Land grabs, government, peasant and civil society activism in the Senegal River Valley

Abstract

Following the Briefing in the last issue of ROAPE, this Debates contribution again uses Senegalese evidence to explore the interests and actions of major participants in the struggle to transform African agriculture: government, national elites, peasants and their civil society allies. The first section examines government motivations in facilitating land grabs; the second reviews a seminal land grab case in the Senegal River Valley that illustrates the growing sophistication of the peasant pushback and the emergence of an anti-land grab coalition between civil society and peasant organisations.