Historically Black University Spellman College, Other U.S. Universities Accused of "African Land Grabs" to Displace Small Farmers

Several American universities, including historically black university Spellman College, have been accused of taking part or providing funds for "large land purchases" throughout Africa that will result in the displacement of small farms, according to the Oakland Institute. The goal is to "convert African small farms and forests into a natural-asset-based, high-return investment strategy" and are often nothing more than "land grabs," CBS News said. Some of the universities named are Harvard University and Vanderbilt University. Besides loss of land, the conversion could also result in environmental devastation, water loss and further political instability such as the food riots that preceded the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions," CBS News states.

While the report does not claim the deals break any laws per se, it does strongly insinuate the local population does not reap anything near the promised benefits, whereas the mostly foreign investors in some cases can expect to get up to 25 percent returns.

Much of the money is reportedly funneled through London-based Emergent asset management, which runs one of Africa's largest land acquisition funds, The Guardian reports. A spokesman for Emergent defended the practice to the Guardian, saying: "Yes, university endowment funds and pension funds are long-term investors. We are investing in African agriculture and setting up businesses and employing people. We are doing it in a responsible way ... The amounts are large. They can be hundreds of millions of dollars. This is not landgrabbing. We want to make the land more valuable. Being big makes an impact, economies of scale can be more productive." Source

Who would have thought a historically black college, founded at a time when blacks were denied an equal education, and prides itself on its achievement in American education, could take part in such a land grab. Shameful but this story will fly under the mainstream media radar because it's Africa and it's not that sensational. Still, I want my readers to learn about this and draw their own conclusions.