Traditional landholding institutions and individual ownership of land rights in sub-Saharan Africa

World Review of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development

Volumn 2, Issue 3-4, 2005, Pages 302-319

  Talinbe Abdulai, Raymond ^a   Antwi, Adarkwah ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF WOLVERHAMPTON   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

communal; individual; property rights; traditional landholding institutions

Indexed keywords

EID: 34249333510     PISSN: 17412242     EISSN: 17412234     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1504/wrstsd.2005.007690     Document Type: Article

References (64)

1. Adams, M., Sibanda, S. and Turner, S. (2000) ‘Land tenure reform and rural livelihoods in Southern Africa’, in Toulmin, C.A. and Quan, J. (Eds.): Evolving Land Rights, Policy and Tenure in Africa, DFID/IIED/NRI, London.
2. Adegboye, R.O. (1973) ‘Land tenure and improved practices in Nigeria’, The Ghanaian Farmer, Vol. XVII, No. 2, pp.24–42.
3. Asante, S.K.B. (1975) Property Law and Social Goals in Ghana 1844–1966, Accra, Ghana University Press, Ghana.
4. Berry, S. (1992) ‘Concentration without privatization: some consequences of changing patterns of rural land control in Africa’, in Downs, R.E. and Reyna, S.P. (Eds.): Land and Society in Contemporary Africa, University Press of New England, Hanover and London.
5. Berry, S. (1993) No Condition is Permanent, The Social Dynamics of Agrarian Change in Sub-Saharan Africa, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison.
6. Branney, L. (1959) Towards the Systematic Individualisation of African Land Tenure, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
7. Chauveau, J.P. (1998) ‘La logique des systemes coutumiers’ in Delville, P.L. (Ed.): Quelles politiques foncieres en Afrique rurale? Reconcilier pratiques legitimite et legalite, Ministere de la Cooperation, Karthala, Paris.
8. Currie, J.M. (1981) The Economic Theory of Agricultural Land Tenure, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
9. Delville, P.L. (2000) ‘Harmonizing formal law and customary land rights in French-speaking West Africa’, in Toulmin, C.A. and Quan, J. (Eds.): Evolving Land Rights, Policy and Tenure in Africa, DFID/IIED/NRI, London.
10. Dorner, P. (1972) Land Reform and Economic Development, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth.
11. Elias, T.O. (1956) The Nature of African Customary Law, Manchester University Press, Manchester.
12. Elkan, W. (1959) ‘Migrant labour in Africa: an economist’s approach’, American Economic Review, Vol. 11, No. 3, pp.50–68.
13. Ensminger, J. (1997) ‘Changing property rights: reconciling formal and informal rights to land in Africa’, in Drobak, J.N. and Nye, J.V.C. (Eds.): The Frontiers of the New Institutional Economics, Academic Press, London.
14. Famoriyo, S. (1979) Land Tenure and Agricultural Development in Nigeria, NISER, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
15. Fisher, R. (1993) ‘Tensions and tenures in post-apartheid South Africa’, Paper presented at a Conference on International Land Tenure organized by the Royal Institution of Surveyors and the University of East London, December 10–14, UK.
16. Francis, P. (1984) For the Use and Common Benefit of all Nigerians: Consequences of the 1978 Land Nationalization, Africa, Vol. 54, No. 2, pp.5–28.
17. Gyekye, K. (1998) African Cultural Values: An Introduction, Accra, Sankofa Publishing Company, Ghana.
18. Hailey, L. (1958) An African Survey. A Study of Problems Arising in Africa South of the Sahara, Revised Edition, OUP.
19. Hardin, G. (1968) ‘The tragedy of the commons’, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Vol. 162, pp.1243–1248.
20. Harrison, P. (1987) Inside the Third World: The Anatomy of Poverty, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth.
21. Herskovits (1962) The Human Factor on Changing Africa, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.
22. Iliffe, J. (1995) Africans. The History of a Continent, African Studies Series 85, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
23. Kant, P. (1887) Philosophy of Law, Oxford Clarendon Press, Oxford.
24. Kasanga, R.K. (1994) ‘Land tenure systems and forest resource management. tenurial conflicts and forest conservation in Ghana’, Paper presented at An International Seminar Under the Auspices of Ghana Ministries of the Environment and Lands and Forestry, The British Council and the Overseas Development Administration, City Hotel, Kumasi.
25. Kenya Land Commission (1934) quoted in Berry (1992).
26. La Anyane, S. (1962) ‘Agriculture in the general economy – factors affecting agricultural production’, in Willis, J. (Ed.). Agricultural and Land Use in Ghana, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
27. La Anyane, S. (1967) ‘Economic aspects of land tenure systems in Western Africa’, in Woodruff, A.M., Brown, J.F. and Lin, S. (Eds.). Land Taxation, Tenure and Reform in Developing Countries, Hartford University, Hartford, Connecticut.
28. Lewis, A. (1955) Theory of Economic Growth, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
29. Liversage, A. (1945) Land Tenure in the Colonies, Clows, London.
30. Locke, J. (1765) ‘An essay concerning human understanding in four books’, in Donaldson and Reid, J. (Eds.). Three Volumes John Locke (1632–1704), Edinburgh.
31. MacKenzie, J-A. (2002) Text Book On Land Law, 9th ed., Oxford University Press, Oxford.
32. Mathuba, B.M. (1999) ‘Land boards and customary land administration in Botswana’, Paper presented at the DFID Workshop on Land Rights and Sustainable Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: Lessons and Ways Forward in Land Tenure Policy, Sunningdale, February 16–19, UK.
33. Meek, C.K. (1946) Land Law and Customs in the Colonies, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
34. Migot-Adholla, S., Hazell, P., Blorel, B. and Place, F. (1991) ‘Indigenous land rights systems in sub saharan Africa. a constraint on productivity’, The World Bank Economic Review, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp.155–175.
35. Mountjoy, A.B. (1975) Industrialization and Developing Countries, Hutchinson, London.
36. Myrdal, G. (1974) Against the Stream – Critical Essays in Economics, Macmillan Press, London.
37. Naire, K. (1984) Transforming Traditionally: Land and Labour use in Agriculture in Asia and Africa, Perspectives on Asian and African development, No. 1, Riverdale, Maryland.
38. Oluwasami, B. (1957) ‘Land tenure and agricultural development in tropical Africa 39, Journal of Farm Economics, Vol. 731, pp.733, 734.
39. Payne, G. (1997) Urban Land Tenure and Property Rights in Developing Countries: A Review, Intermediate Technology Publications, London.
40. Posner, R.A. (1981) Economic Analysis of Law, 2nd ed., Little Brown, Chicago.
41. Pound, R. (1954) An Introduction to the Philosophy of Law, 2nd ed., Yale University Press, Yale.
42. Quan, J. (2000) ‘Land tenure, economic growth and poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa’, in Toulmin, C.A. and Quan, J. (Eds.): Evolving Land Rights, Policy and Tenure in Africa, DFID/IIED/NRI, London.
43. Report of a Conference on African Land Tenure in East and Central Africa (1956) A special supplement to the Journal of African Administration, October, Vol. 10, No. 2, pp.266–381.
44. Riddall, J.G. (2003) Land Law, 7th ed., LexisNexis, London.
45. Ssekandi, R. (2002) ‘Land tenure issues in Sub-Saharan Africa’, The Canadian Surveyor, Vol. 45, No. 4, pp.115–129.
46. Thompson, M.P. (2003) Modern Land Law 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, Oxford.
47. Toulmin, C. and Longbottom, J. (2001) West African Land: Rights, Poverty and Growth, International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) Drylands Programme, Edinburgh, UK.
48. Toulmin, C. and Quan, J. (2000) ‘Evolving land rights, tenure and policy in Sub-Saharan Africa’, in Quan, J. and Toulmin, C. (Eds.): Evolving Land Rights, Policy and Tenure in Africa, DFID/IIED.
49. United Nations (1966) Progress in Land Reform, Fourth Report, United Nations, New York.
50. West, H.W. (2000) On African Landholding, A review of Tenurial Change and Land Policies in Anglophone Africa, Studies in African Economic and Social Development, The Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston, Queenston, and Lampeter, The Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston, Queenston and Lampeter, Vol. 16.
51. Woodman, G.R. (1985) ‘Customary law, state courts, and the notion on institutionalization of norms in Ghana and Nigeria’, in Allot, A. and Woodman, G.R. (Eds.): People’s Law and State Law: The Bellagio Papers, Foris, Dordrecht.
52. Woodman, G.R. (1996) Customary Land Law in the Ghanaian Courts, Ghana Universities Press, Accra.
53. World Bank (1974) Land Reform, World Bank Development Series, Washington DC, USA.
54. Antwi, A.Y. (2000) Urban Land Markets in Sub Saharan Africa: A Quantitative Study of Accra, Ghana, Unpublished PhD Thesis, Department of Economics, Napier University, UK.
55. Brennan, E.M. (1993) ‘Urban land and housing issues facing the third world’, in Kasarda, J.D. and Parnel, L.A.M. (Eds.): Third World Cities: Problems, Policies and Prospects, Sage, London.
56. British Colonial Office (1955) East Africa Royal Commission Report London M.H.S.O. Cmd. 9475, Chapters 21 and 22.
57. Danquah, J.B. (1928) Gold Coast: Akan Laws and Customs and the Akim Abuakwa Constitution. Routledge, London.
58. Famoriyo, S. (1973) Land Tenure and Food Production, Land Tenure Center Newsletter, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Vol. 41, USA.
59. Firmin-Sellers, K. (1996) The Transformation of Property Rights in the Gold Coast, Cambridge University Press, New York.
60. Jemenez, E. (1983) ‘The magnitude and determinants of home improvement in self-help housing: Manila’s tondo project’, Land Economics Vol. 59, No. 1, pp.70–83.
61. Killingham, J. (1993) ‘The early middle ages’, in Morgan, K.O. (Ed.): The History of Britain, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.
62. McAuslan, P. (2000) ‘Only the name of the country changes: the diaspora of ‘European’ land law in commonwealth Africa’, in Quan, J. and Toulmin, C. (Eds.): Evolving Land Rights, Policy and Tenure in Africa, DFID/IIED.
63. Raynaut, C. (1976) ‘Transformation du systeme de producrion et inegalite economique: le cas d’un village Haoussa (Niger)’, Revue Canadienne Desetudes Africaines, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp.279–306.
64. ‘Sub-Saharan Africa, by the World Bank designation refers to countries south of the Sahara. It comprises 48 countries. They are the Lusophone countries (5) where the official language is Portuguese – Angola, Guinea Bissau, Sao Tome and Principe, Cape Verde, and Mozambique; the Francophone countries (12) like Benin, Togo, Ivory Coast, etc where French is the official language; the Anglophone countries (15) where English is the official language, for example, Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa; Anglo-Francophone countries (2) where the official languages are English and French – Cameroon and Seychelles. The residual group comprises 14 countries. They are the following with their official languages: Chad, Djbouti, Mauritania, Eritrea & Comoros – English and Arabic; Madagascar – French and Malagasy; Somalia – Somali and English; Swaziland – Swati and English; Tanzania – English and Swahili; Sudan – Arabic; Ethiopia – Amharic, English and French; Equatorial Guinea – Spanish; Central African Republic – French and Sango; Burindi – French and Kirundi.