USA Africa Dialogue Series - Land Grab or Land Robbery in Africa?

I usually feel discomfort when people refer the land robbery in Africa as "Land grab". Land grab indicates the existence of formality or legality which is not the case in the large scale African land robbery. The online dictionary defines land grabbing as buying or leasing of large pieces of land in developing countries, by domestic and transnational companies, governments, and individuals." This definition carries important terms such as buying, leasing and land which worth a closer look.

Unfortunately, many consider selling land as selling commodities such as a tractor, spoon, shoes and necklace. One may cite brutal and immoral economic policies and principles to defend the so called land grab. In my view, land should not be governed by similar principles or policies that govern other man -made commodities. The nature of land, especially African land which is considered as the origin of human, is like the nature of human body. In other words, the components of land are similar to the component of our body. As you may know, land is made of water, organic and inorganic material. Read More

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.