Rights, Rushes &

Reforms
Conflicted Land Relations in
Africa in 2021

Liz Alden Wily (PhD)

Political economist & tenure specialist

Presented at India Land &

Development Conference 25 Nov 2021

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1. Context
1. The most RECENTLY COLONIZED continent (mainly from 1820) and
LATEST to be LIBERATED (1957-2011)
2. The POOREST region: by GDP per capita, and % living below proverty line
3. The YOUNGEST region: 60% under 25 years in 2021
4. The WEAKEST region as assessed by UN Human Development Indicators
5. The fastest POPULATION GROWTH: to double pop by 2050 to 2.5 billion
6. The fastest URBANIZING region (SSA) and highest % living in slums
(50+%)
7. A TARGET of large-scale external investment for home markets
8. The most FRAGILE region: 70% of 55 countries ranked ‘fragile’ in 2021
9. The most WAR-TORN region: 44% of all armed conflicts in Africa in 2021
10. High LAND DEPENDENCY: 46 of 55 states (84%) are land-use dependent

Rights Rushes & Reforms: Conflicted Land Relations in Africa. Alden Wily, Liz. 25/11/21 3
The land & resource of Africa
1. LAND RICH: average 1.5 ha per person cf India 0.23 ha per person
2. ARABLE POOR: 0.2 ha per person (SSA) cf India 0.47 ha per person
3. FOREST RICH: Africa – 22.7% total area. India – 21.6 % of total are
4. RANGELAND RICH: Africa – 43%, India 40%
5. DESERT RICH: 38% of continent –hydrocarbon & mineral potential
6. COASTAL RESOURCE RICH: mangroves, fishing, 30,500 km
7. WATER: diverse availability by sub-region
8. MINERALS & HYDROCARBONS: significant reserves
9. LEAST URBANIZED: Urban land covers only 1 % of continent despite
housing 43% of population (to rise to 50% of pop by 2050)
10. AGRICULTURAL GROWTH is medium-scale farm, not large-scale
Rights Rushes & Reforms: Conflicted Land Relations in Africa. Alden Wily, Liz. 25/11/21 4
II. Common Features of Land & Resource Relations
1. HIGH commonality of principles & land classes despite diverse
origins of legal regimes from Sharia to Lusophone civil law
2. LOW level of titled lands: < 10% of parcels, most in urban areas:
mainly in 4 of 55 states
3. LOW level of private landlordism & tenancy: but remnants in North
Africa and in cases of colonial-created tenancy
4. LOW level of absolute landlessness outside cities & towns
5. HIGH level of state ownership incl. customary lands in 50% states

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6. STATE owns 95+% natural resources – Protected Areas, inland
waters, minerals & hydrocarbons, physical infrastructure
7. A MASSIVE CUSTOMARY ESTATE (est.78% continental area,
supporting 680 million rural land dependents).
8. 75% of this estate is communal forests, rangelands, swampland
9. TENURE REFORM across the continent affecting customary sector –
6. Significant reforms: 10 countries (18%)
7. Mixed reforms: 21 countries (38%)
8. Minimal or no reforms: 16 countries (29%)
9. N/A (abolished cutomary tenure or never existed): 8 countries (15%)

10. STRONG LINK between subordination of land rights & conflict: ‘land &
resource security is a PEACE issue in Africa

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 III. Some Best Practices from Africa
NOTE: rarely in more than a handful of countries
1. Recognition of customary rights as property rights due same protection as
private rights, and in some states whether registered or not
2. Provision for registration without conversion to introduced tenure forms
3. Abandonment of requirement for community to register a cooperative or
association in which to vest shared property: communities recognized as
jural persons
4. Evolving constructs for collective tenure to enable communal lands to be
retained as community property owned in undivided shares
5. Democratizing governance away from unelected treaditional authorities
6. No limit in newer laws upon size of land which a community can own
collectively
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7. Rising provision for family tenure to help limit exclusion of women
& youth
8. Requirement that 30% of decision-making positions occupied by
women
9. Provision for spousal co-ownership
10. Requirement that spouses give consent to sale of household land
11. More scrutiny of LSLA, adoption of requirement for consultation &
consent and resettlement as communities
12. Some provision for a community to lease land to investors rather
than have its land compulsorily acquired
13. FPIC is slowly evolving through new good governance laws

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Alden Wily, Liz. 25/11/21
IV. African Land & Resource Relations
1. Insufficient political will to pursue reforms or implement legal commitments
2. Resistance to limiting range of public lands or modernizing compulsory acquisition -
even to pay compensation prior to eviction
3. Persisting low valuation of off-farm ‘undeveloped’ lands
4. Resistance to restitution of clear cases of historical land injustice
5. Persisting denial that IP have special land needs and rights due to their hunter-
gatherer and pastoral land use systems
6. Slow acknowledgement that longstanding slum & informal settlers deserve tenure
security
7. Low rule of law in the land sector, massive corruption
8. Slow action to ensure youth retain rights in home villages
9. Timid challenge due to political and class alliance to traditional authorities who claim
they own the land, not their subjects
10. Given climate change, dangerously slow recognition of right and viability of
communities as protectors of natural resources or the essential role of ownership as
the basis for sustaining their commitments
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V. Rising Sources of Land & Resource Grievance
and Conflict
1. Prioritization of state/public lands over community lands
2. Continuing evictions for state-supported private enterprise without
consent, perceived validity, prior or fair value compensation, or
assisted resettlement as communities
3. Failure to prioritize and invest in titling of customary lands
4. Failure to invest in role of communities as viable owner-
conservators
5. Grievance over lost inland waters – especially swamp lands to state
ownership
6. Failure to invest significantly in regularization of city slum dweller
occupancy
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Alden Wily, Liz. 25/11/21
 Selected examples of progressive land laws
Uganda Land Act, 1998 (except for its nationalization of natural reources including forests) Good
on gender

Rwanda Law Governing Land, 2013 (except in relation to collective property which it fails
to provide for. Excellent on gender, simplified registration of properties)

Kenya Community Land Act, 2016 (positive on inclusive governance of all community
members and community control over all off-farm resource areas)

Liberia Land Rights Act, 2018 – most notable for speedy implementation; 1.3 million ha in 2
years under commnity land title by 2021

Republic of Congo, Law Concerning Rights of Indigenous People, 2011 –

the only law on the continent directly addressing IP including their land rights

Tanzania Forest Act, 2002 – most progressive in empowering community ownership and
management of forests

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 Documentation available in these papers
Alden Wily, Liz. 2020 Adjusting to new era agrarianism: tackling the troubled
interface of public and community property. Available at: https://www.dlci-
hoa.org/assets/upload/land-documents/20200804042940748.pdf

Alden Wily, Liz. 2021 The tragedy of public lands in Africa: The continuing struggle
to challenge state landlordism and decolonize property relations in Africa. In H.
Siphalla & J. Osogo Ambani (eds) 2021. Furthering constitutions, birthing peace:
Liber amicorum Yash Pal Ghai. Strathmore University Press; pp 275-300. Available
at:
https://www.researchgate.net/search.Search.html?type=publication&query=rthe%20tragedy%20of%20public
%20land%20in%20africa

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