore, it is argued that the declining importance of the North and the creation of new networks of accumulation orienting the region and South Africa towards the East present new tendencies and conceptual anomalies.
William G. Martin
The Scramble for Africa’s Agricultural Land: A Note on India’s Excursus
Abstract
This chapter maps the scope and extent of transnational land acquisitions and investments in Africa by Indian entities. It also establishes the links between such investments and State policy, both, of the host and destination countries. In order to bring out the broader implications associated with the ongoing scramble, the chapter uses the example of three nations with a high concentration of Indian investments, namely Ethiopia, Mozambique and Tanzania. The impact of land investments on the livelihoods and accelerated process of semi-proletarianisation of the peasants, particularly the small farmers is also discussed in the chapter.
Praveen Jha, Archana Prasad, Santosh Verma, Nilachala Acharya
Brazil’s Re-encounter with Africa: The Externalization of Domestic Contradictions
Abstract
This chapter traces Brazil’s Africa policy as a function of its changing position in the world economy and the trajectory of its internal contradictions. It is argued that the country’s policy towards Africa is an expression of the evolution of its own settler capitalism and its articulation with monopoly capital and finance. Brazil’s postwar transition, marked by conservative agrarian modernization, dependent industrialization and recent deindustrialization, has seen the rapid, systematic and violent expulsion of the black majority from the countryside, with universal suffrage only being established as late as the 1980s. This set the stage for a new set of contradictions that have left their mark in domestic and foreign policy alike. In its recent re-encounter with Africa, Brazil has been externalizing a set of domestic contradictions that are most clearly manifest in its conflicted approach to agricultural cooperation. The chapter outlines the main instruments and policies of cooperation in agriculture, as well as the general trends in economic relations.
Paris Yeros, Vitor E. Schincariol, Thiago Lima da Silva

National Experiences in West, East & Southern Africa

Frontmatter
Land Grabbing, a Virus in the Fruit of Food Sovereignty in West Africa: A Case Study from ‘Office du Niger’ Zone in Mali
Abstract
Major challenges have emerged in recent years in Mali, related to land governance, access to and securing of land for family farms, and, most significantly, the appropriation of land by private national and international companies in areas with high agricultural potential. These challenges are related, more generally, to the current trends in the privatization of agricultural land in Mali. Land legislation has been under reform in Mali for diverse purposes, aiming to promote land registration, do away with public estate land, recognize customary rights in their diversity, as well as to promote the decentralization of land management through the creation of local land institution. Yet, in the context of the appropriation of large tracts of land, particularly in irrigated and irrigable areas, to private international and local players, the more progressive aspects of the legislative reforms may be marginalized under the weight of land grabs and land speculation. This chapter begins with some conceptual issues related to sustainable natural resource management, before focusing on the land question in Mali and the specific case of land appropriation in the Office du Niger (ON) zone.
Mamadou Goïta
The Scramble for Agricultural Land in Senegal: Land Privatisation and Inclusion?
Abstract
The purpose of this chapter is to examine whether land grabbing, as a set of principles and a system of actors, has the capacity to act as a lever for development. The first objective is to highlight and discuss the foundations and challenges of the land issue. Second, taking as a starting point the contradictions linked to the plurality of legal systems governing land and the conflicts they generate, this chapter questions the role of public policies and land policies in the agricultural land rush in Senegal. Third, a political economy of land grabbing/acquisition in Senegal is presented. This makes it possible to identify stakeholders, estimate land use between 2006 and 2010, draw up a typology of investment projects and provisionally assess their initial impacts on economic, social and environmental development in Senegal.
Abdourahmane Ndiaye
Land-Based Investments in Tanzania: Legal Framework and Realities on the Ground
Abstract
Tanzania experienced a severe socio-economic crisis in the 1970s and 1980s. In an attempt to turn things around and accelerate economic growth, the government embarked on a broad range of policy, legislation, and institution reforms, which opened doors for foreign direct investments (FDIs). Further initiatives have been taken to create an enabling environment for investments to flourish in the country. This chapter provides highlights and an analysis of the legal framework governing investment in Tanzania, discusses the context of investment within the existing legal framework, provides an overview of land acquisition procedures and gives analysis of some land deals. The findings show that mixed procedures, some of which are not guided by laws, are currently used to acquire land for investment in Tanzania. Moreover, land acquisition and compensation practices are poor and have flaws in the way community consultations are carried out.
Godfrey Eliseus Massay, Telemu Kassile
Accumulation by Dispossession and Resistance in Uganda
Abstract
This chapter explores the dynamics of escalating large-scale land acquisitions in Uganda, their impact on the agrarian social structure and their underlying political and social struggles. In so doing, it seeks to shed light on the drivers, agents and implications of large-scale land enclosures, as well as the related social struggles, which have all been amplified by neo-liberalism. It enquires into why and how land enclosures are occurring in Uganda, as well as the ways in which everyday struggles are shaped by, and are shaping, the mechanisms for uneven capitalist development. Framing land struggles at the core of social analysis illuminates the relational character of accumulation, dispossession and resistance.
Giuliano Martiniello
Customary Land in Zambia: The New Scramble and the Evolving Socio-political Relations
Abstract
Over the last two decades, the demand for land in Africa has increased dramatically, due to various factors including population growth, growing interest in farm land from both foreign and local investors, the steady economic growth experienced over the last decade and half. These factors have created immense pressure on the available land resources, especially in areas surrounding major towns and cities, and areas close to developed social and economic infrastructure. In most African countries, the growing pressure on land is directed towards customary land which still constitute the largest portion of the land. In Zambia, as in many other countries, the growing demand for land has brought the policy and practice of converting customary land into leasehold tenure (privatisation) into the spotlight. While this policy is part of the Zambian government’s economic growth and rural development strategy (of ‘opening up’ the countryside to investors), there are huge challenges that this is creating. This paper examines the power relations around customary land in the context of the growing demand for land. The paper argues that the changing power and social relations raise serious questions about the future of customary land and the social fabric of rural communities.
Horman Chitonge
Land and Natural Resources in Zimbabwe: Scramble and Resistance
Abstract
This chapter examines the contemporary scramble by capital for the control of Zimbabwe’s land, natural resources and minerals, in light of three policies that have been elaborated and put into practice especially since 2000: the Fast-Track Land Reform Programme, the Indigenisation Policy and the Look East Policy. The chapter analyses the state-led restructuring of capital and the diversification of foreign investments under the weight of sanctions and destabilisation, as well as the promotion of accumulation strategies from below and by domestic elites. The contradictions of these processes are highlighted and their impact on the evolution of national policy and strategy. The various forms of resistance are also brought to the fore, including at the local level and at the level of regional and larger policy.
Sam Moyo, Walter Chambati, Paris Yeros

Conclusion

Frontmatter
Whither Africa in the Global South? Lessons of Bandung and Pan-Africanism
Abstract
This chapter traces the trajectories of the Bandung and Pan-Africanist projects to assess the present conjuncture. It is argued that Bandung and Pan-Africanism were, first and foremost, political projects, not subservient to economics. They were ideological rallying points providing vision, hope and dignity to the struggling peoples of the periphery. They were also anti-imperialist in their conception and development, seeking to provide an alternative to imperialist integration. Yet, they were led by bourgeois forces which failed to install an auto-centric development path, and this proved to be their failure as peoples’ projects. The bourgeoisies in Asia and the proto-bourgeoisies in Africa were eventually compradorised, and thus yielding the BRICS and NEPAD projects of today, both integrationist and both subject to the logic of primitive accumulation.
Issa G. Shivji
Metadata
Title
Reclaiming Africa
Editors
Sam Moyo
Praveen Jha
Dr. Paris Yeros
Copyright Year
2019
Publisher
Springer Singapore
Electronic ISBN
978-981-10-5840-0
Print ISBN
978-981-10-5839-4
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5840-0