Introduction to Land, Rights and the Politics of Investments in Africa

Abstract

In this edited book, we explore the potential for implementing large-scale extractive investments in natural resources while accommodating the rights of local populations. In the book we combine a focus on the relationships between investors, ruling elites and local populations with a broad understanding of extractive investments that includes both agricultural investments and extractive investments in, for example, gas and minerals. In the book we first develop an analytical framework for analysing extractive investments by focusing on the triangular relationship between investors, local populations and ruling elites, inspired by the so-called ‘political settlement’ approach. Secondly, we develop an analytical perspective that moves from a focus on rights as absolute to one that see rights as the outcomes of relationships between the main groups of actors involved in the implementation of large-scale natural resource investments. Finally, the authors argue that the chances of large-scale investments in natural resources being implemented while respecting the rights of local populations are at their greatest when they are characterized by ‘reciprocal exchange deals’ between investors and local populations, ‘compatible interests’ between ruling elites and investors, and ‘mutual recognition’ between local populations and ruling elites. The book is based on extensive fieldwork undertaken as part of the Hierarchies of Rights: Land and Investments in Africa research programme with respect to actual large-scale investments in natural resources in the sectors of gas, minerals (coal) and agriculture (sugar and rice) in Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda.