Abstract
Marjorie Mbilinyi argues that large-scale agribusiness has trampled upon peasants land and rights. She examines how the struggles over land and labour in agriculture and biofuel production are increasingly politicized and argues that instead of calling for a ‘return’ to patriarchal agriculture systems, anti-globalization movements need to recognize and learn from struggles of women and youth in agrarian communities in order to develop truly alternative people-centred economic strategies.
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Notes
See recent feminist analyses of AGRA by Fent (2011).
A major debate took place on this issue during the Afternoon Palaver at the ‘Critical Reflections on Accumulation by Dispossession in the Agrarian Sector in Africa’, Commemoration of Nyerere Day, University of Dar es Salaam, organized by Mwalimu Nyerere Professorial Chair on Pan-African Studies.
African Feminist Forum (AFF) (2007) and Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP) (2010b) provide analyses of transformative feminist movement building in Africa, and the demands for an alternative people-centred development strategy.
References
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Feminist Africa 12 (2009) ‘Special Issue on Land and Labour in Gendered Livelihood Trajectories’, Capetown: African Gender Institute.
Fent, Ashley (2011) ‘Philanthropy and Sovereignty: Critical feminist exploration of the Gates Foundation's approach to gender and agricultural development’, Paper presented at African Studies Association Annual Meeting; 17 November.
Land Rights Research & Resources Institute (LARRI) (2011) Accumulation by Land Disposession and Labour Devaluation in Tanzania: The case of biofuel and forest investments in Kilwa and Kilolo, Written by Chambi Chachage and Bernard Baha (eds.) Dar es Salaam: LARRI
Mbilinyi, Marjorie (2010) ‘Sweet and Sour: Women working for wages on Tanzania's sugar estates’, in Deborah Fahy Bryceson (ed.) How Africa Works: Occupational change, identity and morality, Sterling, VA: Practical Action Publishing.
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Outlines agricultural and land rights issues from a gender perspective in Africa
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Mbilinyi, M. Struggles over Land and Livelihoods in African Agriculture. Development 55, 390–392 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1057/dev.2012.55
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/dev.2012.55