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Customary vs Private Property Rights? Dynamics and Trajectories of Vernacular Land Markets in Sub‐Saharan Africa
Author(s) -
CHIMHOWU ADMOS,
WOODHOUSE PHIL
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of agrarian change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.63
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1471-0366
pISSN - 1471-0358
DOI - 10.1111/j.1471-0366.2006.00125.x
Subject(s) - land tenure , customary land , land law , vernacular , land reform , renting , property rights , state (computer science) , state ownership , private rights , economics , political economy , political science , geography , law , law and economics , emerging markets , agriculture , finance , linguistics , philosophy , archaeology , algorithm , computer science
Contemporary discourse on land in Africa is polarized between advocates of tenure reform through state registration of individual titles to land and others who claim that customary or ‘communal’ tenure is the only check against landlessness among the poor in the African countryside, and that ‘pro‐poor’ land policy should therefore strengthen customary rights to land. This paper draws on a growing body of evidence on the emergence of vernacular rural land sales and rental markets to question assumptions that underlie the non‐market ‘ideal type’ communal tenure model that has historically dominated policy thinking in Africa, and continues to be shared by both sides of the current land tenure reform debate. The paper argues that recognition of the specific characteristics of ‘vernacular land markets’– commoditized transfers of land within the framework of customary tenure – is essential if state land policies are to succeed in promoting the interests of the poor.