ABSTRACT

The current land grabbing trend in Africa demonstrates more similarity than differences when compared with colonial land expropriations (Palmer 2011). The trend simultaneously reignites long-standing land struggles and connects them with the world market crisis which assists the driving force of the food–finance nexus (ROAPE 2011). Starting from this conceptualisation, the chapter is premised on the appraisal that, for the time being, resistance against land grabs in Africa has built on pre-existing struggles over land, while producing isolated and localised protests against some of the deals (Moyo et al. 2011). These land struggles have gained visibility through an information network put in place by a network of academic researchers, think-tanks and transnational agrarian movements. Donor-led advocacy and the activism of social movements have been crucial to raising awareness and to report the reality on the ground, without being in the position of substituting for popular agency or giving radical solutions.