Three years after South Africa's first non-racial democratic elections, the difficult process of social and economic transformation continues. About one-half of South Africa's approximately 43 million people-and two-thirds of its African population-still live in deep poverty. At least seven million live in shacks. Land hunger is widespread. Land dispossession caused by colonial-and apartheid-forced removals and alienation of land and water rights lie at the heart of the repressive regime which the national liberation movement struggled against.
This book provides, for the first time, a detailed analysis of the role of big business in Africa's agriculture. It exposes the past and present activities of foreign companies in the diversion of much of Africa's food potential to the cash crop demands of Europe. Most aspects of company activity are illustrated with examples and there is a detailed description of trade and investment in coffee, sugar and the newer luxury crops such as flowers and vegetables. The attitudes of the governments of Tanzania and Kenya towards agribusiness investment are contrasted and the book ends with a look at perhaps the most ominous of recent developments--Africa's increasing dependence on transnational supplied, large scale food production schemes.
This volume is based on original field research on land struggles and civil society in Southern Africa, with chapters on South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Zambia. Most chapters are written by NGO and grassroots activists. In the context of global restructuring and specific nation-building projects, rural and agrarian relations in these countries continue to generate specific forms of inequalities and marginalisation.
Khat (catha edulis) is a psychoactive shrub whose tender leaves and twigs have been chewed in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula for their euphonizing effects for a millennium. A stimulant grown in small gardens for consumption on cultural and religious occasions around the turn of the last century, khat has now become the preferred and most sought-after cash crop, the most visible and pervasive social habit, and an important income-generating occupation for millions of Ethiopians. Within Ethiopia, khat chewing has become a ubiquitous habit, cutting across class, religious, ethnic, and gender affiliations.
Based in Africa, Europe and North America the authors and contributors provide an interdisciplinary framework for understanding the historical roots and contemporary realities of Southern Africa's agricultural landscape. Chapters on law and the state, labor migration, environment, industry, and agrarian reform, are supported by detailed country case studies. A research and policy agenda is proposed which supports structural transformation of Southern African agriculture.
This timely volume is a direct result of the First International Research Conference on Biodiversity and the Sustainable Management of Natural Resources held in Kigali Rwanda 23rd to 25th July 2007. The conference was organized by the Republic of Rwanda, Ministry in the Office of the President in Charge of Science and Technology in collaboration with: IDRC, CI, NEPAD, UNESCO, TWAS, NSF, IRST, NUR, REMA, ORTPN, ISAR, ISAE, DFGFI, and RDGG among others. As Africa enters the 21st Century it is imperative that science is put into
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