Biofuel Firms' African Land Grab Has Colonial Echoes

Western companies shower nations with promises met with some suspicion

By Nick McMaster, Newser Staff

Posted Sep 5, 2008 5:20 PM CDT

(Newser) – Africa is being seeded for a coming boom in biofuels, as Western companies buy thousands of acres to cultivate vegetable-oil-rich plants like the Jatropha curcas, Der Spiegel reports. In countries like Tanzania, Ghana and Ethiopia, firms are often securing century-long farming rights for nothing but a promise to invest in local roads and schools.

For governments and the companies, the situation is win-win: The land is often unused and sparse—“It’s just marginal,” said one Ethiopian official. But the land grabs and forced relocations are stirring ugly memories of colonialist exploitation: Mining companies made similar promises in the early 1090s. "What happened? No schools, no wells and few jobs, which were low-paying jobs, to boot," said a Tanzanian journalist.

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"The whole thing is nothing but positive," an official in Tanzania says of efforts by Western companies to acquire land to grow crops that can be made into biofuels%u2014though detractors are plentiful. (Getty Images)

"They promised us jobs, new roads, new wells and schools," one journalist says of Western mining concerns. "And what happened? No schools, no wells and few jobs, which were low-paying jobs, to boot." (Getty Images)

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Africa offers oil farmers virtually ideal conditions for their purposes: underused land in many places, low land prices, ownership that is often unclear and, most of all, regimes capable of being influenced.

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Biofuel Firms' African Land Grab Has Colonial Echoes