Is the new trend of African nations selling or leasing agricultural land to foreign companies or countries a new form of colonialism (“agri-imperialism”) or a savvy form of investment and partnership? These are the questions raised in recent articles in the New York Times Magazine and Washington Post. The deeply unsatisfying answer from my vantage point is: We don’t know, and it depends. There is nothing innately imperialist about these sorts of partnerships. But Africa observers are probably right to worry about the potential for exploitation. One would hope that these agreements would always involve pretty substantial commitments to local development and food production and would have opt-out options that would not lock Africans into unexpectedly onerous agreements and that African governments would first and foremost have the larger interests of their countries in mind. But yes, the skepticism is probably warranted.
