Paper long abstract:

The paper analyzes the Agrarian Question in South Africa from an historical perspective. It does so understanding the long dureé of historical transformation of rural social relations that affected the development of capitalism in the South African countryside and the resistance it encountered. The aims of the paper is to intermesh different levels of analysis starting from the international, the national and completing it with a view of the consequences of processes of semi-proletarianization on the local scale. Synergizing the local and the global, the macro and micro is the constant effort of the paper to better uncover the complexities of the ongoing transition which is taking place in the context of market-based land reform started in the 1996.

The paper will also focus on Inanda, the rural-urban region in the inner part of the newly erected Ethekewini Municipality (the greater Durban). This case study helps explain contemporary processes of urban/rural articulations, rural marginalization and development/underdevelopment.

The analysis will explores the contested terrain of the consequences and outcomes of politics of land set up in South Africa on the base of the willing buyer-willing seller principle which is increasing uneven processes of commoditization.

The three pillars of the land reform: land restitution, redistribution and tenure security will be the object of the final scrutiny of the paper with the annexed proposal of different policy measures aimed at overcoming the limits of the present Government of South Africa approach.

Paper long abstract:

Ethiopia is a country in the horn of Africa with the evidences of .drought and flood that have affected and still affecting the people leading to famine. Ethiopia is one of the countries in the Sahel Region where recurrent drought and flood are common problems in the region. Drought and flood are not new phenomena to the Ethiopians. Historically, the people have suffered numerous of such disasters. The impact of drought and flood on the people depend not only on the severity and duration, but is also mediated by social factors which determine their vulnerability to, and ability to cope with drought and flood. It is necessary to note that drought and flood might be remembered as particularly severe if it leads to famine, but a resilient society with well equipped coping strategies may survive them without experiencing famine. Therefore, historical records of famine associated explicitly or implicitly with drought and flood should be interpreted with caution as they may lead to both overestimation and underestimation of the severity of previous drought and flood episodes, depending on the evolution of underlying social vulnerability The prevalence of famine during the past three administrations in Ethiopia will be analyzed which are 1973-74, 1984-85, 2002-03. Discussions will also be extended to the current inundations that are attributable to pre-existing ground saturation coupled with heavy downpours in the adjacent highland area of Ethiopia

Paper long abstract:

This paper seeks to explore and understand the catastrophic failures of state sponsored development emanating from the Labour government under Clement Attlee after WWII. The welfarist agenda of Labour’s left – championed by the Fabian Colonial Bureau established in 1940 – gained an influential foothold that would impact heavily on African policy after 1945. However, the huge economic problems faced by Britain after 1947 would see the notion of colonial development rise to become a major cause celebre in Britain’s drive for economic stability. Africa would bare the brunt of a new short-term drive to exploit colonies for dollar earning or dollar saving commodities. In 1948, the British government established two large state funded corporations to drive forward colonial development; the Overseas Food Corporation and the Colonial Development Corporation. This paper will show how numerous factors would see these organisations fail to deliver any real economic benefit to Britain in the short-term and affectively retard the progress of the welfarist agenda in British Africa.