ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 first recounts the history of dispossession in South Africa. The racialized dispossession created conditions for the success of agrarian capitalism, but it also rendered large numbers of Africans a surplus population, and many of them could neither be employed in the capitalist sector nor have sufficient land to farm. After the end of apartheid, the South African state promised that it would redistribute 30 percent of the land. However, the fear for undermining commercial agriculture and the resistance from large farms and agribusiness companies stalled the reform process. The discontent mounted and the pressure intensified on the state to take action in recent years. The chapter also compares the land question in South Africa and China.
