In the wake of multiple crises, including economic instability, food shortage, energy crisis, and climate change, African farmers’ land relationships have under- gone remarkable changes in recent years. These changes in land relationships were initially brought about by the Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) of the 1980s imposed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund on sub-Saharan African countries. These programmes encouraged governments to open their markets, especially in the agricultural sector, to multinational companies, claiming that this would reduce poverty and foster economic growth. Further impetus for opening up markets, particularly land markets, in the developing world was fuelled by the triple financial, oil, and food crises of the early 2000s.
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