Legal Histories of Land Tenure in Africa

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25159/2520-9515/17839

Keywords:

legal history, land tenure, land and property law, surveying, planning, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Zambia

Abstract

The legal systems of most African countries are a legacy of past European colonial powers, which at independence stayed largely intact, protecting private property rights and land tenure inequalities. The former British colonies covered a larger combined land area than any other colonial power, and this article applies a legal history approach to land law “genealogies” in four of them: Nigeria (West Africa), South Africa, Kenya (East Africa), and Zambia (Central Africa). The three professions most involved with land (law, surveying, and planning) were part of colonial power structures, associated with violent evictions, the “dual mandate” separating private property rights from African land tenure, and separate governance arrangements for urban areas that contributed to unplanned peri-urban settlements.

Author Biography

Robert Home, Anglia Ruskin University

Robert Home has degrees in History (Cambridge), Geography (PhD, London), and Town Planning  (Oxford Brookes), and is Emeritus Professor in Land Management at Anglia Ruskin University. His research publications are in planning history and land management, and include Of Planting and Planning: The Making of British Colonial Cities  (2nd edition, 2013, R. Home, ed.), Essays in African Land Law and Case Studies in African Land Law  (2012, R. Home, ed.), and  Demystifying The Mystery of Capital: Land Titling in Africa and the Caribbean (2004, R. Home and H. Lim, eds.). He has made recent chapter contributions to the Routledge Handbook of Planning History (C. Hein, ed.), Historical Perspectives on Squatting (F. Anders and A. Sedlmaier, eds.), Oxford History of the British Empire: Architecture and Urbanism (A. Bremner, ed.), Urban Planning in Sub-Saharan Africa (C. N. Silva, ed.), and Routledge Handbook on Cities of the Global South (S. Oldfield and S. Parnell, eds.).

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Legislation

Communal Land Rights Act 11 of 2004 (South Africa).

Crown Lands Ordinance of 1902 (Kenya).

Devonshire Declaration of 1922 (Kenya).

Government Lands Ordinance of 1915 (Kenya).

Group Areas Act of 1948 (South Africa).

Land and Native Rights Proclamation of 1910 (Nigeria).

Land Use Act of 1978 (Nigeria).

Lands Act of 1975 (Zambia).

Lands Act of 1995 (Zambia).

Mines Townships Ordinance of 1932 (Zambia).

Municipal Corporations Ordinance of 1927 (Zambia).

Native Lands Acquisition Proclamation of 1900 (Nigeria).

Native Lands Trust Ordinance of 1930 (Kenya).

Native Lands Registration Ordinance of 1959 (Kenya).

Natives Land Act of 1913 (South Africa).

Town Planning Ordinance of 1929 (Zambia).

Townships Ordinance of 1917 (Nigeria).

Townships Ordinance of 1929 (Zambia).

Public Lands Acquisition Ordinance of 1930 (Zambia).

Registered Lands Act of 1963 (Kenya).

Registration of Natives Ordinance of 1915 (Kenya).

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Published

2025-07-24

How to Cite

Home, Robert. 2025. “Legal Histories of Land Tenure in Africa”. Journal of Law, Society and Development, July, 21 pages. https://doi.org/10.25159/2520-9515/17839.

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