Maravi

(HERALD) Land reform unlocks growth potential

Land reform unlocks growth potential
By Sifelani Tsiko

NOT long ago, someone asked the question, "Where are the African intellectuals?" The question did prick my interest, especially given how Europe and America’s secret societies or intelligentsia have been peddling fiercely underneath for decades in an attempt to address what the nations of European stock suffer from — basic insecurity complex.

Europe and America’s intelligentsia has been instrumental in the generation of knowledge for the exploitation of Africa’s resources — material and intellectual. The legacy of Nkrumah and other eminent African scholars of his time should be instructive and educative to Africans today.

His prophetic speeches and warnings on Africa’s future continue to be relevant more than 50 years after he led Ghana to its independence.

"The methods of neo-colonialism are economic control, in the form of aid, loans, trade and banking, the stranglehold of indigenous economies through the vast interlocking corporations, ideological expansion through the mass media, and through collective imperialism," wrote Kwame Nkrumah in his book, Class Struggle in Africa.

This is the history they don’t want us to know. What is preventing Africa from reaching its full potential as a richly endowed continent and people? What has been the contribution of the African and Africanist academia in this trajectory? What contributions have academia made to Africa’s agrarian and rural development?

What are the lessons from this engagement? How can we bridge the gap between academia and policy formulation in Africa? Is there space for academia to contribute? What are some of the spaces? The questions rage on.

What is eclipsing African pride and the African spirit preventing it from awakening from the slumber of divisions, ravaged historical memory and a recollection starved of the African abilities and potential?

How do Africans free themselves from the malignancy of low self esteem, perpetual dependency on the West, lack of pride in African values and history and the sad episode of stereotypes that undermine African intellectual potential?

These were some of the questions that underlined the deliberations of a conference on Agrarian and Rural Development in Africa which was held recently in Harare under the theme: "Rethinking and Reconnecting Academia in Africa’s Agrarian and Rural Development."

The conference which attracted radical European scholars and Africa’s academia encapsulated the role of the Africa’s intelligentsia in the struggle to generate knowledge that would free Africans from the crippling mental poverty and help them realise and tap on the vast possibilities and abilities that exist on this vast continent of more than one billion people.

It was clear from the presentations that Zimbabwe’s land reform was a success despite the myths and misconceptions about the exercise which has never happened anywhere in Africa.

It is significant to note that the conference was attended by Prof Kjell Havnevik from the Nordic Africa Institute (NAI), Prof Lionel Cliffe formerly with the University of Leeds, Prof Robin Palmer — a global land rights policy specialist, Prof Ian Scoones of the University of Sussex, Prof Gunilla Bjeren — Stockholm University, Marie Widengard — Swedish University among other scholars drawn from Europe.

African academics included Prof Lungisile Ntsebeza (South Africa), Sam Maghimbi (Tanzania), Dr Rodney Lunduka (Malawi), Dr Melaku Bekele (Ethiopia), Matongo Mundia (Zambia), Festus Boamah (Ghana), Dr Atakile Beyene (Ethiopia), Dr Marcel Rutten (Kenya), Dr Gessesse Dessie (Ethiopia), several Africa PhD students studying land and agriculture in some European universities.

Zimbabwean academics included Prof Mandivamba Rukuni, Prof Sam Moyo, Dr Godfrey Kanyenze, Prof Rudo Gaidzanwa, Dr Gaynor Paradza, Walter Chambati, Dr Prosper Matondi, Patricia Masanganise, Prof Themba Khombe, Dr Chrispen Sukume, and Dr Rudo Sanyanga among others.

Prof Ntsebeza gave the keynote address and challenged African intellectuals to conduct research that could make a difference to livelihoods of the poor on the continent.

He said few people have really benefited from agrarian reforms while a large number of people on the continent continue to be disenfranchised from new land grabs by large multinationals in the name of investment.

"New jobs in the manufacturing sector are not coming up and people are no longer able to sustain themselves," he said.

"The majority have been robbed of the means of production. In Africa, the majority are landless and land has been alienated from the indigenous."

He proposed a radical agrarian transformation to redistribute land to the poor.

"There are disagreements on land issues. The issue is not about land but bio-politics (land grabs for biofuels versus land needs for the poor). The land remains critical to the rural poor," he said.

Prof Moyo, a land and agrarian expert said critics needed to understand African in its diversity and not to look at agrarian issues as formulated by Europeans. Africa, he said, need to take practical steps to arrest the process of land alienation.

"We need to pursue major land redistribution to resolve the agrarian question," he said.

"There are many who question how the African land reform discourse as it is being held here today has been organised. They argue that it is not grounded in the African intelligentsia, the broad spectrum of experts and social movements of those seeking land.

"In this context it is crucial to be clear on what basis we come to identify controversy or consensus over the land reform debate." — Prof Cliffe, in his presentation titled: "Perspective on Africa’s Agrarian Processes — Contributions of Africanists" urged African academics to re-examine the paradigm in which they think about land issues and interrogate the "the pseudo-science of land use planning" as prescribed by western scholars.

Prof Palmer's paper explored the history of global land grabbing and land rights in Africa as well as present practices in land grabbing by multinationals on the continent.

His paper was thought-provoking "Would Cecil Rhodes have signed a Code of Conduct? Reflections on global land grabbing and land rights in Africa, past and present."

He expressed concern over the corrupt manner in which multinationals were grabbing land for biofuels development in Mozambique, Ethiopia, Sudan and other African countries with false promises that the investments would create jobs and boost wealth. Instead, he said, this has led to loss of valuable farm land for the poor.

"Land grabbing by South Africa in Africa," a paper by Dr Ruth Hall exposed how AgriSA — a commercial farmers union grouping of mostly rich Afrikaners is buying huge tracts of land from many African countries for the production cash crops rather than staples to feed locals.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, she said, the union secured 200 000 hectares of land and plans are underway to increase this figure to 10 million hectares. AgriSA has purchased vast tracts of land in Uganda, Libya, Namibia, Gabon and many other African countries through bilateral investment treaties that secured their investments.

Dr Hall said this was being done at the expense of current and future land needs for the locals.

She labelled AgriSA the "Southern Imperial Power."

Global capitalism is on the prowl and this is evident with the rise of inter-regional land grabbing, the conference noted.

"Africa’s academics must not compromise on what they believe is right," said Prof Havnevik.

"Biofuels are a pretext to continue business as usual (land grabbing by multinationals). They say it will bring investment and prosperity but in actual effect they are cheating. It's a ploy to continue business as usual."

"Selling wealth to buy poverty: Kenyan Experience with individualisation of land ownership" paper by Dr Marcel Rutten provided useful insights about flaws of the land tenure system in Kenya which has tossed millions of people from their land to sprawling slums in Nairobi.

Large multinationals and rich individuals have bought land from the poor Kenyans accumulating large tracts of land at the expense of poor rural people who desperately require land.

This, Dr Rutten said, has had damaging effects on the livelihood of the poor.

The conference interrogated a number of issues related land and agrarian reform covering gender dynamics, agrarian development, scholarship in Africa’s agrarian and rural development, lessons from Asia’s Green Revolution, women’s struggle for land, the agrarian questions in Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, land grabbing by South Africa in Africa, the politics of biofuels, access to land and tenure security in Africa, land use and agricultural productivity among other topics.

It is significant to note that the conference felt land was a prerequisite for socio-economic development for Africa despite the challenges that go with agrarian reforms.

Zimbabwe’s land and agrarian reform provided useful insights to the discourse on the land question in Africa.

Prof Ian Scoones in his presentation titled: "Experiences with land reform in former settler colonies of South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe — myths and realities" revealed some important insights that challenge the "conventional wisdoms" dominating media and academic commentary alike.

The research he undertook with scholars from South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe raises some fundamental challenges to five oft-repeated myths about recent Zimbabwean land reform and offers some important insights for the future direction of rural policy in Zimbabwe.

The myths, he said, cover beliefs that Zimbabwe's land reform has been a total failure, that it benefited the elite, that agriculture is in complete ruins and that the rural economy has collapsed.

Contrary to these misconceptions, Prof Scoones said, Zimbabwe's land reform program was a huge success gauging from the research they undertook in the country.

In the interviews Prof Scoones and others conducted with new settlers, despite the problems, there noted that there was universal acclaim for the resettlement programme: 'Life has changed remarkably for me because I have more land and can produce more than I used to,' said one; while another observed, 'We are happier here at resettlement.

There is more land, stands are larger and there is no overcrowding. We got good yields in 2006. I filled two granaries with sorghum'.

With the right kind of knowledge and frame of mind, there is nothing that can prevent Africans from using whatever skills they possess in science and agriculture to boost production and enhance the livelihoods of the poor on the continent.

It is clear that Africa’s intelligentsia has a role to play to clear the confusion over Africa’s land agrarian questions and myths and help build knowledge that will free Africa from the malignancy of low self-esteem, perpetual dependency on the West, lack of pride in African values and history and the sad episodes of stereotypes that undermine African intellectual potential.

Africa’s academics must lay the facts bare for the continent to escape from such trappings.

In Ayi Kwei Armah’s words, Africa will require "a knowledgeable generation of conscious Africans able to turn themselves into skilled organisers, and determined to keep working steadily until they reach their goal."

Labels: DECOLONISATION, LAND REFORM

posted by MrK @ 9:09 PM