Journal of African Studies and Development | June 2017
Discontents in Japan’s aid discourse in Africa: Land grabbing activism in Tokyo International Conference for Africa Development (TICAD) process
By Kinyua Laban Kithinji, Graduate School in Global Studies, Sophia University – Tokyo
“Political resistance towards international development is a prevalent theme in global civil society and Non-Governmental organizations. The poor are often assumed to indubitably participate in resistance. However, the poor’s participation is both diverse and complex. To understand this complexity, this paper attempts to explain the poor’s acquiescence in incorporation into land grabbing deals. By examining Japan’s discourse of development targeted to Africa, ambivalence of Tokyo International Conference for Africa Development (TICAD) rhetoric of ownership and partnership is described as disappropriately engaging the local populations in transfer of land from local populations to state, interstate apparatus, and transnational corporations for the purpose of large-scale investment in food crops. This has degraded the local environment and uprooted rural livelihoods…” – Journal of African Studies and Development