Professor Sam
Moyo, director of the African Institute of Agrarian
Studies, and a giant of agrarian studies has died
tragically as a result of a car accident in New
Delhi. This is a terrible loss for Zimbabwe, Africa
and the world. Sam had a massive intellect and a
deep knowledge of agrarian issues, especially in
Zimbabwe. He argued strongly for land reform throughout
his career and was always an advocate for radical
alternatives that challenged oppression and exploitation
in whatever form.
I first got to know Sam in the 1980s, when he was
working at the Zimbabwe Institute for Development
Studies, then a think tank linked to the President’s
office. As a PhD student interested in similar themes,
he was always welcoming and encouraging, as he has
been to so many others since (see this from Alex
Magaisa posted over the weekend). Over the years
we have had many, many conversations: always challenging,
always inspiring. We did not always agree, but I
have always massively respected his commitment,
integrity and intellectual depth.
Certainly in the last 15 years, as the debate around
Zimbabwe’s controversial land reform has continued,
Sam’s contributions – and those of his colleagues
at AIAS – have been essential. Their district level
study published in 2009 preceded our book, and set
the stage for a more mature, empirically-informed
debate that (sometimes) has followed. Sam has often
been inaccurately pigeon-holed as being on one ‘side’
or another. But his scholarship is far more sophisticated
than this. In Zimbabwe’s land debate nearly everyone
at different times disagreed with him, but they
all listened. Whether inside the state and party,
among opposition groups or with the World Bank and
other donors, no one could ignore what Sam had to
say. And his influence in seeking a more sensible
line has been enormous.
But Sam’s scholar activism was not just focused
on Zimbabwe. He was frequently invited by governments,
social movements and others around the world, and
particularly in southern Africa. His experiences
in Nigeria, teaching at Calabar and Port Harcourt
universities, were influential too, giving him a
wider perspective than many. His on-going contributions
to South Africa’s land debates have been important
also, as he shared Zimbabwe’s lessons. More broadly
still, he was central to a wider engagement with
agrarian studies from the global South, offering
a challenge to those who argued that the classical
agrarian question is dead. From the perspective
of peasants, social movements and struggles across
the global South, it certainly is not. Together
with Paris Yeros in Brazil and Praveen Jha in India,
and as part of a wider collective of Southern scholars
linked to the journal Agrarian South, he has made
the case for a revived agrarian studies, in the
context of land grabs and intensifying capitalist
exploitation across rural areas.
Sam’s intellectual leadership has inspired many.
He was recently president of Codesria, the Council
for the Development of Social Science Research in
Africa, and was a director of the Southern African
Regional Institute for Policy Studies (SARIPS) for
a period. Since being established in 2002, AIAS
in Harare has become a centre for training and research,
with the annual summer schools attracting researchers,
activists and others from across Africa. Earlier
he was involved with ZERO, the Harare-based regional
environment organisation, together with YemiKaterere;
another organisation that attracted young researchers
who established their careers under Sam’s guidance.
Like all the organisations he has been involved
with, ZERO was ahead of the game, set up when few
were thinking about the connections between environment
and development. And, as with AIAS, Codesria, SARIPS
and ZIDS, it mixed solid research, with a deep political
commitment to social justice and equality.
With the passing of Sam we have lost a giant. I
will miss our intense conversations on his veranda
in Borrowdale, as we tested out our ideas and findings
on each other, and he smoked furiously. I was always
a few steps behind Sam, and it took me days to digest
the content of our lengthy exchanges. But they have
always been important and formative, even when we
disagreed. This is a terribly sad moment and this
tribute has been difficult to write. Professor IssaShivjisummed
up many people’s feelings well in a post on Sunday:
“We have lost one of our great comrades: utterly
committed, a most unassuming scholar and an absolutely
decent human being”. So thanks Sam for your friendship,
inspiration and commitment. You will be very sorely
missed.
This post was written by Ian
Scoones and first appeared on Zimbabweland
Articles authored or
co-authored by Sam
Imperialism
and Primitive Accumulation: Notes on the New Scramble
for Africa (202.7 KB) 2015-11-23 Author: Sam
Moyo, Praveen Jha and Paris Yeros.
In
Defense of Intellectual Autonomy: A Response to
Hendricks (165.5 KB) 2015-11-23 Author: Sam
Moyo, Praveen Jha and Paris Yeros.
Intervention:
The Zimbabwe Question and the Two Lefts (211.7
KB) 2015-11-23 Author: Sam Moyoa and Paris Yerosb.
Land
and Natural Resource Redistribution in Zimbabwe:
Access, Equity and Conflict (351.8 KB) 2015-11-23
Author: Sam Moyo, Praveen Jha and Paris Yeros.
Land,
Food Security and Sustainable Development in Africa
(892.0 KB) 2015-11-23 Author: Sam Moyo.
Rethinking
the Theory of Primitive Accumulation: Imperialism
and the New Scramble for Land and Natural Resources
(253.4 KB) 2015-11-23 Author: Sam Moyoa and Paris
Yerosb.
Sam
Moyo's CV (385.1 KB) 2015-11-23 Author: Sam
Moyo.
The
Classical Agrarian Question: Myth, Reality and Relevance
Today (575.2 KB) 2015-11-23 Author: Sam Moyo,
Praveen Jha and Paris Yeros.
The
Land and Agrarian Question in Zimbabwe (209.0
KB) 2015-11-23 Author: Sam Moyo.
The
Land Occupation Movement and Democratisation in
Zimbabwe: Contradictions of Neoliberalism (173.0
KB) 2015-11-23 Author: Sam Moyo.
The
Land Question in Africa: Research Perspectives and
Questions (368.6 KB) 2015-11-23 Author: Sam
Moyo.
The
Land Question in Zimbabwe (1.9 MB) 2015-11-23
Author: Sam Moyo.
The
Political Economy of Land Acquisition and Redistribution
in Zimbabwe, 1990-1999 (1.8 MB) 2015-11-23 Author:
Sam Moyo.
Three decades of agrarian reform in Zimbabwe
(481.0 KB) 2015-11-23 Author: Sam Moyo.
Three decades of agrarian reform in Zimbabwe
(481.0 KB) 2015-11-23 Author: Sam Moyoa and Paris
Yerosb.
Videos:
Africa
Inequality – Interview with Sam Moyo
#StopTheBleeding
Africa Campaign – Prof. Sam Moyo: Political economy
of Agriculture in Southern Africa
facvideos
– Sam Moyo – the ‘big questions’ in land grabbing
November 23, 2015.