This article, authored by Necmettin Türk from Critical Geographies of Global Inequalities at the University of Hamburg and Joost Jongerden from the Rural Sociology Group at Wageningen University, discusses agriculture in the context of colonization and the debates it has sparked. The authors examine the colonial homogenizing policies of the Syrian Ba’ath regime and the subsequent decolonization processes that led to the emergence of Rojava as a pluriverse.

The Ba’ath regime, in power since 1963, implemented nation-state colonialism in the predominantly Kurdish region, using agricultural modernization as a tool for its colonization efforts. This modernization bolstered the central state, perpetuated the underdevelopment of the region as a periphery, and asserted control through the settlement and land distribution to Arab families loyal to the regime. Following the regime’s collapse in Rojava in 2012, the communities that comprise the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) dismantled the colonial agricultural system. They developed a decentralized governance and agrarian development approach, referred to here as the decolonization of agriculture.

Based on interviews and fieldwork in the region, the article explores the interplay between agricultural development and colonial politics, as well as the critical role of agriculture in the broader struggle for decolonization. The authors conclude that in the anti-colonial struggle, people and the rhizomatic governance structures they develop challenge colonial submission to the central state, exploring life beyond the nation-state, which is crucial for a decolonial shift.

The article is published open access under this link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01436597.2024.2374521?src=exp-la