Land as Reparations
At the Oxford Real Farming Conference in January 2024, the Justice Hub opened with a panel discussion on the topic of land as reparations. The session was chaired by Naomi Terry, lead researcher and author of the Jumping Fences Report. Speakers included Esther Xosei (activist, researcher and legal specialist), Andre Kpodonu (Head of Activism at Feedback), and Miriam Rose (Manager of the Hardwick Estate, researcher and activist). The session was organised by Katherine Wall (of at the root).
Watch the full recording of the conversation below:
The accumulation of land and wealth in Britain was made possible through the colonisation of peoples and lands across the globe; through the profits generated through enslavement; and through the creation of an economic system that was built on exploitation, violence and extraction. Land as reparations to communities who are directly affected by these systems and their fallout is one way repair can be attempted and healing and transformation towards something better made possible.
In this panel, speakers emphasised the need to connect narratives of historical and economic forces that have created the food, farming and land system today. In doing so, it becomes possible to understand the scale and range of harms have and are occurring. Light can then start to be shone on what kind of repair and transformation might be required, what reparations really looks like for peoples and places across the world.
The Pan-Afrikan Reparations Movement demands, especially as they connect to demands for land as reparations, where highlighted. Esther spoke to the demand for rematriation - returning to the land / mother, which is key for the Afrikan reparations movement. Land claims are vital because of the dispossession from that land that occurred through colonial processes and enslavement. Diaspora communities are advocating for access to land and land rights in the UK - to rebuild a connection to the land which is necessary for the restoration of personhood - ‘land is central to existence’.
Exposing the origins of family wealth, Miriam spoke about her family’s estate in South Oxfordshire and her work in undoing her own aristocratic inheritance. Over the last ten years, Miriam and other members of her family, have tried to shift the estate into a community ownership model. She spoke of having seen the impacts of colonialism / neo-colonialism through her work campaigning against extractive mining corporations. The wealth of her family’s estate also came from mining and the railways. She described how she became resolved to move through feelings of guilt and complicity to act and make changes.
It is important to consider where work on reparations might slip into white saviourism or replicate the harms of the systems it is seeking to repair/transform. Andre spoke of the totalising impulse of capitalism, referencing the work of Aimé Césaire, and how that shows up in our food and farming systems, as well as our reparations efforts. In the UK, private property is considered sacrosanct and one of the main pillars of the capitalist system. In the past, the only way to abolish slavery, for example, was to ‘purchase the property’ - i.e. enslaved peoples. This is what the Compensation Act said in 1837. Andre warned that these same processes of buying out the people causing harm are occurring today.
In England, when we think of land as reparations, the question emerges - reparations for who? Black-led organisations like Land In Our Names are doing work to make the case for land as reparations for BPOC communities - “LION works for land justice through reparations. This means redistributing resources to Black and People of Colour, and creating spaces for BPOC to heal and repair the intergenerational traumas of land dispossession and extraction.”. In the conversation, reflections were shared regarding processes of enclosure and industrialisation. Many white people were forced off the land in England and economic / cultural consequences of this are still felt today. Esther named that reparations efforts can and does also include these communities.
Thinking through who has access to land and who does not, who has been systemically limited in accessing land, and who has benefited from exploitation and oppression in order to acquire the land they now own are all important aspects to consider when looking at land as reparation.
Much work is needed to think through how efforts for land as reparations might proceed in this country. What are the demands? And how do we organise to realise them? What are our tactics? What are our theories of change? These are questions for future conversations. For more resources on this topic from the authors check out the following:
Esther has written and spoken extensively on reparations and reparations movements - for a great summary check out an interview with Esther in ROAPE (Review of Afrikan Political Economy).
Andre has talked more about the role of corporations in historical and present systems of oppression and demands for reparations at ORFC 2023.
Miriam has talked more about the work she has been doing to bring Hardwick into community ownership over on the Farmerama Podcast.
Naomi has written of the experience of BPOC landworkers in Britain and the need for change in the Jumping Fences report.
