Decolonising ‘Afrophobia assumptions’ in Africa’s land policies

Africa is a complex continent. It has a population comprising Africans and others of European descent. It has people of Asian descent, such as Indians, Malays and others. There are people of Arabic descent. All these people share the continent with its native black population. One thing is the fear or hatred of black people by other races. Another thing is the fear or hatred of blacks by black people in Africa. In a world already suffering from Afrophobia (fear or hatred of black people), this makes it utopic to foresee an Africa where all citizens can equally enjoy better living conditions and respect from others.

To illustrate that this Afrophobia is real, I want you to think about South Africa. A section of the black population loves to hate other black Africans.

This bad social habit is commonly reported as xenophobia (hatred of foreigners) in the media. I am among those that call it Afrophobia. If our Southern African blacks really hate or fear foreigners, they would not be targeting only foreign blacks. These so-called xenophobic attacks in South Africa are conducted only on foreign black Africans. So, it makes sense to understand it as something much more than xenophobia. I call it Afrophobia (fear or hatred of blacks). Afrophobia is a psychological disease commonly found in the so-called developed white countries of Europe and the Americas. Unfortunately, it is with us in Africa. I see Afrophobia undertones in land policies in Africa.

A land policy is a set of rules and guidelines (documented or undocumented) to govern how a country’s land should be administered. It can exist as one document or a splinter of documents and cultural practices. Land reform is a government-backed initiative that entails making legislative changes (including regulations and customs or traditions) to correct past and present injustices for better development. Land policies and reforms provide a peoplecentred development vision and impacts. This is the case in many African countries where external influences (including governments, principles and ideologies) make Africa’s land/natural resources work against Africans. This happens due to weak governance in African countries and colonial connections.

Afrophobia undertones are evident in Africa, considering the way westerndesigned land interventions are fragrantly enforced in local African communities without recourse to local realities. I have news for those who complain that we blame colonisation for everything. Colonisation has after-effects on the development of nations. The World Bank’s Wealth Inequality ranking for 2022 shows that South Africa and Namibia (respectively) are the most unequal countries globally. What do these countries have in common? It is Apartheid — a system of legislation that upheld segregationist policies against non-white citizens. The more intelligent question should be, why have these countries continued to promote or grow unequal development, years after independence? Afrophobia comes to mind — because these countries have continued to follow post-apartheid economic orderings that enable rigid tenure systems that unequally benefit the black and white sections of their populations. Namibia and South Africa aside, unequal access to land persists in Africa. Decolonising (untangling the colonial principles founded on Afrophobia assumptions) Africa’s land policies/reforms’ implementations remain a missing piece in our land discourse.

Afrophobia assumptions Assumption 1

Black Africans living on communal or customary lands cannot manage their land. In some African countries, communal lands are nationalised and put in the hands of the traditional rulers or local politicians. This denies the local people their ancestral right to manage their land. In these same countries (including Namibia), land predominantly held by EuropeanAfrican settlers and native elites is categorised as private freehold property. It is taboo to suggest that freehold land (owned mainly by European-Africans) be nationalised in these countries, even though the communal lands (predominantly owned by the blacks) have already been nationalised. What is at play is that local Africans are denied their right to manage their land. Still, people of European descent and the black elites are empowered to manage theirs. Even in countries where all land is nationalised (such as Nigeria and many others), communal/customary land is put in the hands of elected politicians or traditional rulers. These scenarios assume that black Africans are incapable of managing their own properties – the same assumption used to colonise Africans.

Assumption 2

African women (and youths) are incapable of owning and managing land. African women and youth largely depend on their relatives to access land. This makes existing land policies fail to proactively tackle the women’s land rights challenges.

Assumption 3

The right to use land must be legally proven with land titles and other associated documentation. This assumption is based on Eurocentric land practices. The consequence is that African governments (just like policies against undocumented migrants by governments in Europe) are brutal against people with undocumented land rights, to the point that they deny them their ancestral heritage at the expense of legal recognition. A further consequence is increasing poverty caused by unnecessary evictions from land, their primary source of livelihood and sustenance.

The assumptions mentioned above are why there is a pandemic of land tenure insecurity in Africa. Hence, decolonising these land policy Afrophobia assumptions and embracing an Africa-wide or locally-focused approach is a matter of necessity. We need strategies that take decolonisation ideologies and people-centred practices into consideration. Until then, we will stay trapped in cycles of unimpactful land policy implementations.