The Politics of Land Reform in Africa From Communal Tenure to Free Markets

This book is the first to develop a sociology of contemporary land reform in Africa. A drive is gathering pace in Africa today to replace communal forms of customary tenure with private land tenure arrangements, markets in land that treat it as a commodity, and forms of rural credit involving land as collateral. This process seems likely to transform African rural society. The book explains the emergence of a new 'law and development' in which transforming land tenure law will occupy centre stage. It describes the roles being played by the World Bank, the technical legal consultants who are writing new land tenure statutes, civil society groups, lawyers, bankers and commercial lenders. While the arguments in favour of land tenure reform may make economic sense, the human and social consequences are likely to undermine African rural security and ways of life.