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Mokoro is pleased to host the ’Land Rights in Africa’ site as a contribution to the land rights dialogue and related debates. This website was created in January 2000 by Robin Palmer, and was originally housed by Oxfam GB, where Robin worked as a Land Rights Adviser. A library of resources on land rights in Africa – with a particular focus on women’s land rights and on the impact of land grabbing in Africa – the portal has been well received by practitioners, researchers and policy makers, and has grown considerably over the years. Since 2012, Mokoro has been hosting and maintaining the site.
The views expressed on the Land Rights in Africa site as well as the publications hosted there, are those of the authors and do not represent those of Mokoro. Wherever possible, we link to the source website of publications.
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Displaying 6 - 10 of 1134Large-scale Land Acquisition in Africa: Impacts;Conflicts and Human Rights Violations. The Case of Feronia in DRC
The paper aims to understand what land rights women have under formal and customary legal systems in pastoral areas in Ethiopia;how these are implemented and what their impact is;and to make recommendations for their convergence. It focuses on two pastoral regions: Afar and Oromia national regional states. The research revealed that there is a high disparity between what the law says and what is being practiced on the ground as far as women’s land rights in pastoral areas are concerned.
Women claim their space in land governance
For the past few decades;efforts to strengthen women’s land rights in many sub-Saharan African countries have primarily focused on a single approach: systematic registration through individual/joint certification or titling. While registration – individually or with a spouse – may support tenure security in specific contexts;the sheer complexity of land governance practices and tenure arrangements across the continent (both formal and customary) often render an emphasis on systematic titling inadequate.
Conference on Land Policy in Africa opens with calls for pro-poor land policies;equal access;and ownership
Writers have guest-edited an African Studies Review forum on Understanding Land Deals in Limbo in Africa which examines the contentious politics of incomplete land grabs in Senegal;Tanzania and Zambia. These studies show that even when land deals are cancelled;stalled;downsized;transferred to new owners;or stay dormant and speculative for many years;they can still produce far-reaching consequences that often go unnoticed. The complex interplay of land governance;local political dynamics and capital’s own contradictions can push land deals in different and unexpected directions.
Fighting agrocolonialism in the Congo
The restitution of ancestral land rights in Namibia has divided opinions since independence. Some argue it is a fitting process in dealing with colonial era land dispossessions;others are concerned about the complexity of implementing this kind of restitution. At independence;the Namibian government adopted the viewpoint of the latter group;arguing that the restitution of ancestral land rights is not possible because of historical complexities in establishing land occupancy by indigenous people at the time of Namibia’s colonisation.
What happened to land grabs in Africa?
Proponents of large-scale agriculture have put forward a multitude of reasons to support the advancement of this approach to farming. Large-scale agriculture is seen as the only way to “modernise” and “develop” the land;to close the yield gap;and to ensure food availability. Furthermore;socio-economic outcomes are assumed to be higher under the management of large-scale farming operations than on small-scale farms. This study reviewed scientific literature on the microeconomic and social effects of large-scale land acquisitions in Sub-Saharan Africa.