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Conflicts Over Land & Water in Africa
This is an examination of the broader context for the re-emergence of land reform and resource conflicts in Africa.
Efforts to change the race based systems of land ownership and land tenure in Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe have pushed land issues to the forefront of social and economic discourses in Africa.
This collection examines the broader context for the re-emergence of land reform and resource conflicts.
The case studies examine the links between identity maintenance, tenurial changes, state intervention, and forms and modes of conflict.
The authors emphasize the need for a deeper understanding of local histories, cultures, and motivations if efforts to attain a more just distribution of resources are to succeed.
The book contributes to a field that has been developing rapidly in the decade since the publication of Melissa Leach and Robin Mearns’ collection The Lie of the Land and Mahmood Mamdani’s Citizen and Subject.
Those two books started a wide ranging discussion of the political reasons for failed development in Africa, as well as the environmental and natural resource dimensions of that failure.
Some 85% of Africa’s water resources are comprised of large river basins that are shared between several countries.
High rates of population growth accompanied by continued increases in the demand for water have resulted in several countries passing the point where the scarcity of water supplies effectively limits further development.
Present population trends and patterns of water use suggest that more African countries will exceed the limits of their economically usable, land-based water resources before 2025. Normally, water allocation and distribution priorities within a country are aligned with national development objectives.
While this may achieve national “water security” objectives, greater emphasis needs to be placed on regional efforts to ensure that the available water resources are used to derive sustainable long-term benefits for the peoples of Africa as a whole.
Ideally, each country’s water-resource management strategy needs to be aligned with that of its neighbors if peace and prosperity are to be maintained and conflict is to be avoided in the region.
Conflicts Over Land & Water in Africa
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