Land Governance as a Restitutive Mechanism for Asserting Ownership and Tenure Rights in Postcolonial Contexts: Insights from Namibia and Ghana

Abstract

This chapter applies the concept of land governance to assess the differential manifestations of ownership and tenure rights in Namibia and Ghana. Namibia’s postcolonial context is influenced by its apartheid past implying that land management is underpinned by issues of race, class and inequality. Thus, restitution entails the creation of a unitary constitutional system which accords equal rights to all citizens. It also involves legal and institutional reforms, land redistribution, as well as community-based natural resource management. In the case of Ghana, local resistance to the usurping of indigenous land rights during colonial rule has led to a situation whereby traditional authorities, extended families, private individuals and central government are the main stewards of land. Here, postcolonial restitution entails constitutional recognition of customary land rights, incremental and radical approaches, compensation for compulsorily acquired land, establishment of a reliable land records system and reconceptualisation of land as a public good.