Based on 2002 fieldwork in four rural communities in Manica Province. Divided into 5 sections: overview – main points; case studies and methodology; effects of the 1997 Land Law in rural communities; problems encountered during implementation; recommendations; conclusion. Includes suspicion of the legal system, effects of legal knowledge, greater awareness of rights, class inequalities, conflicts between political parties, corruption and ignorance of local officials, attitudes to investors.

Reports from meeting near Bilbao from peasants in South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Niger, Mali, Senegal and Ghana. Almost everywhere in Africa the elite and corporations are undertaking efforts to capture and control people’s basic means of production, such as land, mineral resources, seeds and water. These resources are increasingly being privatized due to the myriad of investment agreements and policies driven by new institutional approaches, imposed on the continent by western powers and Bretton Woods institutions.

Land tenure administration in Zambia suffers from serious shortcomings in governance. Too much power is vested with too few checks and balances in too few people, notably the chiefs, local councils and the Commissioner of Lands. This creates fertile ground for abuse and corruption, both of which mar the sector. Zambia still has an important distance to cover in the field of land governance and legal recognition of customary rights and institutions.

Impossible to have imagined 50 years ago that Africa’s ruling political elites would have come to despise their own small-scale farmers and pastoralists and to look kindly on foreign-run large plantations. Impact of decades of structural adjustment programmes forgotten. Sceptical about claims that land grabs can be stopped within 3 years. Looks at variety of responses attempting to address power inequalities at local levels. Research a not unproblematic area. Concludes with case studies of legal empowerment in Mozambique and Namati’s community land protection programme.

A review of Fred Pearce’s book

Presents two personal testimonies of eviction and dispossession to illustrate the long and complex political history of land in Zimbabwe. The first concerns the eviction of white commercial farmers from one district in December 2002, the second of black peasant farmers in 1948, to make way for the white post-1945 white war veterans.

A review of Zimbabwe in 2001, focusing on the land question and farm workers. Reflections on conferences on Zimbabwe in Copenhagen and on farm workers in Southern Africa in Harare, with a section highlighting the key issues brought out in a new book on farm workers in Zimbabwe. Argues that issues around farm workers need to be seriously rethought and debated across the political spectrum and that land is a part of a much wider crisis of governance.

Addresses the research question, do different land tenure conditions affect farming systems, organisation and performance among Zambian small farmers, and if so, how? Discusses the widespread demand for title, even on customary lands, and concludes that this is a defensive measure, based on a desire for secure possession and for bequeathment and the protection of fixed investments.

Looks at the problems of creating a stratum of black commercial farmers in South Africa in the light of historical experiences in Kenya and Zimbabwe. Argues that this will be a daunting challenge since apartheid tried to destroy black commercial farmers. The double challenge will be to unlock historical structural constraints within the agrarian economy and to reorient the current macro-economic climate to be more responsive to the needs of small-scale black farmers.

Paper targeted at land reform practitioners and stakeholders in government and civil society. Argues that land reform can broadly be divided into land tenure reform and land redistribution. First chapter gives short narrative of key land tenure and land policy issues. These remain politically sensitive, but consensus is emerging on how to deal with them once confusion surrounding private /common property and formal / informal rights is cleared up. Secure property rights should not be confused with full private ’ownership’.

Includes discourse on land tenure reforms and tenure security, conceptual framework, evolution of land tenure reform and agricultural productivity in Mozambique, data and estimation strategy, results, conclusion. Analyzes the determinants of household perceived tenure insecurity and its effect on long-term land-related investment. The presence of a significant demand for certificates of land ownership implies the opportunities to strengthen the pro-poor impacts of the ongoing land reform programmes by establishing a system that would respond to this demand effectively.

Analyses the shifting role of South African farmers, agribusiness and capital elsewhere in Southern Africa and the rest of the continent. Explores recent expansion trends, investigates the interests and agendas shaping such deals, and the legitimating ideologies and discourses employed in favour of them. Now it is being more centrally organised and coordinated than in the past, is more frequently taking the form of large concessions for newly formed consortia and agribusinesses, and is increasingly reliant on external financing through transnational partnerships.