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This book focuses on the work of one of the leading African scholars on the land r a
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question and agrarian transformation in Africa—Sam Moyo. It offers a critical f d
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discussion, in conversation with Sam Moyo, of the land question and the response rh
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of African states. Since independence, African states have been trying to address fe U Essays in Honour of Professor Sam Moyo
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the colonial legacy on land policy and governance. After six decades of formulating sn
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and implementing land reforms, most countries have not succeeded in decolonising n
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approaches to land policy and the administrative framework. The book brings amsh
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together the broader debates on the implications of decolonisation of Africa’s Md
land policy. Through case studies from several African countries, the book offers oD
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an empirical analysis on land reforms and the emerging land relations, and how oc
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these affect land allocation and use, including agricultural production. Most of the lo
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chapters discuss how the unresolved land question in post-colonial Africa impacts i
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on agricultural production and rural development broadly. The failure to decolonise a
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colonial land policy and the imported tenure systems has left post-colonial African o
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states dancing to two tunes, resulting in schizophrenic land and agrarian policies. P
The book demonstrates that the failure by African states to reconcile imported ro
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and indigenous land tenure systems and practices is evident in the deliberate e
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denigration of customary tenure. It is also evident in the rising land inequality and t
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the neglect of the agricultural sector, the small-scale and subsistence subsectors A
in particular. f
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HORMAN CHITONGE is Associate Professor at the Centre for African Studies (CAS),
University of Cape Town (UCT). His research interests include agrarian political economy,
hydro-politics, and alternative strategies for inclusive economic growth and poverty
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reduction in Africa o
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YOICHI MINE is Professor at the Graduate School of Global Studies, Doshisha University, n C
Japan, and Visiting Fellow at the JICA Research Institute. His research interests include h
human security, development economics and African area study. itonED
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Langaa Research & Publishing in
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P.O. Box 902 Mankon
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DITED BY
North West Region
Cameroon Horman Chitonge and Yoichi Mine
Land, the State & the Unfinished
Decolonisation Project in Africa:
Essays in Honour of
Professor Sam Moyo
Edited by
Horman Chitonge & Yoichi Mine
Langaa Research & Publishing CIG
Mankon, Bamenda
PPublisher:
Langaa RPCIG
Langaa Research & Publishing Common Initiative Group
P.O. Box 902 Mankon
Bamenda
North West Region
Cameroon
[email protected]
www.langaa-rpcig.net
Distributed in and outside N. America by African Books Collective
[email protected]
www.africanbookscollective.com
ISBN-10: 9956-550-58-2
ISBN-13: 978-9956-550-58-6
© Horman Chitonge & Yoichi Mine 2019
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, mechanical or electronic, including photocopying and recording, or be
stored in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission
from the publisher
List of Contributors
Peter Lawrence is Professor Emeritus in the Keele School of
Management (Economics) at Keele University, UK, and a founding
editor of the Review of African Political Economy. His research interests
include, African rural cooperation and industrialisation, privatisation
in Eastern Europe and unemployment, corporate power and the
world economy.
Elizabeth Tabot is a PhD candidate in African Studies, University
of Cape Town. She holds a Masters degree in African Studies from
the Centre of African Studies, Dalarna University, Sweden. Her
major research interest includes Human Rights and African Socio-
political and economic development, and land rights of minorities’ in
Africa. Her PHD study focuses on the land rights of the Mbororo in
the Northwest Region of Cameroon.
Zhenke Zhang is professor of African Studies and Director of the
Centre of African Studies at Nanjin University, Nanjing Province,
China.
Moses Moyo is a PhD candidate in African Studies, University of
Cape Town, South Africa. His research interests include agricultural
institutions, poverty, livelihoods and rural development. His PhD
looked at the effects of contract farming on rural institutions and
livelihoods, focusing on Mazowe tobacco farmers.
Yoichi Mine is Professor at the Graduate School of Global Studies,
Doshisha University, Japan, and Visiting Fellow at the JICA Research
Institute. His research interests include human security, development
economics and African area study.
Rangarirai Gavin Muchetu is a PhD candidate at the Graduate
School of Global Studies, Doshisha University, Japan. He received a
BSc (hons) and a Master’s degree in Agricultural and Applied
Economics from the University of Zimbabwe. He research interests
include land use, food security, productivity, women’s land rights,
climate change, youth unemployment and illicit financial flows.
Shuichi Oyama is Associate Professor at Centre for African Area
Studies, Kyoto University, Japan. His major research interests are
geography and anthropology concerning land issues and people’s
livelihoods in Africa, specifically in northern Zambia and Niger. His
main works include ‘Land degradation and ecological knowledge-
based land rehabilitation.
Malvern Kudakwashe Marewo is a PhD candidate in African
Studies, University of Cape Town, South Africa. His research
interests include land reform, agrarian labour dynamics, agrarian
livelihoods and social relations. His PhD focuses on linkages between
communal areas and A1 villagised settlements in Zvimba District,
Zimbabwe.
Yumi Sakata is a research associate both at the Centre for Applied
Social Sciences (CASS), University of Zimbabwe, and the Sam Moyo
Institute of Agrarian Studies (SMIAS). She obtained a bachelor’s
degree in economics from Hosei University, Japan, and a master’s
degree in human sciences from Osaka University, Japan. Her
research interests include contract farming and the economy of
peasants. She is currently working as Second Secretary at the
Embassy of Japan in Zimbabwe.
Senzeni Ncube is a Postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for African
Studies, University of Cape Town, under the National Research
Foundation (NRF) Chair of Land reform and Democracy in South
Africa. Her research interests include land reform, social capital,
livelihoods and the agrarian political economy of Africa. Her PhD
thesis examined the role of social capital in the Fast Track Land
Reform Programme (FTLRP) in Zimbabwe, focusing on
Matabeleland North Province.
Chizuko Sato is a research fellow at the Institute of Developing
Economies (IDE-JETRO), Chiba, Japan. Her current research
interests include the challenge of land and agrarian reform, revival of
Khoisan identities among “coloured” communities, and social
integration of African migrants and refugees in South Africa.
Horman Chitonge is Associate Professor at the Centre for African
Studies (CAS), University of Cape Town (UCT). His research
interests include agrarian political economy, hydro-politics, and
alternative strategies for inclusive economic growth and poverty
reduction in Africa.
Table of Contents
Preface .................................................................................. ix
Horman Chitonge & Yoichi Mine
Chapter 1. Perspectives on “African Potentials” ....................... 1
Sam Moyo & Yoichi Mine
Chapter 2. The Land Question and
the Economy: Cues of an Incomplete
Decolonisation Project in Africa .......................................... 21
Horman Chitonge
Chapter 3. Corporate Power, the State,
and the Post-capitalist Future ............................................. 55
Peter Lawrence
Chapter 4. Policy-oriented Rural Development
in China and its Potential Influence on
Rural Development in Africa ............................................... 83
Zhenke Zhang & Jianqin Li
Chapter 5. Agricultural Land-delivery
Systems in Zimbabwe: A Review of
Four Decades of Sam Moyo’s Work
on Agricultural Land Markets
and their Constraints ........................................................... 101
Rangarirai Gavin Muchetu
Chapter 6. Cleaning the House,
Greening the Farm: Reverse Thinking
and “African Potentials” to Combat
Desertification in Sahel Region, West Africa ....................... 143
Shuichi Oyama
vi i
Chapter 7. Reactions of Peasants to
Global Capital in Zimbabwe:
A Case Study of Tobacco Contract
Farming in Mashonaland East Province ............................ 179
Yumi Sakata
Chapter 8. Opportunities and Constraints
for Black Farming in a Former South
African Homeland: A Case Study
of the Mooi River Irrigation Scheme,
Msinga, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa ................................ 213
Chizuko Sato
Chapter 9. An Assessment of the Cameroonian
Government’s Role in the Mbororo Land Struggle
in the North-west Region ..................................................... 253
Elizabeth Tabot
Chapter 10. From friends to strangers?
Social capital and the Fast Track Land Reform
Programme of Zimbabwe .................................................... 283
Senzeni Ncube
Chapter 11. Land Reform, Belonging
and Social Relations: Probing the Linkages
between Communal Areas and A1 Villagised
Settlements in Zvimba District, Zimbabwe ........................ 315
Malvern Marewo
Chapter 12. Land Contestations after
Fast Track Land Reform Programme:
Emerging Land Tenure Challenges in Zimbabwe .............. 347
Moses Moyo
Chapter 13. The Legacy of Steve Biko and
the Japanese Social Movements ........................................... 377
Yoichi Mine
vi ii
Preface
The State and the Land Question in Africa:
The Unfinished Business
Horman Chitonge & Yoichi Mine
Introduction
The way African states have dealt with land and agrarian issues has
been a subject of scholarly debates for a long time now. As one would
expect, the responses of African states to the land and agrarian issues
in Africa has not been the same across countries and time; the
responses have largely been shaped by the prevailing political,
historical and socioeconomic context. What seems common, though,
is that most African states, since independence, have been tinkering
with the colonial legacy on land policy and governance structures.
Although land and agrarian challenges in African countries have
varied, the general sense one gets from the large body of literature
accumulated over the years is that most countries have not succeeded
in going beyond the colonial framework of land governance and
administration in Africa. Indeed the colonial legacy on land in Africa
is inscribed as a DNA code, still dictating, in a large measure, the way
land is administered, accessed and used. In other words, most
countries in Africa have not succeeded to decolonise land
governance, administration and tenure arrangements. This is
particularly true when it comes to land governance and land tenure
issues, all of which are still influenced by the colonial social
engineering. Most of the chapters in this volume discuss how these
unresolved land issues in post-colonial Africa impact on agricultural
production and rural development broadly. The idea that Africa’s
agrarian challenges today are shaped by the colonial social
engineering was very central in Sam Moyo’s scholarship, whose life
and work we are remembering and celebrating in this book.
Chapters in this book were initially presented at a two-day
colloquium in 2016, co-hosted by the Centre for African Studies
ix
