An Introduction to Land Tenure Reform in Sub-Saharan Africa

Dualism, Reform and the Roots of Conflict
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-032-75969-2
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 340 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

Reihe: Earthscan Studies in Natural Resource Management

Written by a scholar-practitioner with over four decades of experience, this book is an accessible introduction to land tenure and its implications for African development.

The book carries a clear warning: intensifying conflict over land across Africa is not the growing pains of a positive evolution in land tenure but a problem that can only get worse without the state's recognition of customary tenure systems when undertaking tenure reform. The author reviews Africa’s experience of evolution in customary land tenure and the often-difficult experience of the new nation in land tenure reform, including their failure to prevent further loss of land by rural populations and the unwitting contribution of some reform elements to that loss. The book has a broad reach across many countries in Africa and many different types of land, including farmland, pastures and rangelands and forests. It is complemented by insights from a variety of disciplines to provide an accessible but nuanced introduction to a topic not well understood even in some development circles. While it focuses on Africa, the book is highly relevant to many countries of the developing world who have a common heritage of colonialism and dualistic systems of land tenure.

This book will be of great interest to students, scholars and practitioners wanting to understand the role of law and land tenure in African development.

Zielgruppe

Academic, Postgraduate, Professional Reference, and Undergraduate Advanced

Autoren/Hrsg.

Bruce, John W.

Fachgebiete

• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften Kulturwissenschaften: Ernährung & Gesellschaft
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Regierungspolitik
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften Interdisziplinär Ökotrophologie (Ernährungs- und Haushaltswissenschaften)
• Rechtswissenschaften Bürgerliches Recht Sachenrecht Grundstücks- und Immobilienrecht, Immobiliarsachenrecht, Nachbarrecht
• Rechtswissenschaften Öffentliches Recht Umweltrecht Landwirtschaftsrecht, Forst-, Jagd- und Fischereirecht
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Studien zu einzelnen Ländern und Gebieten
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Sachkultur, Materielle Kultur

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction  Part I. Property Rights and Land Tenure  1. Property Rights and Land Tenure 2. The State’s System of Statutory Rights 3. Customary Land Tenure 4. Legal and Economic Dualism  Part II. Change in Land Use and Land Tenure  5. Farmland 6. Pastures and Rangeland 7. Forests and Trees 8. Other Land and Natural Resources “Beyond the Village” 9. Change, Evolution and Reform  Part III. Land Tenure Reform  Introduction 10. Indigenous Land Tenure Reform: Mahago-Elibat c. 1898 11. Land Reform in Africa 12. Ownership and Alienability Reforms in Kenya 13. Individualization to a State-Granted Use Right: Senegal and Nigeria 14. More Recent Individualization to Use Rights: Rwanda, Cote d’Ivoire and Ethiopia 15. Confirmation Reforms that Recognize Custom as a Base Tenure: Ghana, Uganda and Liberia 16. Conversion from Customary to Statutory Community-Based Systems: Botswana, Tanzania and Mozambique 17. Reforms to Improve Women’s Land Access and Tenure  18. Assessing Land Tenure Reform  Part IV. Land Tenure Futures  19. Conclusions

Über Autor(innen)

John W. Bruce is a scholar-practitioner who has worked on land policy and law in developing countries for over fifty years,. He served as a Peace Corps Volunteer legal advisor to the Ministry of Land Reform in Ethiopia and has worked for the Ford Foundation in Sudan and the World Bank, where he served as Senior Counsel and Senior Land Tenure Specialist for the Rural Development Department. He holds a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he was later African Program Coordinator, and then Director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Land Tenure Center, an interdisciplinary center of excellence on land tenure in developing countries.