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Improving tenure security for the poor in Africa

Synthesis paper: Deliberations of the legal empowerment workshop in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Year of publication 2007

Pages 12p.

Author McAuslan, P.;Land and Water Division

Publisher FAO ;

Product type Book (series)

Edition 1

Synopsis (short abstract) This paper aims to provide a synthesis and commentary with recommendations of the papers given and the discussions which took place at the technical workshop on Improving tenure security for the rural poor in Africa in October 2006. The workshop brought together a wide range of persons from civil society academics, representatives from NGOs the FAO, the principal sponsors of the workshop, and from some donors working on land issues from all over sub-Saharan Africa with an emphasis on Anglophon e Africa. The views expressed in this workshop are of significance. They are not the official positions of governments but they are representative of grass-roots involvement in land relations in Africa and are therefore entitled to respect.

Language English

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    This case study looks at the land tenure in Namibia, where for a century of colonial rule indigenous Namibians were dispossessed from rights to both land and resources – by German and then white South African settlers establishing commercial farms and related businesses. Access to freehold tenure was reserved for white settlers and tenure security for indigenous Namibians largely disappeared. In non-white areas, rights were provided under indigenous tenure systems whose legal status was somewhat murky. Urban tenure was denied as blacks were not allowed ownership of residential land. While the acquisition and redistribution of freehold farmland has garnered the headlines since independence in 1990, many issues, problems and solutions to the restoration of rights in other areas have emerged. Land and rights reform for Namibia is not the simple task of obtaining from those who have much and redistributing to those who have little. Redistribution, in this classic sense, would apply to o nly half of the country’s land. The story of the other half is often neglected. Namibia has a web of social, historical, environmental and legal parameters that have required a complex approach to both the recognition and restoration of property rights.
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