This resolution came out of a heated debate which was characterised by passion, emotions and flaring tempers during a session dubbed “Alliance 2015: The Right to a Livelihood and The Struggle for Land Rights”.

There were no words that could describe the emotions that went through the session when it emerged that governments were selling land to the same people they had fought to attain independence and get their grabbed land back.

“It’s pathetic that governments are making people homeless in their own countries in the name of development,” said one participant.

“Despite the objective of the World Social Forum being poverty eradication, it would be an impossible feat to achieve if people remained homeless.”

It was established that there are certain governments that have decided to draw some minority groups into extinction by selling their land. The delegates said many of them had come out to fight for a noble cause — land rights.

“Comrades time has come up for us to join energies and say ‘No’ to these governments that are selling our land and everything else in the name of privatisation,” said Ms Grace Akol from Northern Uganda.

“We must campaign in the struggle for land rights and livelihoods in Africa,” she reiterated.

“We must resist these outside forces wishing to control Africans by grabbing their land in the name of scramble and portion through what they call development,” Akol said.

While now it is the leaders in government who are giving away land, the situation is a replica of what happened during the slave trade era when colonialists used traditional chiefs to sell the people into slavery.

Before the colonial era land in Africa was communal property, but with colonialism things changed to a land ownership system that has ended up leaving many people landless and is also the root cause of the endless mass evictions.

Participants at the Forum agreed that they will resort to the tactics used by their ancestors to resolve land wrangles.