Agrarian Neoliberalism, Authoritarianism, and the Political Reactions from below in Southern Africa

Abstract

Southern Africa has a very peculiar past. It is a region where settler colonialism used land and agriculture as instruments of domination and oppression. The legacy of this past is visible. Agrarian capital is instrumentalizing this past and advancing agrarian neoliberalism through international financial institutions and other actors. But this is not happening without resistance. Agrarian movements are among those that play an important role in resisting what I call agrarianauthoritarianism,whilepointingthewaytoemancipatorycounter- responses.Advancing with unprecedented alacrity throughout Southern Africa, agrarian authoritarianism is combined with the process of financialization of the land and agricultural sector and instrumentalization of state institutions and policies to foster frameworks that benefit capital while expropriating, expelling, and exploiting peasants and other small-scale food producers. This is the new phase of agrarian capitalism, manifesting itself with varying degrees of authoritarianism, especially through the imposition of neoliberal policies. Looking at Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, this chapter discusses the manifestation of agrarian authoritarianism in SouthernAfricaandexploresthewaysinwhichthreeagrarianmovementsinthosecountries , namely the National Union of Peasants in Mozambique (UNAC), the Zimbabwe Smallholder Organic Farmers' Forum (ZIMSOFF), and South Africa's Right to Agrarian Reform for Food Sovereignty Campaign (FSC) forge emancipatory initiatives to counter the authoritarian wave and challenge agrarian authoritarianism in the region.