Resource information
Village heads form the access point to customary land in Malawi. Rapid population growth and agricultural policies that favoured large scale commercial agriculture and permitted the conversion of customary land to private tenure have combined to create land scarcity in Malawi's subsistence sector and consequently affected the role of village heads in land administration, diminishing their status. This paper examines the emerging roles of village heads in the administration of customary land during a period when virgin land is increasingly becoming scarce due to the rapid population growth and expansion of commercial farming on leasehold tenure. The study shows: how village heads had created a new role for themselves by being witnesses of land transactions between families and individuals the contradictions between village heads’ customary and new roles, as the customary role consists in protect the village land, while the new role implies to transfer land from the village community members to people regarded as ‘strangers’ the arise of contests between the village heads and lineage leaders over unused land, as village leaders strive to retain their allocating role over land, while village leaders aim to prevail their higher status over the common villager.
