Abstract
In recent years, the sugar industry in Malawi has been criticized for its connections to land-grabbing. The general trend in the current literature has been the attempt to identify the main actors and factors that were instrumental in the displacement of local communities. These studies often neglect the importance of each community’s in-depth perspectives on land-grabbing, which is essential in obtaining a comprehensive understanding of land-grabbing. By conducting field research based on in-depth interviews with the Kalimkhola community, this study had two main objectives: (1) to analyze the wider implications and effects of land-grabbing and displacement, other than its often-cited economic aspects; and (2) to analyze more specific reasons behind the community’s complaints and strong resistance to land-grabbing. The main findings of this research are that (1) land-grabbing leads to a loss of traditional cultural practices, and (2) the main reason for discontentment amongst community members is not the process of displacement, per se, but the worsening of their living and working environments. For those who were forcibly moved twice, their environmental change for the worse contributed to community resistance. These findings, along with the others in this paper, show that land-grabbing studies have the potential to broaden the research area. This can only be achieved by engaging in close interactions and in-depth interviews with specific local communities, which will lead to a more comprehensive understanding of land-grabbing in Dwangwa.
Highlights
The cultivation of sugar beet and cane are essential parts of Malawi’s economy, this industry has recently been heavily criticized for its connections to land-grabbing
The overall objective of this paper is to show that as displaced communities are the ones who are most affected by land-grabbing, an analysis of the long-term effects of displacement and changes that have taken place at the local level of each community are crucial in gaining a comprehensive understanding of land-grabbing in Dwangwa and other African countries
Most studies related to land-grabbing in the Malawian sugar industry have focused on the identification of those involved in the forced relocation of local communities
Summary
The cultivation of sugar beet and cane are essential parts of Malawi’s economy, this industry has recently been heavily criticized for its connections to land-grabbing. Interviews show displaced communities’ complaints regarding land-grabbing [1,2,3], it appears that community members were asked the same specific questions regarding unfair land deals and legal issues. This is due to the fact that their responses are mostly connected to corruption, transparency, and the community’s economic loss connected to displacement and compensation. Related to the first and the second points, most existing studies take a heavy political science approach They tend to gather and illustrate communities’
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