This open access book offers unique in-depth, comprehensive, and comparative analyses of the motivations, context, and outcomes of recent land reforms in Africa. Whereas a considerable number of land reforms have been carried out by African governments since the 1990s, no systematic analysis on their meaning has so far been conducted. 

In the age of land reform, Africa has seen drastic rural changes. Analysing the relationship between those reforms and change, the chapters in this book reveal not only their socio-economic outcomes, such as accelerated marketisation of land, but also their political outcomes, which have often been contrasting. Countries such as Rwanda and Mozambique have utilised land reform to strengthen state control over land, but other countries, such as Ghana and Zambia, have seen the rise in power of traditional chiefs in managing the land. 

The comparative perspective of this book clarifies new features of African social changes, which are carefully investigated by area experts. Providing new perspectives on recent land reform, this book will have a considerable impact on scholars as well as policymakers. 

Table of contents:

• Introduction: Drastic Rural Changes in the Age of Land Reform.

• Land Administration, Chiefs, and Governance in Ghana.

•  ‘We Owned the Land Before the State Was Established’: The State, Traditional Authorities, and Land Policy in Africa.

• Renewed Patronage and Strengthened Authority of Chiefs Under the Scarcity of Customary Land in Zambia.

• Land Tenure Reform in Three Former Settler Colonies in Southern Africa.

• Politics of Land Resource Management in Mozambique.

• Land Law Reform and Complex State-Building Process in Rwanda.

• Post-cold War Ethiopian Land Policy and State Power in Land Commercialisation.

• Traversing State, Agribusinesses, and Farmers’ Land Discourse in Kenyan Commercial Intensive Agriculture.

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This Special Issue provides an insight, collated from 26 articles, focusing on various aspects of the Fit-For-Purpose Land Administration (FFPLA) concept and its application. It presents some influential and innovative trends and recommendations for designing, implementing, maintaining and further developing Fit-For-Purpose solutions for providing secure land rights at scale. 

The first group of 14 articles is published in Volume One and discusses various conceptual innovations related to spatial, legal and institutional aspects and its wider applications within land use management. 

The second group of 12 articles is published in Volume Two and focuses on case studies from various countries throughout the world, providing evidence and lessons learned from the FFPLA implementation process.

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This book delivers new conceptual and empirical studies surrounding the design and evaluation of land governance, focusing on land management approaches, land policy issues, advances in pro-poor land tenure and land-based gender concerns. It explores alternative approaches for land management and land tenure through international experiences. 

Part 1 covers Concepts, debates and perspectives on the governance and gender aspects of land. 

Part 2 focuses on Tenure-gender dimensions in land management, land administration and land policy. It deals with land issues within the interface of theory and practice. 

Part 3 covers Applications and experiences: techniques, strategies, tools, methods, and case studies. 

Part 4 focuses on Land governance, gender, and tenure innovations. 

Case studies discussed include China, Ethiopia, Ghana, Lesotho, Germany, Mexico, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Korea, etc. 

Themes include Islamic tenure, reverse migration, matriarchy/matrilineal systems, structural inequality, tenure-responsive planning, land-related instabilities and COVID-19, urban-rural land concerns, women's tenure bargaining, tenure-gender nexus concerns in developing and developed countries.

This book:

• Includes theoretical or empirical studies on land governance and gender from a diverse group of countries.

• Provides the basis for a new land administration theory to be set against conventional land administration approaches.

• Offers, in an accessible manner, a range of new tools for design and evaluation of land management interventions.

The book will be valuable for students and researchers in land governance, urban and rural planning, international development, natural resource management, agriculture, community development, and gender studies. It is also useful for land practitioners, including those working within international organizations.

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Land is a burning issue in South Africa, as in Africa more widely. Land, power & custom: Controversies generated by South Africa’s Communal Land Rights Act deals with tenure reform in the former homelands, and the implications for power and gender relations.

It aims to contribute to public debate about land reform and controversial new legislation. The book is relevant to those concerned with customary law, human rights, anthropology, sociology and political science, as well as people working on land and development issues.

Contents page:

Contributors

Abbreviations

Note on the naming of statutes and statutory bodies

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Part one: Introduction

• Ch. 1 Contextualising the controversies: dilemmas of communal tenure reform in post-apartheid South Africa

Part two: The Act and the legislative procedure

• Ch. 2 An overview of the Communal Land Rights Act 11 of 2004

• Ch. 3 Tagging the Bill, gagging the provinces: the Communal Land Rights Act in Parliament

Part three: Land rights and customary law

• Ch. 4 The nature of land rights under indigenous law in Africa

• Ch. 5 Characterising 'communal' tenure: nested systems and flexible boundaries

• Ch. 6 'Official' vs 'living' customary law: dilemmas of description and recognition

• Ch. 7 Women, land and power: the impact of the Communal Land Rights Act

• Ch. 8 Custom-building freehold title: the impact of family values on historical ownership in the Eastern Cape

Part four: Traditional leaders, power and land rights

• Ch. 9 Contested terrain: land rights and chiefly power in historical perspective

• Ch. 10 Chiefs and the ANC in South Africa: the reconstruction of tradition?

• Ch. 11 Power, accountability and apartheid borders: the impact of recent laws on struggles over land rights

Part five: Case studies

• Ch. 12 The Kalkfontein land purchases: eighty years on and still struggling for ownership

• Ch. 13 Stealing restitution and selling land allocations: Dixie, Mayaeyane and Makuleke

Part six: Conclusion

• Ch. 14 Customary law and zones of chiefly sovereignty: the impact of government policy on whose voices prevail in the making and changing of customary law

Index

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This book examines the impacts of land tenure reform interventions implemented in Benin, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe. 

Since 2000, many African countries have introduced programs aimed at providing smallholder farmers with low-cost certificates for land held under customary tenure. Yet there are many contending views and debates on the impact of these land policies and this book reveals how tenure security, agricultural productivity, and social inclusion were affected by the interventions. It analyses the results of carefully selected, authoritative studies on interventions in Benin, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe and applies a realist synthesis methodology to explore the socio-political and economic contexts. Drawing on these results, the book argues that inadequate attention paid to the core characteristics of rural social systems obscures the benefits of customary tenure while overlooking the scope for reforms to reduce the gaps in social status among members of customary communities. 

This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of land management and use, land and property law, tenure security, agrarian studies, political economy, and sustainable development. It will also appeal to development professionals and policymakers involved in land governance and land policy in Africa. 

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This open access book presents a nuanced and accessible synthesis of the relationship between land tenure security and sustainable development. Contributing authors have collectively worked for decades on land tenure as connected with conservation and development across all major regions of the globe. 

The first section of this volume is intended as a standalone primer on land tenure security and its connections with sustainable development. 

The book then explores key thematic challenges that interact directly with land tenure security, followed by a section on strategies for addressing tenure insecurity.  

The book concludes with a section on new frontiers in research, policy, and action.  

An invaluable reference for researchers in the field and for practitioners looking for a comprehensive overview of this important topic. 

Table of contents:

• Property Rights, Tenure Form, and Tenure Security.

• A Historical Perspective on Land Tenure Security.

• Who Defines Land Tenure Security? De Jure and De Facto Institutions.

• Indigenous and Customary Land Tenure Security: History, Trends, and Challenges in the Latin American Context.

• Championing Women’s Tenure Security.

• People-Land Relationships on the Path to Sustainable Food Security.

• A Complex Relationship: Large-Scale Land Acquisitions and Land Tenure Security.

• Tenure Security in War-Affected Scenarios: Challenges and Opportunities for Sustainability.

• Land Tenure Insecurity and Climate Adaptation: Socio-Environmental Realities in Colombia and Implications for Integrated Environmental Rights and Participatory Policy.

• Interaction of Conditional Incentives for Ecosystem Conservation with Tenure Security: Multiple Roles for Tenure Interventions.

• Strategies for Securing Tenure: The Promise and Pitfalls of Formalization.

• Securing Communal Tenure Complemented by Collaborative Platforms for Improved Participatory Landscape Management and Sustainable Development: Lessons from Northern Tanzania and the Maasai Mara in Kenya.

• Beyond the Traditional: Voluntary Market-Based Initiatives to Promote Land Tenure Security.

• Methods to Advance Understanding of Tenure Security: Impact Evaluation for Rigorous Evidence on Tenure Interventions.

• Emerging Research Needs and Policy Priorities for Advancing Land Tenure Security and Sustainable Development.

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This book is a collection of Special Issue articles that aim to discern a people-centered pathway to solving land-based challenges in the context of land administration. It consists of 13 positively evaluated research articles. Each of the articles contributes to the large mosaic of knowledge on land methods (or tools) that are relevant to resolving land challenges that women and youths face. The book highlights 13 critical lessons on “Land, Women, Youths, and Land Tools or Methods.”

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This book by Kariuki, Reddy and Wissink continues the extensive and excellent research previously done by them into municipal governance through examining the relationship between traditional systems and municipal government. They also provide a selection of studies and case studies where researchers describe and interrogate a wide variety of issues such as the historical roles and responsibilities of traditional systems, the evolution of the legislative and policy framework since 1994, land use management, the developmental role of municipalities, the challenges operating in traditional areas and the operations of traditional councils and municipalities in traditional areas, including gender relations. 

The book provides a rich addition to the body of literature on the relationship between democratic local government and traditional systems of social relations.

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In the same way that South Africa’s people were divided along racial lines, so too was its landscape – into the predominantly communally farmed lands of the homelands and self-governing territories, and commercial farming areas. These divisions, reflected both in former government policy and local practice, have profoundly affected land degradation in South Africa.

This book, the product of extensive research, is based on a landmark report on land degradation arising from South Africa’s commitment to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification. It reflects the first complete assessment of South Africa’s land degradation problem, taking into account not only agricultural and ecological concerns, but also the socio-political and historical contexts. It places previously unavailable information in the hands of those who need it most – politicians, agricultural extension officers, and communal and commercial farmers. It will also be of interest to students and teachers.

At once sobering, challenging and optimistic, this book is a call to action. It shows that we are all affected by the extent of land degradation in South Africa. 

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