scholarly journals De-/fencing Grasslands: Ongoing Boundary Making and Unmaking in Postcolonial Kenya

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 786
Author(s):  
Mette Løvschal ◽  
Marie Ladekjær Gravesen
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Boundary Making ◽  
Slow Violence ◽  
To Come ◽  
Large Scale Land ◽  
Grazing Lands

Across contemporary East Africa, fencing is spreading with incredible speed over hundreds of thousands of hectares of rangelands, fundamentally reconfiguring land tenure dynamics. But why is this happening now, what are the precursors, and what will happen in the years to come? In this article, we ask how pre- and post-colonial landscape gridding perpetuate a slow violence across the landscape through processes of de-/fencing. Fencing, we argue, is embedded in a landscape logic that favours exclusive rights and conditioned access. In two case studies from grazing lands in Kenya, we explore how people engage with the tension of an imposed landscape logic of fencing by either asserting or challenging its very physicality. We propose that de-/fencing are ways of anticipating long-standing land tenure uncertainties. Moreover, we use our cases to explore different points of reference along the mattering of land tenure boundaries as well as the sort of horizons to which fencing leads. We also use this knowledge to improve our understanding of parallel prehistoric cases of large-scale land tenure boundaries. By unfolding the intertwined socio-political and material nature of gridded landscapes, we seek to bring the study of fencing out of conservation literature and into its wider culture-historical context.

scholarly journals The Virtuous Cycle of Property

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Fabbri ◽  
Giuseppe Dari-Mattiacci
Keyword(s):  
Property Rights ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Dictator Game ◽  
Private Property Rights ◽  
Tenure Reform ◽  
Large Scale Land ◽  
Virtuous Cycle ◽  
Positive Effect

The article shows that formalizing private property rights has a positive effect on the propensity to respect the property of others. We study a recent large-scale land tenure reform in West Africa which was the first of its kind to be implemented as a randomized control-trial. Results of a modified dictator game show that the formalization of private property rights reduced an individual's willingness to take from others' endowment. We used additional experimental measures and post-experimental survey data to rule out alternative explanations for the observed behavior that do not imply a change in preferences.

Large-Scale Land Acquisitions, Livelihoods, and Gender Configurations in Zimbabwe

2015 ◽  
pp. 130-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patience Mutopo ◽  
Manase Kudzai Chiweshe ◽  
Chipo Plaxedes Mubaya
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Rural Women ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Rural Livelihoods ◽  
Land Loss ◽  
Land Acquisitions ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
Large Scale Land ◽  
And Gender

The notion of large-scale land acquisitions has been topical in recent years in Zimbabwe; it has even created more nuanced debates, since 70% of rural women in Zimbabwe are the majority of food producers. Foreign and locally orchestrated land deals have presented new challenges and threats to the livelihoods of women in rural Zimbabwe, at a time of land redistributive programs that have been viewed nationally and internationally as chaotic, affecting the food security, economic prowess, and international relations of Zimbabwe. The main aim of this chapter is to examine how women are particularly affected by the investments, based on three case studies. An analysis of the Zimbabwean scenario is presented with regards to participatory methodologies that reflect women's rural livelihoods and land loss.

scholarly journals Refractions of the National,the Popular and the Global in African Cities

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Development ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Addis Ababa ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Recent Book ◽  
African Countries ◽  
African Cities ◽  
The North

Case studies of metropolitan cities in nine African countries from Egypt in the north to three in West and Central Africa, two in East Africa and three in Southern Africa make up the empirical foundation of this publication. The interrelated themes addressed in these chapters the national influence on urban development, the popular dynamics that shape urban development and the global currents on urban development make up its framework. All authors and editors are African, as is the publisher. The only exception is Göran Therborn whose recent book, Cities of Power, served as motivation for this volume. Accordingly, the issue common to all case studies is the often conflictual powers that are exercised by national, global and popular forces in the development of these African cities. Rather than locating the case studies in an exclusively African historical context, the focus is on the trajectories of the postcolonial city (with the important exception of Addis Ababa with a non-colonial history that has granted it a special place in African consciousness). These trajectories enable comparisons with those of postcolonial cities on other continents. This, in turn, highlights the fact that Africa today, the least urbanised continent on an increasingly urbanised globe is in the thick of processes of large-scale urban transformation, illustrated in diverse ways by the case studies that make up the foundation of this publication.

Facing an uncertain future

2020 ◽  
pp. 198-232
Author(s):  
Camilla Toulmin
Keyword(s):  
Land Tenure ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
National Level ◽  
Youth Unemployment ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Capital Cities ◽  
The People ◽  
Uncertain Future ◽  
Large Scale Land

This concluding chapter considers the future facing the people of Dlonguébougou and the wider region, given current forces at play and future scenarios. High levels of risk and uncertainty persist for rainfall, governance, demographic growth, and conflict. Today, insecurity spans Mali and the wider Sahel because of multiple entangled grievances, jihadist groups, youth unemployment, and centralization of power in capital cities. Reliance on military power will not win the day. From the Sahel being considered a geopolitical backwater, European countries are now focused on ways to stabilize the region, as it has become a source of migrants and instability. Pressures on land will continue with government neglect of dryland farming and further large-scale land allocations made for irrigated agriculture. Increased individualism and consumerism apparent at the village and the national level have damaged collective responses to the current crisis. The promise of the new land tenure law may not be achieved, and donor aid further shores up unaccountable and corrupt government.

A false promise? Regulating land-grabbing and the post-colonial state

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ntina Tzouvala
Keyword(s):  
Food Systems ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Soft Law ◽  
Land Grabbing ◽  
Responsible Investment ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Large Scale Land ◽  
Agriculture And Food

AbstractSince 2008, a global ‘land rush’ has been unfolding and so have efforts by international, national and regional actors to position themselves as the principal authorities in the determination of appropriate usages of land. This article examines three of the most influential ‘soft law’ instruments: the Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment; the Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems and; the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure. Despite their substantive differences, all three documents share a specific form of state-centrism. They imagine the host state of such large-scale investments as internally unitary and externally independent and entrust it with the bulk of responsibilities regarding the management of land investments. However, I argue that this particular form of state-centrism obscures the legal and administrative realities of the post-colonial state that is often legally bifurcated and subject to pervasive forms of international authority. Rather, an appreciation of the multitude of actors who claim jurisdiction over the lands of the South enables a better understanding of the legal mechanics of land-grabbing. Sierra Leone, which has been positioned as a ‘poster child’ for the implementation of such ‘soft law’ instruments, serves as the focal point of this jurisdictional approach to land-grabbing. In this context, the promise of ‘soft law’ instruments to make the post-colonial state the guarantor of universally beneficial large-scale land acquisitions is shown to be a false one.

scholarly journals Forests to the Foreigners: Large-Scale Land Acquisitions in Gabon

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 420
Author(s):  
Danielle D. Legault ◽  
Logan Cochrane
Keyword(s):  
Land Tenure ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Infrastructure Development ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Critical Knowledge ◽  
Certification Programs ◽  
Land Acquisitions ◽  
Large Scale Land ◽  
Land Use Plan

For the past decade, the land rush discourse has analyzed foreign investment in land and agriculture around the world, with Africa being a continent of particular focus due to the scale of acquisitions that have taken place. Gabon, a largely forested state in Central Africa, has been neglected in the land rush conversations, despite having over half of its land allocated to forestry, agriculture, and mining concessions. This paper draws on existing evidence and contributes new empirical data through expert interviews to fill this critical knowledge gap. We situate Gabon’s historic relationship with land, establishing the intrinsic relationship between colonial land tenure systems and present-day land rights. Our findings analyze the macro context of investors and investments, as well as the impacts related to rural–urban linkages and infrastructure development into the forests, civil society, human–environment relationships, and certification programs. While challenges continue to be experienced, the promise of Gabon’s first national land use plan—the use of sustainable concessions and mandatory forestry certification—offers a unique opportunity for Gabon to transition towards a future that better benefits its population while also protecting its natural resources.

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