Comments on: African land grabs: New colonialism or African apathy?

By: halfhalf

halfhalf — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 06:07:23 +0000

@ Todd kidd, I suggest you get and read a copy of Tim Butcher, Blood River, 2008. And as for hypochrisy, check out what happened in Liberia.
There is land redistribution in SA, only its functionally a mess, white farmers no longer producing and investing, for the first time in its history, SA, under the new regime has NOT been able to meet the food demands for their populace.
Yet our politicians to this day sing :Kill the Boer

By: Clean Air

Clean Air — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:52:50 +0000

@David Smith

The ‘state of our agricultural colleges’, you raise a good point!! Cedara Agricultural College near Howick/Pietermaritzburg in KZN used to be excellent, it is now an absolute mess according to what I hear. Recently the SPCA was called in because some calves were in such poor condition, last week it was reported in the local paper that their condition had improved.

A friend of mine who was a top agronomist at the Agricultural Research Council left because it had become ‘so politicised’. He could not handle it.

I think a blog on the state of our agricultural colleges and other institutions is way overdue, but equally important is our government investing in agricultural research and development.

Without our white farmers we would be like Zimbabwe. Government need to take the bull by the horns.

By: Sly

Sly — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:24:46 +0000

The sad truth is that after years of battering by the elite of most of these African nations, the people have actual come to believe that they have no right to question their leaders.

They even go as far as believing that their leaders are divinely ordained and only them can do that job. Reason why the sons turn to take over from their fathers.

I mean the raod network in some of these countries are so bad but sections are reserved for the president whether he is driving or not and when he actually is, whole motorway maybe closed for the whole day!

The people are not upset about the short-changing because they believe their leader has the right to decide and he must be adored because he is the leader. Zero accountability. Some of these nations’ leaders present no policy proposals when running for elections… Change the mentality and we shall be on our way to reversing the tide!

By: claire

claire — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 07:12:29 +0000

id like to know how much pressure is put on african leaders to make these deals… im sure there is an element of personal gain… but i am also sure there must be foreign influence and economic pressure on them to sell of land. is the imf or world bank involved in any of these deals? could you do some research on this instead of ONLY blaming the african leaders?

By: Beerboep

Beerboep — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 06:25:12 +0000

@Todd Kidd. While the land and the economy in South Africa is in white hands, patriotic SOUTH AFRICAN white hands that is, at least it is not available for sale internationally. If you knew your facts you would know that around 80% of farms redistributed to blacks over the last 15 years have failed and massive corruption has taken place that will never see the light of day. Surely it makes sense to use one’s most skilled citizens to maximise production while training other citizens. This takes time and SA should have used a different approach. It’s not too late. You know the story about the difference between giving a man a fish or teaching him how to fish.

By: hds

hds — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 06:08:22 +0000

David, a well-written, thoughtful piece, but if I may take a small detour–if there is one area where South Africans have no room to call Americans names, it’s bigotry. You guys cornered the market on it. Glass houses, etc.

By: Clean Air

Clean Air — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 06:01:57 +0000

Kenyan land reform shows few positive results:

The Kenyan practice of individualizing public land has created more people without rights to land and has generated new types of disputes over ownership, a new report concludes. Further, giving private ownership titles does not appear to have had much effect on credit as very few people use titles for loans, nor does it give positive environmental effects.

These are the main conclusions of a new study by Karuti Kanyinga, Re-distribution from above. The Politics of Land Rights and Squatting in Coastal Kenya, published by the Nordic Africa Institute.

Full article:
http://www.afrol.com/Categories/Economy_Develop/agr008_kenya_land.htm

By: sid

sid — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:05:44 +0000

Some rhetoric from the usual suspects – kidd & harris. Many white farmers are more than willing to sell their land at reasonable prices – they do so every year. Calculations show that if government had simply bought land on the open market its redistribution targets would have been achieved. Many white farmers are more than happy to help manage farms. Just as many whites are happy to help manage ports, health, eskom you name it. But they are explicitly not welcome (maybe they interfere in the cadre tender processes). Why are Qatari’s welcome in Kenya – do they grease a few palms? Will they really help the locals? Why should they, after all, they are not Kenyans.

Maybe in 10 years time all the redistributed farms that were set up by the ANC government to fail will be farmed by Chinese? Will they pay a royalty to the ANC, before shipping the products off to China? Will SA’s poor be any better off?

Sadly, and as often is the case, its not about race, colonialism, redistribution etc – its about the money to Swiss bank accounts.

By: Mark Robertson

Mark Robertson — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:18:10 +0000

I am tremendously heartened by the correspondence between Todd Kidd and David Smith, showing the importance of not stereotyping and making assumptions about people. People are individuals, and I have no time for ‘assuming’ that person X thinks this or that based on their ethnicity. People are far too intelligent for that. A similar sense is from Keith B Richburg’s book – Out of America – an American black man’s experience of Africa. It rips apart all stereotypes and bigotries and examines the realities of Africans as people.

By: Carla Bauer

Carla Bauer — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:30:16 +0000

@ Todd Kidd: Why don’t you have a shot at “going back to your roots” and go live down there for awhile? Your response might be a little different then …