To talk about land tenure, land rights and security of tenure on land without confusing your readers, listeners or self makes sense for a number of reasons: you will capture the attention of your audience, the participants will learn from you, makes it easier for you to respond to comments or questions, and readers will continue to seek you out on related issues. Read the rest of the blog for an elaboration of the two concepts.

While at the lands office waiting to be served, Pulei finds himself seated between two young men. After a brief exchange of greetings, the young men continue with an argument on land: one says they prefer if all land in the country was subdivided and registered in names of individuals. The other young man objects, asking what would happen to the many people who access land as a group, especially in arid and semi-arid lands. 

Pulei remains quiet; initially he had a mind of moving to a different waiting bench, but the mention of title registration attracts his attention, the issue that has brought him to the lands office, after the local Chief arrived with some young man who said they had a title registered to part of Pulei's land. Pulei stays put on the bench, wishing that his turn to be served does not come soon, before the two young men complete their argument! For easy follow of the conversation, Pulei mentally allocates names to the two young men; Private and Communal.

Private: Men! There is nothing comparable to having a title to land registered in your name, it is like having a log-book to a car; the car belongs to you, and belonging means that you the owner decides when to give someone a free ride and when to ask them to pay! That is the way I would like to hold my land.

Communal: I now understand the reason you no longer get along with your cousins. Are you trying to tell me that interests on land held by a group are not guided by rules? There are rules which guide users of communal lands and other natural resources. The rules give authority to community members to include and exclude outsiders from resources within their land. Communities have rules to determine who may access resources on their land for free, for pay or in exchange for items they lack. How is that different from what you call ownership?

Private: Looks down on the floor of the lands office and shakes his head without uttering a word.

Communal: I sense a big misunderstanding here! Did you not know that our communal lands are private to our community; the only difference with your desired individual rights to land is that we have not divided up our land. The elders of our community, not the current ones, but our forefathers reached a decision not to subdivide land into individual parcels. The decision was based on the realities of our environment; arid and semi-arid lands, favourable for the practice of pastoralism as a livelihood strategy. The elders agreed that each member of the community will have rights to the resources on land based on kinship which offers long term security of tenure to land.

Private: Those ideas of yours will change once you complete your degree program at the university, then you would have learnt about the practices on land holding our people from achieving development. I advise you to take the development course I pursued in my third year at university; that is where I encountered the man called De Soto.

Communal: Was that one of your lecturers, or a fellow student? Is that the reason you talk so against our communal land tenure? I now confirm my feelings that you had encountered something strange!

Private: I actually did not meet with the person. What I am telling you is from his writings on how communities make progress. The man talks of some dead capital tied up in all these communal lands. He explains that the dead capital will only come to life when one formalizes their individual land through title registration, which will then transform lives of individuals; life will be more like having a key that opens doors to many places. Is that not the way to achieve progress?

Communal: I don’t think our people are ready for that type of individual land tenure; a tenure that will imprison them with tight rules on how to relate with their family and neighbours. I prefer our communal land tenure, based on customary rules, and the rights to land are long term and evolve in response to the needs of the group. I prefer a land tenure type that lets me walk to my neighbour’s house without encountering fences! I prefer group rights to land for they allow reciprocal relations among people.

Private: As I said, remember to take that university course next year, that is where your liberation will begin. I had no idea that you do not like absolute control over things! Registering title to land provides security of tenure, thus reduces uncertainty of future access. Remember that once you register a title to land, you are free to sell the land to a person of your choice; you have no reason to ask anyone for permission.

Communal: I do not think I like your type of private land tenure. It scares me that one day I can return from university to find that my father has registered title to land and sold it without my knowledge, or the knowledge of my mother and siblings. That will be a terrible day!

Private: What would you say if I told you that the opposite is more likely to happen? There is nothing worse than you coming back from university after three months to find a stranger in charge of your land; a stranger flashing a title deed onto your face and telling you that the land belongs to them because they hold a title registered in their name. By registering title to land, the land will be protected from outside appropriation, and once you know that the land belongs to only you, you are more likely to make improvements on the land.

Communal: Hahaaha! You make me laugh. Where will a normal person get courage to go register title on the land of another? Remember that all the neighbours here know one another and will never let strangers come in to disrupt their way of life. Recall one other fact, young men in our community are to provide security to all community members; such a stranger will be one of such an occasion!

At this point Pulei hears his name. He reluctantly leaves the bench and goes to talk to the land officer. Pulei is now very confused: when he left his house this morning, he had a clear idea on the protection and benefits provided under communal land tenure. Pulei is confused after listening to the debate between the two young men on the pros and cons of holding land on communal or individual land tenure . What will he tell the land’s officer?

Stay tuned for the next blog post to learn more on the land tenure type that Pulei has decided to hold the land accessed by his household.

Which of the two land tenure types; communal or individual will provide security of tenure to land users in rural areas of Africa? We need your comments to progress the debate.