Land Grabbing Imperils Sub-Saharan African Youths´ Access to their Own Lands

---

---

---

---

---

Since the global food price hikes in 2007-2008, several and often wealthier actors have headed for lands in the global South in what is now referred to in scholarship on land access as land grabbing ^{1 2} . In the past, similar land grabs were orchestrated under inhuman and heinous flagships of war, imperialism and colonialism. These led to in lots of bloodshed and structural disorientation.

Such pathways are openly frowned upon in the modern world. Consequently, land grabbing have evolved to assume more latent and fluid pathways. It however remains structurally disruptive as ever. Land reforms as well as narratives of globalisation and economic development have become the new flagships for land grabbing, with some obtuse international organisations as its main flag bearers ^3 4.

In my previous post, I emphasize the scale of land grabbing in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and the actors involved, including oil rich nations (Saudi Arabia and the UAE), the USA, Europe and private multinational corporations. Their current conquests in SSA, an area of the United Kingdom can be disaggregated to include: smallholder farms (36%), forests (29%) and commercial farms (26%) all of which have been converted into large-scale biofuel and crop land⁵. Corruption prone Sub-Saharan Africa is the destination of choice for land grabbers, with (and in descending order): South Sudan, Mozambique, Liberia, Ghana, Ethiopia and Congo among the top 10 land grab nations (Fig. 1).

Conservative estimates show that current land grabs have displaced 12 million rural livelihoods ⁶ and caused severe social, cultural and political challenges. Marginalised groups have been displaced and their vulnerability deepened. To adapt, many have no option but to migrate, explaining the recent spikes in rural-urban migration in several SSA countries ^{7 8 9} . The situation is also documented as a contributor to the global immigration crisis . However, land grabbers do not seem puzzled at all. Rather, they have often used the counterfactual as a basis to hoard more lands.

One stakeholder group that will mostly bear the brunt of land grabbing is youths in land grabbed nations. Recent works by the UN and several development agencies reveal that youth population in Sub-Saharan Africa and its associated unemployment will skyrocket in the next couple of decades ^{10 12}. Agriculture has the potential to create jobs ¹¹ and ensure that SSA transforms the coming youth bloom and its associated labour supply to attain a population dividend ¹² and thus, put it on a path of economic development. However, land grabbing imperils the chances of SSA youth to engage in agriculture. Among other factors, most of current land grabs are predominantly arable and forest lands in Africa’s most productive regions ⁵ (Fig. 2).

In a recent global study, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) found that poor access to land is a major barrier for SSA youth’s entry into agriculture ^11 13. The situation is not helped by the recent commodification of land as part of land reforms narrative used for land grabbing. Such narratives and practices are largely rooted in ruthless forms of modern capitalism. It favors the wealthy and disenfranchises weak. In this context, it enriches wealthier external actors and deprives young African’s access to land -a crucial livelihood asset for wealth creation.

Land grabbing narratives undervalue land (natural capital) and give precedent to money (financial capital). However, land is neither merely about demand and supply nor the power of markets to the African. Land is an African’s right. It is the foundation of his livelihood. It is his heritage. It is the blood that flows through his veins and keeps him alive. Even in death, land is to him a reincarnated soul that lives forever in his children. The legacy of generations before him and one to be bequeathed to those after him. The current paradigm is haemorrhaging the African’s blood, killing his immortal soul and undermining his legacy to the next generation.

The current paradigms truly makes a mockery of our global aspirations to reduce inequalities. If anything at all, land commodification and its resulting land grabbing promotes, reinforces and protects inequality because it deprives SSA youths, a marginalised group, of an opportunity to access land – a vital livelihood asset- and a shot at developing it to reduce their vulnerability³.

Let’s face it -and to borrow a famous economic saying- “all things being equal”, what chance does an average SSA youth have in competing with his peer in the West to buy a unit of land in Europe or the USA? The answer is a very simple one. ZERO. What about the opposite? Definitely better than zero because of differences in purchase power and levels of economic development. If the average SSA youth cannot compete with his peer from the West for land, how would he be able to compete with nations and multinational corporations for the same resource? If we continue with business-as-usual, we are largely on track to entrench inequality, and we might as well redefine SDG 10 to read as such. We cannot continue to treat land as commodity. Rather we need to recognise land for what it truly is in the African context -a right to be accessed for the empowerment and economic liberation of generations. If do not do this, youths of SSA will have no chance of accessing their birthright. As things stand, SSA youths´ birthright is being taken for granted.

The question then to us, SSA youth is; what are we going to do about it?
Are we going to loiter while we lose our heritage and get impoverished in our motherland? Or will we rise, empower ourselves and work to safeguard our heritage? Will we choose to be silenced with peanuts? Or will we speak up to demand transparency and accountability in how our lands are administered? Will we choose to sit in our comfort zones and become the architects of our own demise? Or we will take charge, push boundaries, invest in and harness the potential our lands present to transform us into leaders in the emerging bio-economy?

A great novelist once wrote: “Land is the only thing in the world worth working for, worth fighting for, worth dying for, because it’s the only thing that lasts” ¹⁴.

Land is the only thing in the world worth working for, worth fighting for, worth dying for, because it’s the only thing that lasts.

Margaret Mitchell, 1936

Over to us, Sub-Sahara African Youths!

I would be glad to know your thoughts in the comments section (below).

---

Bibliography

¹ Hall, R., Edelman, M., Borras, S. M., Scoones, I., White, B., & Wolford, W. (2015). Resistance, acquiescence or incorporation? An introduction to land grabbing and political reactions ‘from below.’ Journal of Peasant Studies, 42(3–4), 467–488.

²Peluso, N. L., & Lund, C. (2011). New frontiers of land control: Introduction. Journal of Peasant Studies, 38(4), 667–681.

³Rosset, P. (2011). Food sovereignty and alternative paradigms to confront land grabbing and the food and climate crises. Development, 54(1), 21–30.

⁴Sassen, S. (2013). Land Grabs Today : Feeding the Disassembling of National Territory, 10(1), 25–46.

⁵ Nolte, K., Chamberlain, W., & Giger, M. (2016). International Land Deals for Agriculture Fresh insights from the Land Matrix: Analytical Report II. Bern, Montpellier, Hamburg, Pretoria.

⁶Davis, K. F., D’Odorico, P., & Rulli, M. C. (2014). Land grabbing: a preliminary quantification of economic impacts on rural livelihoods. Population and Environment, 36(2), 180–192.

⁷De Schutter, O. (2011). How not to think of land-grabbing: Three critiques of large-scale investments in farmland. Journal of Peasant Studies, 38(2), 249–279.

⁸Mutopo, P. (2011). Women’s struggles to access and control land and livelihoods after fast track land reform in Mwenezi District, Zimbabwe. Journal of Peasant Studies, 38(5), 1021–1046.

⁹Nyantakyi-Frimpong, H., & Kerr, R. B. (2017). Land grabbing , social differentiation , intensified migration and food security in northern Ghana. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 44(2), 421–444.

¹⁰UN (2015). Population Facts. UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs Population Division. UN: New York.

¹¹FAO. (2014). Youth and Agriculture: Key challenges and concrete solutions. Food and Agriculture Organisation: Rome.

¹²Canning, D., Raja, S., & Yazbeck, A. S. (2015). Africa’s Demographic Transition: Dividend or Disaster. World Bank. Washington, DC.

¹³FAO (2017). The Future of Food and Agriculture Trends and Challenges. FAO: Rome.

¹⁴Mitchell, M. 1936. Gone with the Wind. Macmillan Publishers: USA.