How secure are land rights in Cameroon? A review of the evolution of land tenure system and its implications on tenure security and rural livelihoods

In this article, I reflect on the implication of the urban land tenure systems of the three political regimes of Ethiopia on the objective element of land tenure security of urban landholders, particularly, permit holders. The objective element of land tenure security can be assessed in terms of clarity and breadth, duration, assurance, and enforceability of land rights. On these foundations, I argue that the objective element of tenure security of urban landholders in Ethiopia has been reduced with each subsequent regime. The Imperial regime’s urban land tenure system affected the objective land tenure security of urban landholders in terms of enforceability of land rights—particularly limiting the right to appeal to a presumably independent court of law with regard to the amount of compensation awarded for the loss of land rights through expropriation. The Derg regime’s urban land tenure system, on the other hand, had narrowed the breadth of land rights to possessory right; it introduced other grounds in addition to expropriation, by which a landholder could lose his land rights, it adopted a vague and broad understanding of “public purpose” for expropriation, and it introduced a compensation scheme that left a landholder compensated inadequately; and it totally prohibited bringing a legal action in presumably an independent court of law against the government. Even more, the post-1991 urban land tenure system has perpetuated the objective land tenure insecurity of permit holders by making the land rights unclear until the enactment of regulation; and to be valid for a definite period of time by mandatorily demanding its conversion to lease system.

Download Full-text

Legal Language across Cultures: Finding the Traditional Aboriginal Owners of Land

Federal Law Review ◽

10.1177/0067205x8101200301 ◽

1981 ◽

Vol 12 (3) ◽

pp. 187-211 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Graeme J. Neate

Keyword(s):

Land Tenure ◽

Land Rights ◽

Northern Territory ◽

Legal Language ◽

Land Claim ◽

Land Trust ◽

Tenure System ◽

Land Tenure System ◽

Ownership Of Land ◽

Land Tenure Systems

The Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 (Cth) was the first recognition at law of the traditional ownership of land in Australia by Aborigines. It provides means whereby Aborigines claiming to have a traditional land claim to certain types of land in the Northern Territory can demonstrate that ownership to the Aboriginal Land Commissioner. If he finds that there are traditional Aboriginal owners of the land he reports that finding to the Commonwealth Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and may recommend a grant of it to a Land Trust. Sometimes problems in ascertaining which, if any, Aboriginals are the traditional Aboriginal owners of the land claimed arise from the difficulty inherent in expressing the land tenure system of one culture in the language of another. The author illustrates this with examples from one land claim hearing and argues that the use of interpreters is desirable to enable the claimants to put their case clearly and for the Commissioner to understand more fully the intricacies of Aboriginal land tenure systems.

Download Full-text

An Assessment of the Evolution of Land Tenure System in Cameroon and its Effects on Women’s Land Rights and Food Security

Perspectives on Global Development and Technology ◽

10.1163/156914910x487979 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 9 (1-2) ◽

pp. 154-169 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Fombe Lawrence Fon ◽

Lotsmart Fonjong ◽

Irene Sama-Lang

Keyword(s):

Food Security ◽

Land Tenure ◽

Land Rights ◽

Tenure System ◽

Land Tenure System

Download Full-text

Discourse on women and land tenure in Ghana: does a matrilineal land tenure system make a difference for women?

10.1079/9781789247664.0011 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 129-142

Author(s):

Nancy Kankam Kusi ◽

Frank Mintah ◽

Valentina Nyame ◽

Uchendu Eugene Chigbu ◽

Menare Royal Mabakeng ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Tenure ◽

Social System ◽

Land Ownership ◽

Male Dominance ◽

Her Family ◽

Tenure System ◽

System P ◽

Land Tenure System ◽

Cultural Negotiations ◽

Female Power

Abstract This chapter highlights that matriarchy and matrilineal social orientations are not inherent guarantees of women's access to land but can reinforce male dominance over land ownership, control, and access to land. It notes that social structures and norms are subject to change and, in this instance, colonialization and modernization have acted as the two key influencers in reshaping Asante matriarchy. The researchers argue that the continuous interplay of cultural negotiations within the traditional matriarchal regime have caused a drastic transformation in Asante land tenure system which have fuelled unequal access to land. In effect, a postcolonial Asante woman is no longer guaranteed land tenure security from her family or community and more likely to face the harsh realities of landlessness. The chapter does not assume equal access to land hitherto but notes that the inequality gap has been further widened by the weakening of 'female power' in the matriarchal social system.

Download Full-text

Map-Making and State-Building

The Politics of Maps ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190076238.003.0003 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 32-55

Author(s):

Christine Leuenberger ◽

Izhak Schnell

Keyword(s):

20Th Century ◽

Land Tenure ◽

Weak Link ◽

Land Rights ◽

Land Ownership ◽

State Building ◽

Land Allocation ◽

Natural Order ◽

Land Registration ◽

Land Tenure System

During the 20th century, surveying and mapping became vital tools for states; and colonizers used them to know and claim the land. The Mandate of Palestine’s Survey of Palestine surveyed parts of historic Palestine. Their modernist ethos to register the land converged with Zionist visionaries to make it their own. With the Hagannah looting the Survey of Palestine, the Israeli state-in-the making had access to cartographic material which helped them win the 1948 war and facilitated their statecraft. Post-1948, the Survey of Israel designed a new unified triangulation system, enabling the production of maps. The Israeli state also introduced a novel land tenure system. The seemingly imprecise land allocation practices common during the Ottoman Empire were pitted against a technocratic, modernist conception of land ownership, that, by virtue of its implementation, dispossessed many Arab landholders. However, enforcement of technocratic regulations depends on humans. Indeed, the process of land registration reveals how surveyors who would go to villages to ascertain land rights were the human and, at times, a weak link in doing so. Nevertheless, at the end of this process, 93% of land had become Israeli state land. The transformation in the land regime in Israel/Palestine thus attests to how new legal precepts in tandem with science and technology helped establish a modern, territorially defined state. While the Western scientific and legal paradigm enhanced the transfer of land, it also seemingly legitimized and depoliticized the new land regime, making it seem part of the natural order of things and an inevitable outcome of modernity.

Download Full-text

When Tradition Meets Modernity in Land Registration: Evidence from Dagbon, Ghana

Land ◽

10.3390/land9110416 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (11) ◽

pp. 416

Author(s):

David Asante Edwin ◽

Evam Kofi Glover ◽

Edinam K. Glover

Keyword(s):

Land Tenure ◽

Research Question ◽

Land Ownership ◽

Registration System ◽

Land Registration ◽

Tenure System ◽

Title Registration ◽

Land Tenure System ◽

Customary Land ◽

And Control

Development practice over recent years in much of Africa prioritized formalization of land policies deemed to enhance better handling and use of land as an asset for social development. Following this trend, land reform policy in Ghana was based on a pluralistic legal system in which both the customary land tenure system and the statutory system of land ownership and control co-exist by law. The primary research question for this study was the following: What implications emerge when customary land tenure system and the statutory system of land ownership and control co-exist in law? The study discussed the prospects and challenges of land title registration and the meaning of the new organizing concept in land ownership and administration among the people of Dagbon in the northern region of Ghana. The principal aim of the study was to assess the challenges of the implementation of a modern land registration system over a deeply traditional one. A qualitative research methodology was used and included qualitative descriptive analysis. This descriptive-analytical study was carried out to investigate opinions on the implications of the merger and preferred options for redress of any systemic challenges. It employed Focused Group Discussions (FGDs) to supplement in-depth interviews. Interviews were conducted among 40 key participants within formal and informal institutions including officials from both the Land Commission and Town and Country Planning Departments. Purposeful sampling was employed, and an interview guide was developed and used for collecting the data. Data were analyzed using a thematic approach. The results showed that in this structural reform, the ‘allodial title’ holder was much more trusted for tenure security because of the traditional legitimacy of the King as the sole owner and controller of land. The title registration system therefore principally served the secondary purpose as additional security. The findings indicate that in the circumstance where the law was seen as pliable, the policy engendered blurred and confusing effects that deepened the sense of ambiguity and outcomes were sometimes contradictory. We argued that the crossroads presented challenges that were novel and engendered innovative thinking for more appropriate solutions. The study revealed that policy reforms must be tailor-made to the physical, social, cultural and economic settings.

Download Full-text