Formalization, Dispossession and the G8 Land Agenda in Africa

A talk presented by Howard Stein

Venue:  WISER Seminar Room

The G8 and other donors have recently upscaled formalization ostensibly to protect farmers from land grabbing and to reduce conflict. At the same time in cooperation with agro-industrial multinationals they are sponsoring and encouraging large scale foreign investment in agriculture in Africa. Some African governments state that plenty of land is unoccupied and ripe for foreign investment yet formalization entails mapping out village land boundaries so as to identify and carve out land for large scale investors. Using examples from Tanzania and elsewhere the talk will map out the terrain of contestation, conflict and dispossession at the core of the political economy of property right formalization in Africa.