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NELGA Masterclass: Mining, Extractivism, and Land Rights in Africa

By November 26, 2024December 5th, 2024No Comments

This masterclass forms part of the Network of Excellence on Land Governance in Africa lecture series, hosted by PLAAS.

Thursday, 05 December 2024
10:00 – 13:00 SAST / CAT
Register on: https://tinyurl.com/2s3tnzcc

Since colonial times, the extraction and export of natural resources have defined Africa’s insertion and subordinate status in the global capitalist economy. After a period of relative stagnation, Africa’s mineral economy was revitalised by the Asian (especially Chinese) driven commodity boom of the 2000s.

The commodity boom has generated unprecedented levels of profit for TNCs, economic growth and increased export earnings for African governments. But millions of citizens have suffered negative social and environmental effects of natural resource extraction (dispossession of their lands, loss of livelihoods, pollution) without benefitting from the exploitation of nominally public-owned mineral resources.

Over the past decade or so, the concept of “extractivism”, which originated in Latin America, has been increasingly used as “an organising concept” to analyse and understand the multiplicity of social and power relation, as well as ecological effects of contemporary export-driven natural resource exploitation.

The lecture will discuss the understanding and uses of the concept of extractivism in the African context by scholars and activists and analyse its features and effects. The discussion will also look at resistance to extractivism by citizens and their movements as well as reform and transformation initiatives by African governments.

Bio: Dr Yao Graham
Dr Yao Graham is the coordinator of Third World Network – Africa, a pan-African policy advocacy organisation based in Accra, Ghana. Dr Graham holds a PhD in law from the University of Ghana, has worked on African and international development, trade and investment and minerals for many years – as a public intellectual, activist, government official and journalist. Dr Graham is the African editor of the academic journal Review of African Political Economy (ROAPE) and founding editor of the Ghanaian bi-weekly newspaper, Public Agenda.

 

Reading list

READING LIST – MINING, EXTRACTIVISM AND LAND RIGHTS IN AFRICA

  1. ACET: The Impact of Expanding Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining on Small Holder Agriculture in West Africa – A Case Study of Burkina Faso, Ghana and Sierra Leone SYNTHESIS REPORT OCTOBER 2017  https://acetforafrica.org/?smd_process_download=1&download_id=16803
  2. African Union Africa Mineral Governance Framework (AMGF) https://repository.uneca.org/handle/10855/24172
  3. African Union Africa Mining Vision https://au.int/en/documents/20100212/africa-mining-vision-amv
  4. Alberto Costa Extractivism and Neoextractivism: Two Sides of the Same Curse; https://www.tni.org/files/download/beyonddevelopment_extractivism.pdf
  5. Alberto Costa Post-Extractivism: From Discourse to Practice—Reflections for Action https://journals.openedition.org/poldev/2356#tocto1n1
  6. Ayelazuno, Jasper Abembia. 2014. “The “New Extractivism” in Ghana: A Critical Review of Its Development Prospects.” The Extractive Industries and Society 1 (2): 292–302. https://doi.org/10. 1016/j.exis.2014.04.008.
  7. Ayelazuno, Jasper Abembia. 2019. “Land Governance for Extractivism and Capitalist Farming in Africa: An Overview.” Land Use Policy 81 (2): 843–851. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol. 2018.06.037.
  8. Ben Radley (2023) Green imperialism, sovereignty, and the quest for national development in the Congo, Review of African Political Economy, 50:177-178, 322-339,  DOI: 10.1080/03056244.2023.2277616
  9. Bowman, A., Tomas Frederiksen, T., Bryceson,D., Childs, J., Gilberthorpe, E., Newman, S., Mining in Africa after the supercycle: New directions and geographies https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12723
  10. Brand, U., Dietz, K., Lang, M., Neo-Extractivism in Latin America. One Side of a New Phase of Global Capitalist Dynamics
  11. Building power in crisis: women’s responses to extractivism – a landscape analysis by the SAGE Fund https://static1.squarespace.com/static/56e04646f699bb070acdb6f3/t/648b194c9a89cd6d3f6d0398/1686837583849/Extract+Report_Long_Eng_LoRes_Final_6.6.23.pdf
  12. China and the United States Lock Horns in Africa’s Critical Minerals Race  https://www.afronomicslaw.org/category/analysis/china-and-united-states-lock-horns-africas-critical-minerals-race
  13. Christopher W. Chagnon, Francesco Durante, Barry K. Gills, Sophia E. Hagolani-Albov, Saana Hokkanen, Sohvi M. J. Kangasluoma, Heidi Konttinen, Markus Kröger, William LaFleur, Ossi Ollinaho & Marketta P. S. Vuola (2022) From extractivism to global extractivism: the evolution of an organizing concept, The Journal of Peasant Studies, 49:4, 760-792, DOI: 10.1080/03066150.2022.2069015
  14. Diana Vela Almeida  Resources for a better future – Extractivism https://www.resilience.org/stories/2020-08-05/extractivism/
  15. Elia Apostolopoulou (2023) Dismantling green colonialism: energy and climate justice in the Arab region, Review of African Political Economy, 50:177-178, 513-515, DOI: 10.1080/03056244.2023.2293355
  16. Energy policy and resource extractivism – Resistances and alternatives, Reader of the seminar in Tunis,  24–26 March 2013 https://www.rosalux.de/en/publication/id/8428/energy-policy-and-resources-extractivism-resistances-and-alternatives/
  17. Feminist Africa, Volume 2, Issue 1 (2021) Extractivism, Resistance, Alternatives https://feministafrica.net/feminist-africa-volume-2-issue-1-2021-extractivism-resistance-alternatives/
  18. Gudynas, E., 2010. The New Extractivism in South America: Ten Urgent Theses about Extractivism in Relation to Current South American Progressivism. Americas Program Report. Center for International Policy, Washington, DC. http://www.iadb.org/intal/intalcdi/PE/2010/04716.pdf.
  19. Gudynas,E. 2020. Extractivisms – Politics, Economy, Ecology , Fernwood Publishing, Black Point Canada
  20. Hamza Hamouchene Extractivism and Resistance in North Africa https://www.tni.org/en/publication/extractivism-and-resistance-in-north-africa
  21. Hannes Warnecke-Berger, Hans-Jürgen Burchardt & Kristina Dietz (2023): The failure of (neo-)extractivism in Latin America – explanations and future challenges, Third World Quarterly, DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2023.2203380
  22. Harnessing Sub-Saharan Africa’s Critical Mineral Wealth By Wenjie Chen, Athene Laws, and Nico Valckx  https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2024/04/29/cf-harnessing-sub-saharan-africas-critical-mineral-wealth
  23. Hilson, G.,  Artisanal and small-scale mining and agriculture Exploring their links in rural sub-Saharan Africa https://www.iied.org/16617iied
  24. John Bellamy Foster Extractivism in the Anthropocene Monthly Review  April 2024 (Volume 75, Number 11)  https://monthlyreview.org/2024/04/01/extractivism-in-the-anthropocene/
  25. Magnus Ericsson & Olof Löf & Anton Löf, 2020. “Chinese control over African and global mining—past, present and future,” Mineral Economics, Springer;Raw Materials Group (RMG);Luleå University of Technology, vol. 33(1), pages 153-181, July. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13563-020-00233-4
  26. Magnus Ericsson1 and Olof Löf – Mining’s contribution to low- and middle-income economies
  27. Mo Ibrahim foundation – Africa’s critical minerals Africa at the heart of a low-carbon future
  28. No more plundering: Can Africa take control in green mineral rush?
  29. OECD – Raw materials critical for the green transition  production, international Trade and export restrictions – OECD trade policy paper
  30. Property rights from above and below: mining and distributive struggles in South Africa https://law.utexas.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/31/2019/12/Report_Mining-and-Distributive-Struggles-in-South-Africa-December-2019.pdf
  31. PWC Mine Back to the boom Review of Mining Trends in the global in the mining industry 2010  https://www.pwc.co.uk/assets/pdf/mine-back-to-the-boom.pdf
  32. Review of African Political Economy Volume 47, Issue 166  (October 2020)  Extractivism in Africa  https://www.scienceopen.com/journal-issue?id=4133acc6-2cad-43ce-9e46-4da05aad0882
  33. Salimah Valiani The African Mining Vision – A Long Overdue Ecofeminist Critique (PDF) The Africa Mining Vision: A long Overdue Ecofeminist Critique | Salimah Valiani – Academia.edu.analytical-paper.pdf
  34. Susana Moreno-Maestro (2023) Autonomous projects in the face of the global fishing market: women fish processors in Senegal in a context of climate emergency, Review of African Political Economy, 50:177-178, 388-401, DOI: 10.1080/03056244.2023.2293607
  35. Teresa Cunha and Isabel Casimiro: “Cinderellas” of Our Mozambique Wish to Speak: A Feminist Perspective on Extractivism https://feministafrica.net/2021/04/09/cinderellas-of-our-mozambique-wish-to-speak-a-feminist-perspective-on-extractivism/
  36. The EU’s critical minerals crusade https://www.somo.nl/the-eus-critical-minerals-crusade/
  37. The Structures of Conquest: Debating Extractivism(s),Infrastructures and Environmental Justice for Advancing Post-Development Pathways https://journals.openedition.org/poldev/5355
  38. Thea Riofrancos Extractivism and Extractivismo; https://globalsouthstudies.as.virginia.edu/key-concepts/extractivism-and-extractivismo
  39. Tobias Kalt, Jenny Simon, Johanna Tunn & Jesko Hennig (2023) Between green extractivism and energy justice: competing strategies in South Africa’s hydrogen transition in the context of climate crisis, Review of African Political Economy, 50:177-178, 302-321, DOI: 10.1080/03056244.2023.2260206
  40. UNCTAD State of Commodity Dependence 2016 https://unctad.org/publication/state-commodity-dependence-2016
  41. UNECA/AU -Minerals and Africa’s development: the international study group report on Africa’s mineral regimes https://repository.uneca.org/handle/10855/21569
  42. UNEP – Global Resources Outlook 2024 – Bend the Trend – Pathways to a livable Planet as resource use spikes https://www.unep.org/resources/Global-Resource-Outlook-2024
  43. Women Within the Context of Agricultural Extractivism: Voices of Women Land Defenders in Central America https://fondocentroamericano.org/publication/women-within-the-context-of-agricultural-extractivism/
  44. WOMIN – Women, Gender and Extractivism in Africa: A Collection of Papers https://womin.africa/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Full-collection-Women-gender-and-extractivism-in-Africa.pdf
  45. Ximena Saskia Warnaars (2023) Examining Extractivism’s Gendered Violence and Honoring the Women Fighting for Change  https://www.fordfoundation.org/news-and-stories/stories/examining-extractivism-s-gendered-violence-and-honoring-the-women-fighting-for-change/

Other important readings:

  • https://mo.ibrahim.foundation/sites/default/files/2022-11/minerals-resource-governance.pdf
  • https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5c09/a4adabd3892912ce1bb64ea6026e308b5561.pdf
  • https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/suc2017d2.pdf
  • https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/raw-materials-critical-for-the-green-transition_c6bb598b-en.html
  • https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337687296_Mining’s_contribution_to_low_and_middlencome_economies
  • https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/no-more-plundering-can-africa-take-control-in-green-mineral-rush/

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