Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the legacy of late colonialism

Citizen and subject: contemporary Africa and the legacy of late colonialism

The African Frontier: the reproduction of traditional African societies

Fighting for the Rain Forest: War, youth & resources in Sierra Leone

Despite the well-publicized abandonment of Daewoo Logistics' gigantic agricultural project, large-scale land appropriations continue in Madagascar. Drawing on three case studies, this article analyses how relations between entities governing land access shape, and are shaped by, agribusiness-related land deals. State representatives and local elites generally welcome agribusiness investments but find themselves competing over the corresponding benefits and over land management more generally. In a context of legal pluralism, competition occurs between state officials, between state and local actors and also within the local arena. Both state and local elites may seek to reassert their authority by imposing new constraints on investors' access to land. Within the state, officials draw on different legal provisions to impose new procedures on investors but rarely enforce the 2005 land laws that recognize local rights and decentralize land management. Within the local arena, some local leaders seize upon investors' land claims to extend their territory at the expense of other communities, awakening or exacerbating local land conflicts. As a consequence, investors struggle to obtain land-use rights, whether legally formalized by state institutions or socially recognized by local entities, while the future of local land rights also remains uncertain. (Resume d'auteur)

Competition over Authority and Access: International Land Deals in Madagascar

The study is part of the project " Novel forms of livestock and wildlife integration adjacent to protected areas in Africa: Tanzania " focusing on the reduction of conflicts over natural resources through the integration of agriculture, pastoralism and nature conservation. FAO executes this project funded by the GEF (Global Environment Facility) and the International Livestock Research Institute provides scientific support. The objective of the following study is to elaborate an analytical framework and to provide concrete indicators to policy makers and field agents working in the field of pastoralism, natural resources management and agriculture in the dry lands of sub-Saharan Africa. The objective is to help national decision-makers and international development agencies to formulate policies and prioritising their action for an improved sustainable use of the land and water resources, while resolving conflicts among the different users. The ultimate goal is thus to provide national policy makers and international development agencies with recommendations helping them to target their actions and thereby to contribute more effectively to prevent conflicts or at least mitigate their impact on rural livelihoods and on the environment. The study is organised in two phases with two regional workshops at the end of each one. This report presents the results of the first phase of " Identification of the factors underlying conflicts over access to land and water resources " through a regional analysis and local case studies. It is basically a desk study completed by the contribution of two African experts. The objective is not limited to a review of the existing literature on land tenure, natural resources management and conflicts in African dry lands. We had to identify areas or situations – the difference is important – with high conflict risks and to elaborate policy recommendations to be presented and debated during the first workshop in Dakar (March 6-8.). The detailed terms of reference of the second phase will be defined at the end of the first workshop within an iterative process of coming and going between case studies, attempts at generalising and policy proposals. The overall aim of the study is thus policy-oriented, but, given the width and the complexity of the subject, it needs to be built on a sound understanding of field issues. The study is transversal, made of two levels of relevance: the project level and the na-tional/international level (national policy-makers and international agencies). At both levels, the final objective …

http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/lead/pdf/tanzania/conflict.pdf

Conflict over Access to Land & Water Resources within Sub-Saharan Dry Lands

Conflicts over natural resources and property concern the distribution of entitlements to resources and social identities. The highlighting of this continuity enables the insertion of conflict into a broader historical and theoretical framework dealing with social change, as well as access to and control over resources. However, this reveals nothing about the discontinuity between tensions over natural resources and outbreaks of conflict involving physical and symbolic violence. Case studies carried out in Mali and Benin provide an empirical basis for the discussion of the following set of exploratory hypotheses: they stress the continuity between conflict and property within the frame of a theory of access to natural resources; they emphasise the plurality of actors involved in disputes over natural resources in African drylands beyond the farmer–herdsman configuration; and they see resource conflict, property and policy as a matter of persuasion, that is, representation and narrative.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1057%2Fejdr.2010.44.pdf

Property Relations by other Means: Conflict over Dryland Resources in Benin and Mali

Les etudes africanistes de la citoyennete tendent a ne traiter la question que du point de vue de l'Etat et de ses relations avec des « minorites » organisees. L'interface des Etats africains avec des societes paysannes relativement structurees et autonomes invite, au contraire, a envisager des citoyennetes plurielles en termes de circulation de projets politiques semi-autonomes, d'echelles de production, de contradiction et d'articulation. Deux enquetes ethnographiques, menees chez les Minyanka (Mali) et les Bwaba (Burkina Faso), sur la distribution des enchainements de droits fonciers et d'obligations collectives entre « autochtones » et « etrangers », permettent de montrer dans quelle mesure les societes paysannes developpent une definition locale de la citoyennete differente de la citoyennete formelle. Outre la relativisation des definitions universalistes de la citoyennete, cette forme « paysanne » de la citoyennete nous invite a reconsiderer de maniere non normative la dichotomie classique entre pub...

Peter Hochet

Papers

Conflict over Access to Land & Water Resources within Sub-Saharan Dry Lands

Property Relations by other Means: Conflict over Dryland Resources in Benin and Mali

Une « citoyenneté paysanne »? Ethnographie comparée parmi les Minyanka et les Bwaba (Mali, Burkina Faso)

Gouvernance foncière et sécurisation des droits dans les pays du Sud : livre blanc des acteurs français de la Coopération