Land Grabbing and Formalization in Africa: A Critical Inquiry

Two developments in Africa have generated an extensive literature. The first focuses on investment and land grabbing and the second on the formalization of rural property rights. Less has been written on the impact of formalization on land grabbing and of land grabbing on formalization. Recently, formalization has been put forward to protect the rights of pastoralists and farmers. Leaders in Tanzania have argued that it will free up land for investors that is unused by villages and generate new jobs and improved livelihoods through contract farming while minimizing land grabbing through greater transparency. Others argue that formalization is being promoted to facilitate land grabbing with state-imposed boundaries evicting villagers off land formerly under village control for sale to investors. According to the authors of this Working Paper, Howard Stein and Samantha Cunningham (Department of Afroamerican and African Studies University of Michigan), evidence shows that the presence of unequal power dynamics converts formalization into an instrument for dispossession.

This publication has been published as ASC Working Paper volume 2015 / 124.

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