Luka Dakskobler

Stories: LAND GRABBING IN SENEGAL

Recent food crisis and renewable-energy desires of particularly Western societies have prompted intense rush for acquisition of farmland, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, by international investors, resulting in loss of land and gross human rights violations. The so-called land grabbing presents an additional way of prolonging decades of exploitation of the continent.  

Although land grabbing has been present throughout the history of developing nations, in its recent wave, it has been primarily driven by the threats of food and energy insecurity (particularly by biofuels production). Both present a new economic opportunity for mostly foreign agricultural businesses and investors starting to grab land for growing food for export or crops for biofuels, in the Global South, where the costs of renting or buying and wages are much cheaper. For example, in Ethiopia and Ghana alone, the land grab deals have amounted up to a million hectares. The land grab deals most often present a tango between strong international agribusinesses and governments of developing nations promoting “investments and development”, while side-lining the rights of local population and local communities. 

Even in the majority of cases where the land deals are arguably legal, the practice has severe negative impact on local communities, most often denying them access to their basic livelihood and displacing them from their land necessary for their survival; or alternatively (in cases where there actually are employment opportunities for local population) making them dependent on the slavery-like working conditions in the companies. There is little evidence of positive contribution of large scale agricultural investments/land grabs to so desired development of local communities; promises of dignified employment, roads and electrification too often remain unfulfilled. Moreover, growing and exporting food for rich countries or for fuelling their cars can seriously undermine food security in the country; paradoxically for example in Ethiopia where huge land deals are happening millions of population depend on foreign food aid.  

The two cases in Senegal pictured in this story are just two Senegalese examples of how land grabbing practices significantly impact the lives of local population and most often threaten their sustainable small-scale food system by denying villagers access to grazing and agriculture land, water and firewood. In the region of Ndiaël in Northern Senegal, pastoral communities are fighting against the operation of large agribusiness Senhuile/Senethanol, an Italian-Senegalese company with murky history and suspicious links to the most powerful people in Senegal. If company remains and extends its operation, more than 37 pastoral villages located in the area for more than 200 years will have to quit their traditional pastoral ways of sustainable living, leave the area or become dependent on low wages and difficult work of the company.  

A different case is happening in the region of Kaolac where the Italian company African National Oil Corporation grows Jetropha plants for biofuel production. The company came into the village with false development and employment promises, misleading the villagers to sell their traditional land for a small amount of money. Predominately agricultural communities in the region are now left without the income from employment, and worst, with less land that would allow them to fully fulfil their food needs and invest in further development of their communities. 

Text and captions by Anita Ramsak/Ekvilib Inštitut 

  • A man tends to his cattle next to the lake Lak de Guiers, which provides water for a big agribusiness company Senhuile/Senethanol, January 8, 2014. The company gained a lease for 20000 ha of land near the lake, where pastoral communities have been living for several centuries. The company is using the land for growing crops which require massive amount of water for irrigation, thus placing additional pressure on already low level of water security in the semi-arid zone. In addition to irrigation needs, the problem of water security is also exacerbated with inefficient irrigation due to inadequate systems used by the company, which are causing large quantities of water being evaporated daily.
  • A small hut in the village of Ndiourki is seen overlooking an embankment indicating the outer limits of plantations of Senhuile/Senethanol company on January 8, 2014. The village is now surrounded with the industrial plantations on the West side and agricultural land of farming community on the East side, thus leaving the villagers with very little grazing land for their cattle. This has severe negative impact on the possibility of predominantly pastoral community to provide for their cattle, which traditionally present their main source of food and income. The operation of Senhuile/Senethanol threatens to destroy sustainable small-scale livelihoods, and if it continues, villagers will have to leave their homes due to lack of access to basic livelihoods necessary for their survival, including grazing land for their cattle, water and firewood.
  • A woman carries a canister of water in a remote village of Ndiourki, Senegal, on January 8, 2014. Ironically, out of 37 villages in the immediate vicinity of Lak de Guiere, which provides water even for the city of Dakar, only 3 villages have access to portable drinking water. Others are fetching their water from wells, water channels and the lake. The Senhuile/Senethanol operation in the region blocked traditional paths to the water, forcing villagers, particularly women, to take longer routes to get to their water source, thus increasing time and energy they spend daily for this task. In a governmental attempt to improve the access to drinking water and preserve the lake, several villages are to be included in the plan for improvement of access to drinking water, which foresees building several water pipelines to the villages, providing them with portable water. However, according to the assumptions of the villagers, who are still not connected to the water system, the implementation of the plan has been delayed, since the government is waiting to reach the consensus with the Senhuile/Senethanol about interfering with the land the company is renting.
  • Women walk home to their village of Ndiourki, one of 37 Senegalese villages threatened to lose their livelihoods due to operation of an agribusiness company Senhuile/Senethanol. In traditional Peulh communities, when a woman is married, she receives cows to take care of and uses their milk and butter to feed their families or to gain small income. Due to lack of grazing land several animals died, depriving women of a means of subsistence and the slightest income they gain independently. The problem is summed up by Djeijnaba Sow, one of the women from the village, saying:  “I had a cow, it died … I had a goat … it died, I had a sheep, it died, leaving me with little animals for my survival”.
  • A man visits a graveyard on the outskirts of a remote village of Ndiourki in Senegal, on January 8, 2014. The graveyard remains one of disputed issues between the villagers of Ndiourki and Senhuile/Senethanol company that aims to clear the land for their plantations by cutting threes around the village, including - according to the villagers - trees marking their sacred land. All attempts of the company to cut down the tree in the graveyard so far were stopped by the villagers who physically protected the graveyard from its destruction. Buried here are also three children who died after falling into an irrigation channel used by the Senhuile/Senethanol company.
  • Chief of the village Mamadou Sow picks berries full of vitamins from a Jujube tree in a remote village of Ndiourki, Senegal, on January 8, 2014. The berries from the Jujube trees that have been growing in the area for centuries are very popular with the villagers for their high value in calcium and vitamin C as well as for having other positive effects on health, including the ability to lower blood pressure. However, several trees surrounding the village were cut down by the company Senhuile/Senethanol in order to clear the land for their plantations, depriving the villagers of one of their sources of vitamins.
  • A man holds berries from the Jujube tree in a remote village of Ndiourki, Senegal, on January 8, 2014. The berries from the Jujube trees that have been growing in the area for centuries are very popular with the villagers for their high value in calcium and vitamin C as well as for having other positive effects on health, including the ability to lower blood pressure. However, several trees surrounding the village were cut down by the company Senhuile/Senethanol in order to clear the land for their plantations, depriving the villagers of one of their sources of vitamins.
  • An embankment marking the plantations of Senhuile/Senethanol is seen 500 meters away from a remote village of Ndiourki, Senegal, limiting their traditional grazing land to a 500 meter strip. This has not only severely limited the space where the villagers feed their livestock, but has also affected their freedom of movement by blocking traditional passages among villages and access to water and firewood. In addition, the project causes fear of cattle possibly wandering to areas they previously grazed in, destroying crops on the Senhuile/Senethanol plantations and consequently being seized by the guards of the company.
  • A schoolboy does his homework in a school of a remote village of Ndiourki, Senegal, on January 8, 2014. With running water and solid equipment the school in Ndiourki is one of better equipped schools in the region. It has also been providing schooling for several kids from neighboring villages until the Senhuile/Senethanol plantations blocked their direct access to the school. Now children that can’t easily access the school are being educated in temporary, less equipped schools in their local villages.
  • Water sprinkles water the plantations of Senhuile/Senethanol company, additionally burdening water security in an already drought prone semi-arid region of Ndiael, Senegal. The company first started operating in Senegal with a plan to produce crops such as sweet potatoes for biofuel production. After the unsuccessful attempt of the company to set biofuels business in the Fanaye region of Northern Senegal, where it was faced with strong resistance of local population, leading to the death of two local villagers, the company moved their operation to the current location in the Ndiael region. Doing so, they have only transfered the problem from one region to another. According to recen information the company has reoriented from biofuel production to growing maize and sunflowers for oil, but what exactly is grown on the plantations remains unknown.
  • Employee in the Senhuile/Senethanol shows his presence checklist in one of the villages in the Ndiael region of Senegal, on January 8, 2014. The checklist serves as the basis on which the company pays him for his work. Out of 4500 jobs that were promised by the company, Senhuile/Senethanol is currently employing around 200 people, 20 of them are women. The man is employed as a guard, receiving payment of 3000 Senegalese francs /4,5 Eur/ for a  day and 4000 Francs /6 Eur/ for a night shift. He does not have an official employment contract with the company; the company also does not pay social security or insurance for him. The payment is not regular and is often lower than promised.
  • A new school built by the villagers due to lack of access to the former school in Ndiourki is seen in the Comoro Village on January 8, 2014. The villagers built the school in order to secure the basic education for their children after the Senhuile/Senethanol plantation had blocked direct access to a better equipped school with running water in the village of Ndiourki.
  • A channel used by Senhuile/Senethanol company as part of their irrigation system for watering their plantations is seen in the Ndiael region of Senegal, on January 9, 2014. In order to fulfil their irrigation needs, the company deepened already existing channels and built some new ones. Doing this, they made access to water for local population more dangerous and difficult. In 2012, three boys drowned after playing too close to an unsecured channel. However, there is no information whether the responsibility for their deaths has been established.
  • Villagers of Colobane village in region Kaolac meet non-governmental organizations to discuss their options after the African National Oil Corporation (ANOC) has acquired their land in a non-transparent and allegedly illegal process. Villagers have been unsuccessfully seeking support for the injustice that happened to them through local and national channels until that day, and are getting increasingly impatient in demanding their justice and their land back. »The land of the community is our land; if you start the fight we will come and join you« were just some of the voices heard at the village meeting. In Senegal, traditional land, including majority of the land in the region of Kaolac, is not owned by the individual or a family, but is a property of local community. Therefore, anybody who wants to legally sell or buy the land needs the approval of the local Council. At this moment, there is no evidence that ANOC gained approval from the Council for their land deals, which means that the legality of their ownership over the land is seriously questioned. Furthermore, the land deals have been done in a very non-transparent manner with villagers signing blank or uncompleted papers as their agreement for selling the land. None of the villagers received a copy of the document they signed.
  • A villager shows the land near the village of Colobane, Senegal, that has been, presumed illegally, acquired by the Italian company African National Oil Corporation (ANOC) to grow Jatropha plants for biofuels, January 10, 2014. In Senegal, traditional land, including majority of the land in the region of Kaolac, is not owned by the individual or a family, but is a property of local community. Therefore, anybody who wants to legally sell or buy the land needs the approval of the local Council. At this moment, there is no evidence that ANOC gained approval from the Council for their land deals, which means that the legality of their ownership over the land is seriously questioned. Furthermore, the land deals have been done in a very non-transparent manner with villagers signing blank or uncompleted papers as their agreement for selling the land. None of the villagers received a copy of the document they signed.
  • Jatropha plantation used for the production of biofuels by the African National Oil Corporation (ANOC) is seen near the village of Colobane, Senegal on January 10, 2014. ANOC started to operate with the explicit aim to grow jatropha plants used for production of biofuels, and has later expaned their production to peanuts as well. The company is just one of several foreign companies which have been stimulated by unsustainable biofuels policies (particularly European Union lead) to grow crops for biofuels in Africa. These policies are supporting the use of agricultural land for production of crops to fuel the cars, instead of crops to feed the people.
  • Mamadou Mambone stands on the land he has sold to the African National Oil Corporation near the village of Colobane after a woman from the region working for the company, persuaded him that the deal presents a positive development for his family and the village as a whole. Together with his brother, he sold more than 15 ha of land. Similar to others, they signed a blank paper, with which they allegedly sold the land. »A woman came and told me she is from the region, and that she has seen something good and wishes to bring this to our village; she promised that they will pay 20000 francs for 1 ha of land, but beside that the most important is employment they promised to provide us with« were the words of his brother, describing the way they were persuaded to sell their land to the company. Both, Mamadoue and his brother, have large families and regular income gained from employment would present much welcomed contribution to their families.
  • Banda Samba, ex-advisor of the local Council of the region of Kaolac, shows a copy of the document, noting and describing the land sold to the African National Oil Corporation, to members of NGOs in the town of Fass, Senegal. Banda was one of the first people raising concerns over illegal land deals and land grabbing in the region. He believes that this was also the reason he was put in prison for more than one month, allegedly on the grounds of “assaulting the Council”, but without charges or proper trial. While he was in prison, the local Council has been dissolved and interim special delegation responsible directly to the President has been put in place to govern the region. During that period, the original document describing all the land that has been sold has disappeared from the Council’s archives.
  • A man transporting peanuts passes the headquarters of the Italian company African National Oil Corporation in the region of Kaolac, Senegal, on January 10, 2014. The company first come to the region in 2007 aiming to buy the land for jatropha plantations for production of biofuels. Biofuels would subsequently also be used as fuel for cars in Europe. Since 2007, the company acquired a massive area of land by promising villagers that they will be regularly employed in the company, if they would sell more than 5 ha of their land. They did not keep that promise, leaving villagers without land to grow sufficient amount of food or to gain additional income.
  • Piles of hay from peanuts are seen through the doors of the headquarters of the Italian company African National Oil Corporation (ANOC) in Kaolac, Senegal. According to the villagers, ANOC first started their business in the region with explicit intention to only grow jatropha plant which is used for biofuels production. However recently, the company also started growing peanuts which are one of the main trading crops for the villagers. Peanut plantations of the company are a point of concern for the local producers who fear that the company will create additional competition for them at the local and national markets.
  • Ndaye Fall, who sold all the land to the African National Oil Corporation, sits under a tree outside her home in Kaloac, Senegal. After the death of her husband she sold all her land to the company, with a vision that she would more easily provide for her eight children if she gains additional income by being employed at the company. The company did not keep the promise. They offered her work for only two months in bad working conditions and without regular payment. Before selling her land, Ndaye was growing millet and peanuts. Now she has to buy the peanuts at the market, grilling them and selling them in order to survive. In case she would get her land back, she would not only be able to grow her own peanuts, but also lease some land to others in order to gain additional income for her and her family.
  • Family members of a local peanut producer who rents the land from the African Oil Corporation company stand in the courtyard of their home in Lamboki, Kaolac region, Senegal. Until 2013, the African National Oil Corporation was leasing the acquired land to other people who were using it to grow crops for their small scale production. Although conditions of the lease were not officially confirmed, some villagers are claiming that the lease annually provided the company with almost as much money as they had paid the villagers for their land. The practice of leasing the land has ended in 2013 when the company itself started using the land for peanut plantations.
  • Stories
    • Slovenia wildfire 2022
    • Exhibition Affliction-Geist
    • Anti-government Protests 2020
    • The Pandemic
    • Zero Waste Ljubljana
    • The Krampusse of Duplje
    • Urban beekeeping
    • The Astronaut
    • Land Grabbing in Senegal
    • The Girl Inside
    • Safeguarding the Venetian Lagoon
    • Anti-Government Protests
    • Air Lyra
    • 15 Years After the Genocide
    • Saving the Marble Trout
    • The Sad Lake
    • The Long Nights on the Marmara Sea
    • Student Protests in Ljubljana
    • The Bora
    • Tito's Infamous Prison Islands
    • The Zice Carthusian Monastery
    • Floods in Slovenia 2010
    • Medieval Reenactments
    • No More Bella Italia
    • Ice Engulfs Slovenia
    • National Fly Fishing Championships
    • Flash floods in Zelezniki
    • The Middle East
  • Who they are
    • Mary Wilson of the Supremes
    • The Jason Cale Band
    • Martina Marenčič
    • Darko Đurič
    • Andrew Obeng
    • Linda Tellington-Jones
    • Florence Williams
    • Benka Pulko
    • In passing
    • Idols
  • On Set
    • Wake Me
    • Going Our Way 2
  • Events/News
  • Tearsheets
  • Multimedia
    • Affliction-Geist
    • The Girl Inside
    • Air Lyra
    • The Long Nights on the Marmara Sea
    • 15 Years After the Genocide
    • National Fly Fishing Championships
  • Info
    • Bio
    • Awards
  • Contact
  • Slovensko

All photos on this site are © LUKA DAKSKOBLER. Any use without permission is subject to a fine. Site design © 2010-2023 Neon Sky Creative Media