Struggles over Land under Customary Tenure in Contemporary Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

AbstractMost useable land in African countries is under customary forms of tenure, which today are facing considerable threat from the increasing appropriation of customary land by national and international agents, as well as from land policies and agricultural-development programs that push privatization. The typical basis of landholding across Sub-Saharan Africa was, and continues to be, through belonging to localized descent groups. Colonial “customary law” denied the status of property to customary landholdings by placing the land in trust of “native” or “traditional” authorities, a denial that continues in most countries today. Up through the 1990s, flawed land reforms, structural adjustment policies, indebtedness, economic downturn, and global trade imbalance all exacerbated the conflicts over land. The current century has seen these conditions worsen along with the financialized volatility of capital and a rush for land for production, investment, and speculation by national and international players. Repeated calls to increase the “security” of land rights produce legislation and policies that are overly focused on privatization and individual rights rather than on finding the means to legally recognize existing and long held “customary” land rights.