Land grabbing in Africa

"Land grabbing" became the term to name and describe international corporate's buying and leasing vast areas of land in Africa. (South Sudan is said to have sold or leased one tenth of its land). On the face of it, as described by the corporations this occupation of land by them provides better pay for the farmers they employ and helps the failing economies of Africa in many ways. However, there is a whole movement against this land grabbing.
Corporations make inequitable deals, to say the least, with the African governments. These deals allows them to plant whatever they want and export it even if the country is suffering shortage of food. So if a company is harvesting corn for bio energy and the country is suffering a starvation and needed the corn to feed its people, the company is under no obligation to give that corn to the citizens of that country. Actually the deals put those countries at a disadvantage even at the sovereignty level. A government will have no power over what is being harvested or where it is taken to.
Some say this land grabbing that shows corruption of governments and greed of transnational companies must be stopped. It shows that capital is working to invade and colonize African land. Others call for making it responsible.
Any thoughts?
Thank you
Asma

Salam again Asma,
What a startling operation!
Personally, I call it a new form of colonization under the nose of Africans!
A Capitalist creep ; we will wake up one day to the old whipping sound that burnt
our African ancestors' backs! In replacement of the present back whipping by
our own governments, this will be a foreign land owner whip.
(Ma ashbah allaylata bilbari7a! History repeats itself)!

How cheaply we are sold!

Ahlan Aisha
land grabbing and patenting of seeds are the insult that was added to injury.
corporates are also patenting seeds that do not belong to them. In the eighties a company patented a type of Indian rice that has been known to indian farmers for thousands of years. a patent means that no one may use the seeds unless they buy them from that company. Indian activists headed by Vandana Shiva were able to take them to court and force them out of this seed piracy.
today I was listening to NPR and the topic was whether there will be enough food to feed the population on earth. the answer was it might be possible if we escaped the droughts that were threatening agriculture. another reason mentioned was the patents held by transnationals. i would not be surprised if someone sued sudanese farmers for planting seeds of Mayo durra or faitareeta for that matter.
Karl Marx is going to be totally relevant in the coming decades.
stay well
*** the Association of Concerned African Scholars has been active on these matters, together with urging africans not to accept CIA money for education.
asma