The Political Economy of Land Ownership Rights: Lessons from Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe

Abstract

The nature of land ownership rights in pre‐colonial African countries implies a myriad of customary land holding systems under which families and communities had collective ownership and equitable access to land use. However, colonialism disrupted the customary systems, confined land ownership rights to privileged minority groups, and established dualistic agrarian systems that discriminated against local populations and impoverished their livelihoods. Since the dawn of post-colonialism, there has been an assortment of policies and laws to either redefine or re-assign land ownership rights in African countries with histories of colonial emasculation of pre‐existing land rights and expropriation of native lands. However, there is yet to be a fundamental reform of land ownership rights that clearly shifts access to land use in favour of the poor majority. The legacy of colonialism persists and has been perpetuated in post-colonial land laws and policies, and are further entrenched by contemporary economic ideologies of market capitalism and neo-liberal globalisation. This article examines an aspect of the land question in Africa; how to adequately achieve equity in access to land while resolving colonial legacies which suppressed indigenous land ownership rights, displaced communal land administration structures and marginalised the poor majority in access to land. This article recommends a new policy approach that is driven mainly by the broad imperatives of ensuring equitable access to land for the vulnerable majority group of rural poor, and not influenced by politico-economic considerations that yield narrow outcomes for privileged minority groups.