Paper short abstract:

The current wave of neoliberal globalisation and large-scale land acquisition reminiscent the colonial era characterised by accumulation by dispossession. They share many logics, in which vast areas of land of the colonies were acquired to satisfy the interests of the colonisers' institutions.

Paper long abstract:

This paper contributes to the ongoing debate of large-scale land acquisitions in the continent of Africa as an instrument of transformation or disruption. It draws on the theoretical discourse of postcolonial, neoliberal globalisation and large-scale land acquisitions, complemented with the case study of large-scale land acquisitions for Lekki Free Trade Zone in Lagos, Nigeria. From a critical perspective, it is paradoxical that large-scale land acquisition can provide new opportunities for empowerment through better access to foreign capital, transfer of technology and advances in productivity. However, it is also a tool of displacement, exclusion, conflicts, dispossession, corruption, and critical changes in the processes of society-nature interaction that significantly shifts development benefits in favour of corporate elites. These reflect what Marxist economics referred to as primitive accumulation and accumulation by dispossession. The paper further shows that though the Lekki Free Trade Zone's land acquisition came with promises of community improvement and other Corporate Social Responsibility packages, the promises are as speculative as the implementation. While the land has been completely acquired, project implementation has proceeded at a slow pace. The acquisition became conduit for speculative urbanism and for improved land value that meet the capital interest of the investors and not necessarily the needs of the local people. The paper concludes that the current phenomenon reminiscent the historical colonial period, characterised by accumulation by dispossession, as they share many logics. Notably, vast areas of land of the colonies were acquired to satisfy the development interests of the colonisers' corporate institutions.