Kenya

Agricultural experts have called for a halt to moves by Gulf investors to snap up foreign land, amid claims that poor nations are losing much-needed farmland in a calculated land grab.

A new breed of colonialism is rampaging across the world, with rich nations buying up the natural resources of developing countries that can ill afford to sell. Some staggering deals have already been done, but angry locals are now trying to stop the landgrabs

Most of the Orma and Pokomo communities living in the Tana River delta do not have title deeds and a government agency claims ownership of the land, but locals say the land was handed to them by their ancestors.

Because of the political sensitivity of the modern-day land grab, it is often only the country's head of state who knows the details. Der Spiegel investigates.

Questions persist as to whether the Government ought to tighten its control over the ownership of agricultural land, particularly by non-Kenyans.

Ouyang Riping, PDG d’une société agricole chinoise, a une mission : transformer le Sénégal en grenier à sésame… pour la Chine ! Dakar lui cède 60 000 hectares pour cultiver et exporter le sésame vers Pékin. En échange, les chinois apprennent aux paysans sénégalais à obtenir deux récoltes de riz par an. Coopération originale ou marché de dupes ?

"Nous pouvons être expulsés à n'importe quel moment. Ils vont devoir assécher la zone et tout ce qu'il nous restera sera la pauvreté". Bernard Onyongo, pêcheur de 65 ans, voit son mode de vie menacé par la ruée sur les terres arables africaines.

"Es una forma de hegemonía (...) Qatar nunca cedería a Kenia participaciones en sus campos petrolíferos", critica el abogado keniano Evans Monari.

"C'est une forme d'hégémonie (...) Le Qatar ne cèderait jamais au Kenya des participations dans ses champs pétrolifères", critique l'avocat kényan Evans Monari.

Activists say as many as 150,000 people in the Tana River delta could be displaced by the Qatari land-lease deal -- and it is not the only one in Kenya.

India, once the colonial jewel of Britain's empire, has been accused of 'neo-colonialism' in Africa where its business people have joined a race with China, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere to buy up agricultural estates and take advantage of cheap labour.

I wonder why the people (and more importantly the political leaders and elite) of the African and Latin American countries are not opposing and driving these companies out from within their national borders. The reason is simple. The rich and elite of every country is the real beneficiary of the process of globalisation.