Panel 133: The Question of Landownership in Post-Colonial African Development

Over the past few years, large-scale acquisitions of farmland by international investors in Africa have made headlines in media reports across the world. In Africa lands that only a short time ago seemed of little outside interest are now being sought by international investors to the tune of hundreds pf thousands of hectares. This is because as the world population is increasing food security is becoming one of the most challenging issues leading to a global scramble for lucrative farmlands. This high-stakes game of real-life monopoly of farmland is considered by observers as ‘neo-colonialism’. In other words, yesterday’s scramble for colonies in Africa is back in the shape of scramble for African lands.

What makes land a hot issue is that land is so central to identity, livelihoods and food security for the majority of the African peoples. The panel conceives of the land question as a political question concerning who owns and controls the country and it tries to compare the difficulties in realizing a more equitable distribution of land under different conditions in different African countries. The papers to be presented will counter-pose the consequences of the market based approach of the post-apartheid South African government with the land reform program of Ethiopia of 1975 as well as with policy of the present Ethiopian government. The post colonial situation in Zimbabwe will be compared with that in South Africa. The current land lease programs of different governments are assessed. In short, the panel will investigate the successes and failures of the policies of a number of African counties in the post-colonial period.