NI 540 - November, 2022

Land rights

A note from the editor

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In his first speech to Britain and the Commonwealth as the new monarch, King Charles III thanked his mother for her devotion to the ‘family of nations’.

But what makes a family? One of the key things that unites the 53 countries that make up the Commonwealth of Nations is that nearly all of them had their land colonized by Britain.

I thought of the lyrics to ‘Birthright’, the Sarathy Korwar track I have been listening to on repeat while putting together this magazine:

Mi casa es su casa, says the man who stole your land.

When Queen Elizabeth II took the throne, more than a quarter of the world’s population was under British imperial rule. She heard the news of her father’s death while she was in Kenya in 1952. Shortly afterwards her government violently quashed the Mau Mau uprising in the country. Decolonization movements across the world were met with similar violence from the British security forces, who often also tried to cover up the evidence.

Resistance to colonialism is as old as the process itself, and people around the world continue to agitate and organize for loosening its grip.

As we delve into the issue of land rights in this edition, we also launch a new series called ‘Decolonize how?’. Over the next year we will explore what people living with the legacies and current realities of colonialism are doing to challenge power.

Elsewhere, Busani Bafana reports on the Zimbabwean government’s crackdown on press freedom, and Severia Bel explores how asylum-seekers in Lithuania are caught in a political crossfire.

Amy Hall for the New Internationalist co-operative.
www.newint.org

The big story

A group of women tend to vegetables in Koyli Alpha, Senegal, in March 2019. They were taking part in the Great Green Wall project which has the ambition of restoring 100 million hectares of degraded land across the African continent by 2030.

Photo: Simon Townsley/Panos Pictures

NI 540 - November, 2022

Land rights

A note from the editor

Turn the page

The big story

We depend on it for food, shelter and work, it’s a cultural marker and a source of identity – but also a site of violence and anguish. It’s time for a reckoning, writes Amy Hall.

The Big Story

Initiatives, action, and further reading on land rights.

Whose farm?, land deals, trashing the place, city folk.

For decades, Indigenous peoples in the Chittagong Hill Tracts have lived under the violence of military rule. Hana Shams Ahmed reports on how the Bangladesh government’s push for tourism in the region is further threatening their right to land.

For generations, Indigenous-led actions have been pushing for the return of traditional lands across the US and Canada. Riley Yesno explores how that spirit has been turned into a movement – embodied in schemes to redistribute wealth from non-Indigenous hands.

A target to turn 30 per cent of the world’s land into protected areas for nature by 2030 is set to be agreed by world leaders in December. But not everyone is happy about it, as Amy Hall reports.

What connects the retirement savings of US teachers with inflating land and food prices in Brazil? Maria Luisa Mendonça and Daniela Stefan explain.

Kenyan social justice activist Anami Daudi Toure speaks to Amy Hall about how he and his neighbours in Nairobi’s Mukuru kwa Njenga settlement are picking up the pieces after violent mass evictions.

With the country heading towards a general election, the clampdown on press freedom is an attack on democracy itself. Busani Bafana reports from Bulawayo.

The treatment meted out to asylum-seekers in Lithuania has hardened since Belarus opened up a migration channel into the country. Severia Bel speaks to people trapped in the political crossfire.

It’s 40 years since the establishment of peace camps at the British atomic weapons bases of Greenham Common and Faslane. Speaking to the women at the centre of four decades of resistance, Denise Laura Baker asks what keeps them going.

Opinion

Do we support democracy? Asks Leonardo Sakamoto.

All change by by Nanjala Nyabola.

The caste factor by Nilanjana Bhowmick.

Currents

Report on the Commonwealth’s future role from Nigeria by Obiora Ikoku.

The 2022 Kenyan presidential election victor.

Report from Panama by Grace Livingstone.

Report from Pakistan by Farooq Tariq.

Report from South Africa by Frankie Leach.

COP27 and the demands for climate loss and damage finance. Report by Emma Mckeever.

Shell Shocked; Righting Wrongs; Knot Polluting.

Regulars

Praise, blame and all points in between? Give us your feedback.

The run-up to Buenos Aires’ midsummer Christmas is when society can begin to buckle – and come together. Virginia Tognola captures the mixed mood of the season.

Zero plan, by Conrad Landin.

Royal snowflakes by Husna Ara.

Royal wealth vs cost of ending homelessness.

Placard at Cape Town protest during nationwide strike over the cost of living in South Africa. R12,500 = $710

Mahsa Amini by Assad Bina Khahi (Iran).

The photos, facts, and politics of Myanmar.

The Malayan Emergency and Batang Kali massacre by Ilya.

Stop the monkeys from trashing the planet by Marc Roberts.

Highlighting the work of artists and photographers from the Majority World.

One eye on nature, by Aruna Chandrasekhar.

The Syrian-American architect and visual artist sits down with Louisa Waugh to discuss the power of nostalgia – and how his lifelong homesickness for Syria shapes his work.

Climate jousting by P J Polyp.

President of Rwanda.

Credit rating. Illustration by Kate Evans.

Crossword Puzzle, Association Words and Wordsearch.

Ethical and political dilemmas abound these days. This month: working class?

Electricity were a right not a commodity? Breaking away from an energy system in which we are only consumers can help tackle the cost of living and climate crises. Nick Dowson sketches out an alternative.

Film, Book & Music Reviews

Our Share of Night; Wake Me Up at Nine in the Morning; Xi Jinping: The Most Powerful Man in the World; Stranger in My Own Land.

Return to Dust; Tori and Lokita.

The Sorrow Songs: Folk Songs of Black British Experience; $/He Who Feeds You... Owns You.

Words by Subi Shah, photo by Anas ElTayeb.

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