Development by Dispossession: Terra Nullius and the Social‐Ecology of New Enclosures in Ethiopia

Abstract

One of the alarming features of the intersection of the world economic crisis with the global food and energy crises has been the tidal wave of large-scale land acquisitions it has unleashed. By enclosing the village commons and extinguishing the customary rights of smallholders, these land grabs are accelerating trends toward large-scale industrial farming and tenure rearrangements favoring international agribusiness. This article situates these developments in the social space of Ethiopia and a specific historical context of transformations in state and property relations. By critically analyzing the designation of the commons as empty or underutilized spaces awaiting redemptive development, it highlights the ways in which the legitimizing claims of terra nullius efface the complex ecologies and distinctive spatial dynamics of social reproduction in the zones designated for enclosures.

A view from the top: examining elites in large-scale land deals

“…States may use land concessions as a means to exert sovereignty over unruly internal populations or border areas coveted by neighbours (Hall 2013). Not infrequently, states wield discourses of necessity, crisis, nationalism and demographic determinism over internal lands that seem underutilised or insubordinate to the national order (Makki 2014). Revenue is another key motivation for land concessions by states: by nationalising land and negotiating with investors, states create new sources of revenue and -perhaps -unreported income for state functionaries (German, Schoneveld, and Mwangi 2013;Hall 2013).…”

Capitalist Formations of Enclosure: Space and the Extinction of the Commons

“…This ex novo moment usually operates on large scales—from the regional to the global—and pursues the dispossession of material commons, typically land and other resources which are key to the reproduction of livelihoods out of the market but also strategic to the consolidation and survival of capitalism. Hence at this level enclosure presents its simpler but also its more painful inflection: the crude separation of communities from basic means of subsistence and autonomy, often through a “profound remaking of the socio‐ecological universe of agrarian societies” (Makki :80). Either in a deliberate or collateral fashion, these enclosure formations combine effects in the spheres of production and social reproduction.…”

“…Identified as the latest spatial fix of a crisis‐prone system (McMichael :684), the global land grab involves the penetration of corporate investors—usually governments and firms, sovereign wealth funds and investment banks—in foreign countries in Africa (Makki ), Asia (Hsing :181ff. ; Levien ), Latin America (Borras et al ) and the former Soviet Eurasia (Visser and Spoor ).…”

Agricultural intensification in Ethiopia: Review of recent research

“…There are concerns that the lease of large tracts of land in Ethiopia will negatively impact smallholders (Rahmato, 2011), decrease local accessibility and food security (Cochrane, 2012) and result in human rights violations (Human Rights Watch, 2012;Makki, 2013). However, recent developments indicate that the scale of land leases are not as large as originally assumed (Cotula et al, 2009) and that human rights abuses may not be as extensive as claimed (Cochrane and Thornton, 2014).…”