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\"This book compares the trajectories of states and societies in Africa, Asia and Latin America under neoliberalism, a time marked by serial economic crises, escalating social conflicts, the re-militarisation of North-South relations and the radicalisation of social and national forces\"--P. [4] of cover.

Zimbabwe's recent fast-track land reform was redistributive, but it retained significant enclaves of large-scale agro-industrial estates owned by transnational, domestic and state capital, despite unfulfilled popular and domestic elite demands for land. Such estates were encouraged by the state to produce agro-fuel (ethanol from sugar), sugar, tea, coffee, timber and citrus, with wildlife ranching for domestic and export markets, alongside expanded small food producers. This outcome reflects the unresolved contradictions of seeking autonomous development in the context of sanctions, domestic political polarisation and declining agricultural production, while promoting reintegration into broader world markets. Neoliberal policies replaced dirigisme by 2008 to promote stabilisation and agricultural recovery but with limited impact. Foreign agricultural investment in Zimbabwe is nonetheless atypical of the current neoliberal land grabbing in Africa, since Zimbabwe reversed past inequalities and retains some state autonomy, and residual land concentration remains contested.

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.-- Provided by publisher.

The variety of land questions facing Africa and the divergent strategies proposed to resolve them continue to evoke debates. Increasingly, in response to the enduring problems of land tenure, there are land movements of all shapes and orientations, some reformist and others quite revolutionary in their agenda. However revolutionary, land movements have tended to ignore the land tenure interests of women, pastoralists, youth and indigenous people. Several of these longstanding and emerging issues in land tenure include the role of the state in land tenure reforms; urban land questions, the nature of land struggles and improvements; and, the impact of land tenure developments on particular social groups and countries. An overarching concern is the extent to which land rights are being commodified, through the conversion of land held under customary tenure systems into marketised systems. The consequences of this include growing land concentration, land tenure insecurities, diminishing access to land by various sections of society, including the poor, women and less dominant ethno-religious groups. This volume brings together different studies on Africa's land questions exploring emerging land issues on the continent in terms of the wider questions of development, citizenship, and democratisation. The chapters discuss the land question through a variety of themes. Some focus on the agrarian aspects of the land questions, while others elucidate the urban dimensions of the land question.

The Fast Track Land Reform Programme implemented during the 2000s in Zimbabwe represents the only instance of radical redistributive land reforms since the end of the Cold War. It reversed the racially-skewed agrarian structure and discriminatory land tenures inherited from colonial rule. The land reform also radicalised the state towards a nationalist, introverted accumulation strategy, against a broad array of unilateral Western sanctions. Indeed, Zimbabweís land reform, in its social and political dynamics, must be compared to the leading land reforms of the twentieth century, which include those of Mexico, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Cuba and Mozambique. The fact that the Zimbabwe case has not been recognised as vanguard nationalism has much to do with the ëintellectual structural adjustmentí which has accompanied neoliberalism and a hostile media campaign. This has entailed dubious theories of ëneopatrimonialismí, which reduce African politics and the state to endemic ëcorruptioní, ëpatronageí, and ëtribalismí while overstating the virtues of neoliberal good governance. Under this racist repertoire, it has been impossible to see class politics, mass mobilisation and resistance, let alone believe that something progressive can occur in Africa. This book comes to a conclusion that the Zimbabwe land reform represents a new form of resistance with distinct and innovative characteristics when compared to other cases of radicalisation, reform and resistance. The process of reform and resistance has entailed the deliberate creation of a tri-modal agrarian structure to accommodate and balance the interests of various domestic classes, the progressive restructuring of labour relations and agrarian markets, the continuing pressures for radical reforms (through the indigenisation of mining and other sectors), and the rise of extensive, albeit relatively weak, producer cooperative structures. The book also highlights some of the resonances between the Zimbabwean land struggles and those on the continent, as well as in the South in general, arguing that there are some convergences and divergences worthy of intellectual attention. The book thus calls for greater endogenous empirical research which overcomes the pre-occupation with failed interpretations of the nature of the state and agency in Africa.

This article conceptualises the revolutionary situation that gripped Zimbabwe from the late 1990s. That was the moment in which the two political questions that historically have galvanized peripheral capitalism - the agrarian and the national - were returned to the forefront of political life. We argue that the revolutionary situation resulted neither in a revolution, nor in mediocre reformism, nor in restoration. It resulted in an interrupted revolution, marked by a radical agrarian reform and a radicalised state - the first on the continent since the end of the Cold War.

Since 2000, there has been an escalation of land-related conflicts in Zimbabwe, Côte d'Ivoire, the Delta region of Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa. These conflicts are examples of numerous national struggles for access to land in Africa and reflect the failure of the African state to address the land and development nexus on the continent. The land question in Africa is a by-product of globalised control of land, natural resources and minerals in general, reflecting incomplete decolonisation processes in ex-settler colonies along with the penchant for foreign 'investment' in a neo-liberal policy framework that marginalises the rural and urban poor. Global finance capital is increasingly entangled in conflicts over land, as the exploitation of oil, minerals and natural resources expands into new African enclaves that highlight the external dimension of distorted development. These processes define the significance of land in the political economy of African development. This paper examines the complex social and political contradictions that shape land struggles, including their colonial and post-independence trajectory. The failures of neo-liberal land reforms, based on market forces and their confrontation by popular demands for redistributive reforms are discussed. Depuis l'an 2000, il y a eu une escalade de conflits liés à la terre au Zimbabwe, en Côte d'Ivoire, dans la région du Delta au Nigeria et ailleurs en Afrique. Ces conflits sont des exemples des nombreuses luttes pour l'accès à la terre en Afrique, et reflètent l'incapacité de l'Etat Africain à aborder le lien entre terre et développement sur le continent. La question foncière en Afrique est un sousproduit du contrôle planétaire de la terre, des ressources naturelles et minières en général, qui reflète le processus incomplet de décolonisation dans les anciennes colonies de peuplement de même que l'inclination en faveur de « l'investissement » étranger dans un cadre de politique néo-libérale qui marginalise les pauvres des zones rurales et urbaines. Le capital financier mondial est de plus en plus enchevêtré dans les conflits fonciers, au fur et à mesure que l'exploitation du pétrole, des minerais et des ressources naturelles s'est étendue dans de nouvelles enclaves africaines qui mettent en exergue la dimension externe du développement dévoyé. Ces processus définissent la signification de la terre dans l'économie politique du développement africain. Cette étude examine les contradictions sociales et politiques complexes qui façonnent les luttes pour la terre, y compris leur trajectoire coloniale et post-indépendance. Il y est discuté de l'échec des réformes foncières néo-libérales, reposant sur les lois du marché, et leur confrontation aux demandes populaires de réformes en vue d'une redistribution.

The variety of land questions facing Africa and the divergent strategies proposed to resolve them continue to evoke debates.Increasingly, in response to the enduring problems of land tenure, there are land movements of all shapes and orientations, some reformist and others quite revolutionary in their agenda.