Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses farmland investments in postcolonial African countries as 'contracts' of recognition. Its insights draw from a case study of a farm estate in Mozambique, where memories, ecological knowledges and social identities have played a critical role in legitimising land ownership.

Paper long abstract:

The so-called new 'rush' for arable land in Africa, particularly notable over the last decade, has been associated with the emergence of new commodity frontiers. Contemporary farmland investments have focused on responding to new trends in global agricultural markets, promising renewed flows of labour and capital and a 'Green Revolution' for the continent. Yet, memory, ecological knowledges and social identities play a critical role in creating a common sense of place within longstanding farm estates.

Borrowing concepts from the property and justice scholarships, this paper discusses farmland investments as 'contracts' of reciprocal recognition (Lund, 2016, Sikor and Lund, 2009). Its insights draw from a case study of a plantation in Mozambique, which inherited the colonial and postcolonial legacy of a Portuguese-owned farm estate, involving semi-structured interviews with former labourers, smallholder farmers, district officers and company managers - in addition to a comprehensive analysis of historical archives in Lisbon and Maputo.

In this case, the villagers have constructed a sense of entitlement over decades, based on personal experiences with former land 'owners', as well as on their own ecological knowledge and attachment to this landscape. Legitimising 'devices', such as technology and trees, are confronted in claiming for a space of recognition. However, changes to the organisation of labour, cultivated cash crops, or previous spatial boundaries, are ultimately perceived as a breach of a previous understanding, and thus deemed less legitimate.