Reclaiming Africa: Scramble and Resistance in the 21st Century PDF
Preview Reclaiming Africa: Scramble and Resistance in the 21st Century
Advances in African Economic, Social and Political Development Sam Moyo Praveen Jha Editors Paris Yeros Reclaiming Africa Scramble and Resistance in the 21st Century Advances in African Economic, Social and Political Development Series editors DierySeck,CREPOL—CenterforResearchonPoliticalEconomy,Dakar,Senegal Juliet U. Elu, Morehouse College, Atlanta, USA Yaw Nyarko, New York University, New York, USA Africa is emerging as a rapidly growing region, still facing major challenges, but with a potential for significant progress—a transformation that necessitates vigorous efforts in research and policy thinking. This book series focuses on three intricatelyrelatedkeyaspectsofmodern-dayAfrica:economic,socialandpolitical development. Making use of recent theoretical and empirical advances, the series aims to provide fresh answers to Africa’s development challenges. All the socio-political dimensions of today’s Africa are incorporated as they unfold and newpolicyoptionsarepresented.Theseriesaimstoprovideabroadandinteractive forum of science at work for policymaking and to bring together African and international researchers and experts. The series welcomes monographs and contributed volumes for an academic and professional audience, as well as tightly edited conference proceedings. Relevant topics include, but are not limited to, economicpolicyandtrade,regionalintegration,labormarketpolicies,demographic development, social issues, political economy and political systems, and environ- mental and energy issues. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11885 Sam Moyo Praveen Jha (cid:129) Paris Yeros Editors Reclaiming Africa Scramble and Resistance in the 21st Century 123 Editors SamMoyo Paris Yeros African Institute for Agrarian Studies Federal University of ABC Harare, Zimbabwe São Bernardo doCampo, São Paulo, Brazil Praveen Jha Centrefor Economic Studies andPlanning Jawaharlal Nehru University NewDelhi, India ISSN 2198-7262 ISSN 2198-7270 (electronic) Advances in AfricanEconomic, Social andPoliticalDevelopment ISBN978-981-10-5839-4 ISBN978-981-10-5840-0 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5840-0 LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2018950205 ©SpringerNatureSingaporePteLtd.2019 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpart of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission orinformationstorageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilar methodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publicationdoesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexemptfrom therelevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authorsortheeditorsgiveawarranty,expressorimplied,withrespecttothematerialcontainedhereinor for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictionalclaimsinpublishedmapsandinstitutionalaffiliations. ThisSpringerimprintispublishedbytheregisteredcompanySpringerNatureSingaporePteLtd. Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:152BeachRoad,#21-01/04GatewayEast,Singapore189721, Singapore To Sam, Teacher, comrade, brother, friend. A luta continua! Preface ReclaimingAfricaistheresultofatri-continentalresearchprojectlaunchedin2011 by the Agrarian South Network (ASN), by the initiative of Sam Moyo. This is the third work in a series which began with Reclaiming the Land (2005) and Reclaiming the Nation (2011), thus bringing to fruition a trilogy which has given shape to the tri-continental trajectory of what has become ASN. This effort has evolved together with the principal activities of the network, namely the annual Agrarian Summer School, begun in 2009 at the African Institute for Agrarian Studies,inHarare,andtheAgrarianSouth:JournalofPoliticalEconomy,founded in 2012, both also tri-continental in character. Thefocusofthisbookonlandgrabs andthescramblefornaturalresourceshas beendebatedoverseveralsummerschools.Itwasmadethemainthemeofthe2011 SummerSchoolandcontinuestobediscussedinthesubsequentsessionsinrelation to diverse themes, such as land and agrarian reform, the peasantry, social move- ments,genderandlabour.This,therefore,hasbeenoneofthemostbasicconcerns in the intellectual evolution of ASN. And it could not be otherwise, given the intensity of land grabbing on the continent today, as well as the history of the scramble for Africa, which saw major land appropriations by European settlers. Theprojecthashadalonggestationperiod.Delayssuchasthishaveoftentodo with inadequate funding, but unfortunately, this was not the real cause. In November 2015, we lost Sam in a tragic traffic accident in New Delhi, during a conference held at Jawaharlal Nehru University. Sam had always been the vital forceofASN,havingconceiveditandtoiledunderdifficultcircumstancestobring us all together and put us on the right track. He has now bequeathed this great treasure to us, for which we must show our gratitude by continuing the cause and taking it to a new level. After a period of mourning, we relaunched the book and have now brought it to a close. We are especially pleased to be publishing two chapters which Sam had drafted as lead author, Chap. 1, the Introduction, and Chap. 11 on the experience of Zimbabwe. The book is composed of two parts. Part I focuses on the new competitors for Africa’s land and natural resources, the so-called emerging countries, including China, South Africa, India and Brazil, whose role has been subject to much vii viii Preface debate andcontroversy.PartIIisdevotedtonationalexperiencesoflandgrabbing, includingbytheweightierandmoreestablishedscramblersoftheNorth,aswellas of experiences of resistance. Two countries are represented from each of the three regions, namely West, East and Southern Africa, including Mali, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The book includes an introduction by the editors and a conclusion by Issa Shivji. We are grateful to the (renamed) Sam Moyo African Institute for Agrarian Studies for the moral and material support provided throughout this trying endeavour. We also express our gratitude to the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa for the financial support provided to the 2011 Summer School; to our publisher, Springer, and its entire team for their kind patience; and to the contributing authors for their solidarity and perseverance. Overview of the Chapters TheintroductorychapterbySamMoyo,PraveenJhaandParisYeros,entitled‘The Scramble for Land and Natural Resources in Africa’, explores the historical and systemic dynamics of the new scramble for Africa and the current land grabbing patterns and agents. It is argued that, despite the emergence of new competitors fromtheSouth,thekeydriversofthescrambleremaintheWesternmonopoliesand their state patrons, in the course of the systemic crisis. It is also argued that the scramble has set off new structural tendencies on the continent which are trans- formingAfrica’strajectoryinthetwenty-firstcentury.Thetendenciespointtowards aconvergenceofeconomicandsocialcharacteristicsamongtheregions,withinthe overall trend of intensified marginalization and subordinate integration of the continent into the world economy. Nonetheless, 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. Chapter 2, by Valéria Lopes Ribeiro, entitled ‘Chinese Expansion in Africa in the21stCentury:CharacteristicsandImpacts’,arguesthatChina’snewpositionin the international economy, and especially the rise of Sino-African commercial and financial relations, has contributed to the improvement of macroeconomic condi- tions in Africa. Export volumes and export profits have increased, while invest- ments and aid have created new opportunities. However, the new relationship has raised once again the fundamental question regarding African countries’ depen- dence on primary goods exports. Ribeiro analyses the general features of Chinese expansion in Africa in the first decade of the twenty-first century, focusing on China’s new commercial and financial relations with Africa and their impact on socio-economic trends and structural change on the continent. Chapter3,byWilliamG.Martin,entitled‘SouthAfricaandtheNewScramble: TheDemiseofSub-imperialismandtheRiseoftheEast’,arguesthatSouthAfrica today cannot be considered a sub-imperialist state, despite its economic weight in Africa, and Southern Africa in particular. The question, Martin argues, is how Preface ix South Africa’s relationship with Northern states and its African neighbours is changing in its reorientation to the East. The chapter discusses the different theo- retical conceptions applied to South Africa before assessing South Africa’s his- torical and current power across the region and the 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 accumu- lation orienting the region and South Africa towards the East present new ten- dencies and conceptual anomalies. Chapter 4, by Praveen Jha, Archana Prasad, Santosh Verma and Nilachala Acharya,entitled‘TheScrambleforAfrica’sAgriculturalLand:ANoteonIndia’s Excursus’, 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, for both the host and the destination countries. In order to bring out the broader implications associated with the ongoing scramble, the authors refer to the experiences of three nations with a high concentration of Indian investments, namely Ethiopia, Mozambique and Tanzania. The authors discusstheimpactsoflandinvestmentsonthelivelihoodsonsmallholdersandthe accelerated process of marginalization of the peasantry. Chapter 5, by Paris Yeros, Vitor E. Schincariol and Thiago Lima da Silva, entitled ‘Brazil’s Re-encounter with Africa: The Externalization of Domestic Contradictions’,tracesBrazil’sAfrica policy asafunctionofits changingposition in the world economy and the trajectory of its internal contradictions. It is argued thatthecountry’spolicytowardsAfricaisanexpressionoftheevolutionofitsown settler capitalism and its articulation with monopoly capital and finance. Brazil’s post-war transition, marked by conservative agrarian modernization, dependent industrialization and recent de-industrialization, saw the rapid, systematic and violent expulsion of the Black majority from the countryside, with universal suf- frageonlybeingestablishedaslateasthe1980s.Thissetthestageforanewsetof contradictionsthathavelefttheirmarkindomesticandforeignpoliciesalike.Inits recent re-encounter with Africa, Brazil has been externalizing a set of domestic contradictions that are most clearly manifested in its conflicted approach to agri- cultural cooperation. The chapter outlines the main instruments and policies of cooperation in agriculture, as well as the general trends in economic relations. Chapter 6, by Mamadou Goïta, entitled ‘Land Grabbing, a Virus in the Fruit of Food Sovereignty in West Africa: A Case Study from “Office du Niger” Zone in Mali’, presents the major challenges that have emerged in recent years in Mali, related to land governance, access to and securing of land for smallholder farmers and, most significantly, the appropriation of land by private national and interna- tional companies in areas with high agricultural potential. These challenges are related,moregenerally,tothecurrenttrendsintheprivatizationofagriculturalland 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 customaryrightsintheirdiversity,aswellastopromotethedecentralizationofland managementthroughthecreationoflocallandinstitution.Yet,inthecontextofthe x Preface appropriationoflargetracts ofland,particularlyinirrigatedandirrigableareas,by private international and local players, the more progressive aspects of the leg- islative reforms may be marginalized under the weight of land grabs and land speculation. The chapter begins with some conceptual issues related to sustainable naturalresourcemanagement before focusingontheland question inMali andthe specific case of land appropriation in the Office du Niger (ON) zone. Chapter 7, by Abdourahmane Ndiaye, entitled ‘The Scramble for Agricultural Land in Senegal: Land Privatization and Inclusion?’, considers whether land grabbing,asasetofprinciplesandasystemofactors,hasthecapacitytooperateas a lever for development. The first aim is to bring forward and discuss the foun- dationsandchallengesofthelandquestion.Second,takingasthepointofdeparture the contradictions linked to the plurality of legal systems governing land and the conflicts they generate, Ndiaye questions the role of public policies and land policies in the scramble for agricultural land in Senegal. Third, the details of land acquisitionsinSenegalarepresented.Theanalysismakesitpossibletoassessland utilizationbetween2006and2010,map outatypologyofinvestmentprojects and evaluate tentatively their early impacts on economic, social and environmental developments in Senegal. Chapter 8, by Godfrey Eliseus Massay and Telemu Kassile, entitled ‘Land-Based Investments in Tanzania: Legal Framework and Realities on the Ground’, focuses on the socio-economic crisis that Tanzania experienced in the 1970sand1980s.Itisarguedthat,inanattempttoturnthingsaroundandaccelerate economic growth, the government embarked on a broad range of policies, legis- lations and institutional reforms, which opened the doors for foreign direct investment. Further initiatives have been taken to create a more open 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 contextofinvestmentwithintheexistinglegalframework,providesanoverviewof landacquisitionproceduresandgivesananalysisofsomeland deals.Thefindings 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 consulta- tions are carried out. Chapter 9, by Giuliano Martiniello, entitled ‘Accumulation by Dispossession and Resistance in Uganda’, explores the dynamics of escalating large-scale land acquisitions in Uganda, their impact on the agrarian social structure and their underlyingpoliticalandsocialstruggles.Indoingso,Martinielloshedslightonthe drivers,agentsandimplicationsoflarge-scalelandenclosures,aswellastherelated social struggles, which have all been amplified by neoliberalism. The chapter enquiresintowhyandhowlandenclosuresareoccurringinUganda,aswellasthe waysinwhicheverydaystrugglesareshapedby,andareshaping,themechanisms for uneven capitalist development. Framing land struggles at the core of social analysis, Martiniello argues, serves to illuminate the relational character of accu- mulation, dispossession and resistance.
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