Capital Penetration and the Peasantry in Southern and Eastern Africa Neoliberal Restructuring

This book examines the impact of neoliberalism on peasant agriculture as a key livelihood strategy in Southern and Eastern Africa, against the background of the current development crisis and the crossroads that Southern and Eastern Africa faces. It systematically analyses how the neoliberal architecture has deepened extroverted production for capitalist accumulation and how this has been to the detriment of the rural labour force and small scale and communal landowners. Apart from examining how neoliberalism has triggered land alienations, the book further argues that such policies have also impacted negatively on food security in a number of ways. The book presents empirical evidence through twelve case studies, emerging from in-depth original fieldwork carried out in seven countries in the Southern and Eastern African region.

This book is a must-read for scholars of economics,sociology, anthropology, history, agrarian studies and political science, as well as practitioners and policy-makers, interested in a better understanding of the impact of the agrarian neoliberal restructuring on the peasantry in Southern Africa.

Part I: Concepts and Debates.- Capital Penetration and the Subordination of the Peasantry under Neoliberalism in Africa.- Neoliberalisation and Regulatory Restructuring in South Africa’s Commercial Agriculture.- Part II: Land Reform Struggles in a Neoliberal Era.- Land for Development? Neoliberal Restructuring and the Dynamics of Land Reforms in Uganda.- The Struggle Continues: Namibia’s Enduring Land Question.- Land Reform Or Continued Social Exclusion? Land Occupations, State Responses and Neoliberal Policies in Southern Malawi.- Part III:  Agricultural policies under Neoliberalism.- Gender, Household Food Security and Neoliberal Decimation of the Grain-Producing Peasantry in Zimbabwe.- Smallholder Farmer Empowerment and Neoliberalism: Examining the Current Institutional and Policy Arrangements in Zambia.- Putting Agriculture Ahead? Some Reflections about the Early Years of Neoliberalism in Kenya.- Part IV: Neoliberalism, Extroverted Production & Implications for the Peasantry.-Neoliberal Agrarian Policies and Terms of Incorporation in Rural Mozambique.- Socio-Economic Effects of Neoliberal Transformation on Irrigated Agriculture in Eswatini: A Case of Sugarcane Farmers’ Groups in the Komati Downstream Development Project.- Meeting Global Capital in a Village: The Expansion of Tobacco Contract Farming in Zimbabwe.