Ten drivers of rural transformation in contemporary Africa

Prof. Ruth Hall
Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), University of the Western Cape

Abstract

‘Sustainable rural transformation’ is a catchword that is as attractive as it is vague. History is littered with promises, and competing imaginaries, of rural and agricultural progress, few of which have been realised in practice, but nonetheless served ideological and political ends. The classical Marxist framing of the agrarian question was about how agrarian transformation could lead to industrialisation and the creation of an urban and industrial proletariat and, in turn, create the conditions for socialism. Yet colonial and post-colonial structures of rule and extraction ensured that this European path of development was not followed in Africa. Instead, a pathway of commodity production, labour reserves, state developmentalism and liberalisation have combined to create regions of stagnation and deep impoverishment but also pockets of dynamic change. So, what are the forms or pathways of agrarian change currently underway in Africa? I propose ten dimensions of rural transformation that merit attention. First, land grabs have seen the rise (or revival) of the big farm model, with the recent resurgence of plantations, mimicking (or even reviving) large colonial estates and state farms from post-colonial developmentalism. Second, pro-smallholder policies are largely neglected, but contract farming linking producers into global value chains are on the rise. Third is the rise of ‘middle farmers’, often civil servants and businesspeople, investing in rural areas and now account for a substantial portion of all farms in several countries. Fourth, land reforms that have in many cases failed to secure customary and informal tenure rights in law and in practice, redistribute land at scale or to establish robust and democratic forms of governance. Fifth, deagrarianisation and rapid urbanisation, driven by combined push and pull factors, but often complex, multidirectional and intergenerational. Sixth, the forms of agricultural development have created limited jobs, and we see instead the expansion of jobless and landless populations and a semi-proletarianised class that is neither fully agrarian nor fully absorbed as labour in agriculture, industry or mining. Seventh is the rising importance and scale of rural non-farm economy and the diversification out of agriculture. Eighth is the rise in ‘growth corridors’ as ways for national governments to shape the inflow of private capital, especially along the eastern seaboard and potentially also around the west African bulge. Ninth, financialisation has seen the entry of new actors, interests and capital into rural areas, sometimes associated with farmland portfolios, linking sometimes remote areas with the global economy, via private equity and derivatives. Tenth, technology and the ongoing mechanisation have not proceeded as widely predicted, with poor technology transfer alongside niche pockets of hi-tech agriculture. Combine the above with climate change and a global pandemic, and we have complex and intersecting drivers of change, the outcome of which is impossible to predict but which has already prompted the massive movement of capital globally, while simultaneously blocking the mobility of people and goods. There are reasons for optimism and for pessimism, but most of all, right now, competing visions for sustainable rural development need to be explicitly articulated so that their underlying assumptions and choices are made explicit. 

Crisis and Convergence in Africa: Emerging Patterns of Accumulation

Prof. Paris Yeros
Federal University of ABC, Brazil

Abstract
This keynote address seeks to contribute to the conceptualization of the new patterns of accumulation that have been emerging in Africa during the long period of neoliberal adjustment, after the crisis of the 1970s. It is evident that the three macro-regions that took form under colonialism – the peasant economies under commercial monopolies in West Africa, the concessionary extractivist economies of Central Africa, and the labour reserves of Southern Africa – have been undergoing substantial transformation. Several tendencies are discernible, pointing towards a convergence in patterns of accumulation, related to three processes. First, there is an emergent ‘tri-modal’ agrarian structure, involving peasants, middle commercial farmers and larger farming enterprises. The tri-modal structure is the result of a general reorientation towards cash cropping, reinforced by ongoing waves of land alienation (even in non-settler Africa) and the expansion of contract farming. Second, there has been an expansion of extractivist activities in mining and energy industries, which have also spread in new directions and concessionary modalities. The whole of the West coast has shifted to oil production, while corporate mining has tightened its grip over old and new high-value commodities everywhere, alongside a rapid expansion of artisanal mining. Third, and perhaps most decisively for convergence tendencies, is the expansion of labour reserves on the whole of the continent. We can speak of a semi-proletarianised social formation as having taken hold across rural and urban areas, consequent upon the agrarian crisis, de-industrialization and prolonged demographic transition. In this context, sustainable rural transformation based on peasant production and cooperativism in agro-industrial development emerges as a clear priority.