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

Land ◽  
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.

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

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.

Map-Making and State-Building

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.

Customary Land-Tenure and the Poor: A Study of Jharkhand and Meghalaya

Social Change ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 430-446
Author(s):  
Ankita Goyal
Keyword(s):  
Land Tenure ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Disadvantaged Communities ◽  
The Status ◽  
Land Tenure System ◽  
Customary Laws ◽  
Customary Land ◽  
And Control ◽  
Individual Ownership

For most people living in rural India having access and control over land is crucial for their livelihood, more so in the case of tribals. This article analyses the nature of the customary land-tenure system in some districts of Jharkhand and Meghalaya and their impact on livelihood patterns, food security and poverty. Based on both secondary and primary data, the article seeks to examine the nature of the customary land-tenure systems in selected scheduled areas; specifically identifying the status of locals versus non-locals in managing land resources and analysing the extent to which women have been able to secure land rights under customary laws. The article concludes that though there are both positive and negative aspects to community and individual ownership of agricultural land, but on the whole the prevailing system does not helping in bettering the conditions of disadvantaged communities.

scholarly journals Towards Responsible Consolidation of Customary Lands: A Research Synthesis

Land ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kwabena Asiama ◽  
Rohan Bennett ◽  
Jaap Zevenbergen
Keyword(s):  
Land Tenure ◽  
Land Consolidation ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Land Fragmentation ◽  
Land Administration ◽  
Tenure System ◽  
Food Productivity ◽  
Land Tenure System ◽  
Land Reallocation ◽  
Customary Land

The use of land consolidation on customary lands has been limited, though land fragmentation persists. Land fragmentation on customary lands has two main causes—the nature of the customary land tenure system, and the somewhat linked agricultural system. Since attempts to increase food productivity on customary lands have involved fertilisation and mechanisation on the small and scattered farmlands, these approaches have fallen short of increasing food productivity. A study to develop a responsible approach to land consolidation on customary lands using a design research approach is undertaken and reported here. Based on a comparative study, it is found that three factors inhibit the development of a responsible land consolidation approach on customary lands—the coverage of a land administration system, a land valuation approach, and a land reallocation approach the fits the customary land tenure system. To fill these gaps, firstly, this study developed the participatory land administration that brought together traditional land administration approaches with emerging bottom-up approaches, as well as technological advances that drive these approaches together with the growing societal needs. Secondly, a valuation approach was developed to enable the comparison of the farmlands in rural areas that are without land markets. Finally, a land reallocation approach was developed based on the political, economic and social, as well as technical and legal characteristics of rural customary farmlands. This study concludes that though the land consolidation strategy developed is significantly able to reduce land fragmentation, both physical and land tenure, the local customs are an obstruction to the technical processes to achieve the best form of farmland structures.

scholarly journals Struggles of Women to Access and Hold Landuse and Other Land Property Rights under the Customary Tenure System in Peri-Urban Communal Areas of Zimbabwe

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 649
Author(s):  
Emaculate Ingwani
Keyword(s):  
Property Rights ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Urban Context ◽  
Tenure System ◽  
Communal Area ◽  
Land Tenure System ◽  
Communal Areas ◽  
Customary Land ◽  
Land Property Rights

The struggles of women to access and hold landuse and other land property rights under the customary tenure system in peri-urban communal areas is increasingly becoming a cause for concern. These debates are revealed using a case study of a peri-urban communal area called Domboshava in Zimbabwe. Women living in this peri-urban communal area struggle to access and hold landuse and other land property rights registered under their names. The aim of this paper is to present an analysis of the struggles faced by women to access and hold landuse and other land property rights in Domboshava. This paper is a product of a literature review on land property rights, land tenure systems, and peri-urbanity more generally. Field data was intermittently collected in the peri-urban communal area of Domboshava over a period of four years from 2011 to 2014, as well as through post-research social visits stretching to 2019. Thirty-two women were conveniently selected and interviewed. I applied Anthony Giddens’ structure-agency theory as a framework of analysis. The struggles to access and hold landuse and other land property rights by women are rooted in land transactions, social systems including the customary land tenure, patriarchy, as well as the peri-urban context of Domboshava. Responsible authorities on land administration in communal areas need to acknowledge the existence of new and invented ways of accessing and holding landuse and land property rights under the customary land tenure system, as well as to find ways to mobilize more opportunities for women on the peri-urban land market.

scholarly journals Another Law in Indonesia: Customary Land Tenure System Coexisting with State Order in Mutis Forest

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 244-253
Author(s):  
I Budiman ◽  
◽  
T Fujiwara ◽  
N Sato ◽  
D Pamungkas
Keyword(s):  
Land Tenure ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Nature Reserve ◽  
Sustainable Forest Management ◽  
Forest Products ◽  
The State ◽  
Local People ◽  
Tenure System ◽  
Land Tenure System ◽  
Customary Land

Local wisdom has been coexisting with the state system in several places in Indonesia. The Mountain Mutis Nature Reserve in East Nusa Tenggara province is the strict nature reserves, but a customary land tenure system, called suf, exists so far in the nature reserve. The objectives of this study are (1) to organize the historical territorialization process, (2) to clarify the customary land tenure system and activities for livelihoods by local people, and (3) to discuss the challenges of its land tenure system to manage forests sustainably as well as policy methods to harmonize legal pluralism in Mutis Area. Field observation and in-depth interviews with key informants were employed for data collection, and the collected data were analyzed by a qualitative descriptive method. The findings showed the traditional reward and punishment systems regarding extracting non-timber forest products, grazing livestock, and preventing forest fires were working well for sustainable forest management. However, increased pressure on forests due to future population growth appears to have an impact on the traditional system. It also showed the government officers and local people started some discussions to recognize the suf in the formal legal order. However, there were institutional problems to introduce current state systems. Therefore, it is required to flexibly operate or revise the state laws according to the actual situation to harmonize society between state and people.

scholarly journals The vulnerability of peri-urban farm households with the emergence of land Markets in Accra

2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-100
Author(s):  
C. Y. Oduro ◽  
R. Adamtey
Keyword(s):  
Urban Development ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Farm Households ◽  
Land Market ◽  
Tenure System ◽  
Land Tenure System ◽  
Increasing Demand ◽  
Customary Land ◽  
Urban Land Market

Accra, the capital of Ghana, is a fast-growing African city. Its growth has brought in its wake an ever-increasing demand for land, which has in turn led to the emergence of a land market that is increasingly supplanting the age-old customary land tenure system. The customary land tenure system is based on communal, rather than individual ownership of land. However, over the last few decades, the system has come under pressure from the forces of rapid urbanization, city expansion and increasing demand for land for urban development. The purpose of this paper was to examine the vulnerability of residents of indigenous communities in peri-urban Accra due to the emerging urban land market. The case study approach has been used to explore vulnerability among residents of two indigenous communities in peri-urban Accra in respect of their ability to access land. Household surveys, focus group discussions and key informant interviews involving community members, leaders and municipal officials were the main techniques used to collect data. The study revealed that indigenous and long-term residents had their farmlands converted to urban development without any measures in place to protect them from the collapsing customary land tenure system and the evolving urban land market. This has negatively impacted their quality of life, especially with respect to livelihoods. There is therefore the need for municipal assemblies to include the preservation of farmlands in the management of physical growth and land use so as to minimize the rate at which farmlands are being converted to urban development. Measures should also be put in place to restore farm households that have lost their land to urban development in the form of compensation and provision of alternative livelihoods. Keywords: Vulnerability; customary; land tenure; urban growth; land market

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