African Land Questions, the State and Agrarian Transition: Contradictions of Neo-liberal Land Reforms

ISBN: 2-86978-202-0; ISBN 13: 978286978202-0; 159 pages, 2008

This book is a critical reflection on the land question in Africa, research on which tends to be tangential, conceptually loose and generally inadequate. It argues that the most pressing research concern must be to understand the precise nature of the African land question, its land reforms and their effects on development.

The book goes further to questions the capacity of emerging neo-liberal economic and political regimes in Africa to deliver land reforms which address growing inequality and poverty. Finally, it invites scholars and policy makers to creatively draw on the specific historical trajectories and contemporary expression of the land and agrarian questions in Africa, to enrich both theory and practice on land in the continent.