Land Grabbing in Zambia
What is grabbing?
Obtaining large amount of something
(affecting peoples livelihood)
Which way forward?
Background
• BEFORE COLONIALISM land was administered under tribal norms
• Land unevenly distributed
• Colonialism brought new land admin policies of landholding
- Crown Land-meant for white settlers only (prime land)
- Native reserves-for natives only
- Native trust land-for building towns for natives (non natives given five year leases)
Background (Cont’d)
• Post-independence: focused on nation building
• Buying and selling of land prohibited
• 1972: “one-party participatory democracy”
• 1980: food riots, donors withholding aid
• 1991 came Chiluba’s Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD)
Background (cont’d)
• Introduced 1995 Lands Act
• Lands Act continued vesting all land in the hands of the President
• Introduced buying & selling of land
• Vision 2030: Govt Document “sets out the goals and targets to be achieved in the various spheres of Zambia’s social-economic life over the next generation”
Land Tenure in Zambia
Land Tenure (Cont’d)
• at independence land categories reduced to 2 tenure systems: Customary & Leasehold
• Leasehold tenure: Privatized & sold to multinationals by the govt
• Smallholders have little control over land: discrimination & limited protection in either tenure system for women, youth & the poor
Land Tenure (Cont’d)
• Customary land tenure: Some Chiefs selling land to Zambian elite and non Zambians without consent of the people who cultivate it
• People displaced due to land grabbing by large scale international investors
Zambia Land Alliance (ZLA)Lands Act 1995 enacted
Zambian civil society was necessary to bring changes
1997: ZLA formed to lobby for pro-poor land laws & policies, research, awareness
Lobbying for decentralzn of land, increasing protection of the poor
monitoring implementatn of land legislation, & minimum land quota for
Zambia Land Alliance
Issues and causes of Land
Grabbing• i) Customary norms (Inheritance):
- land is governed by traditional leaders with more power & authority to grab land from any one and sell to investors without consulting their people
- Widows and orphans most victims
- Monze district - Mostly matrilineal and at marriage most men in the villages acquire land from their uncles to start new homes
Land is source of Traditional authority, leading to
overlooking the needs of marginalized groups in
society (disabled)
Land inheritance questionable
• Mother in law of widow expressing her authority over the house & land left
by her deceased son
Bio-fuel crops, whose benefit?....
Effects of land grabs
Effects
Effects
Effects
Effects (cont’d)
• Engagement in prostitution: HIV/AIDS
• School and education stop
• Increased marginalisation of people
Effects
• Migration of displaced people to the unplanned areas
• Overcrowding due to limited parcels of land, likely to cause pandemic diseases
Effects (Cont’d)
• Casual jobs
• Undesirable competition for resources such as land to build houses & pastoral land that cause social conflicts
• General insecurity resulting from increasing hostilities between the old (community) and new land owners
• Exacerbated hunger situation as source of income is affected
Intervention Strategies
• Limited data in land grabbing in Zambia
• Conducting round table meetings with Govt & Traditional Leaders: lasting solution to these land grabs
• public awareness meetings: empowering communities on their land rights
• Lobbing Govt adopt pro-poor land policy with interests of marginalised groups
• Lobbing Govt for law on customary land & its procedures
LAND IS LIFE, LETS PROTECT IT!
PRESETED BY: E.C. Hatimbula, District Coordinator,
Monze Zambia
EMAIL:
[email protected]/[email protected]
om,
Website: www.zla.org.zm
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