Land issues and conflicts occur all over, all the time on the African continent and continue to mushroom on a continuous basis. Although many of these issues are not new, they do continue to change and are extremely complex and embedded, which may lead to the inability to deal with them and to questioning the legitimacy of the forms of intervention and prevention of conflicts. The way in which these issues are dealt with often does not take into consideration their major - and thus potentially recurring - causes. The Struggle over Land in Africa: Conflicts, Politics and Change is a compelling book which analyses the role of land as a place and source of conflict, especially with regard to policy development, crisis management and post-war/post-conflict reconstruction. The authors main aim is to gain insight into the nature of policy-making concerning land and to delve into the underlying causes of these land issues, not only at national level but also in terms of broader Africa. The book covers land issues in Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, northern Cameroon, Namibia, Mozambique, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Some of the themes explored in this powerful volume include: Ethnic and indigenous land conflicts, Traditionalism versus modernity, renewed land interests, land use and conflict, state building, politics and land (for example Agricultural land reform); land policy development, planning, inclusiveness/non-inclusiveness; regional scopes of land conflicts and changing norms.
Product information
Introduction: The struggle over land in Africa: Conflicts, politics and change
Ward Anseeuw and Chris Alden
Theme 1: Ethnic and indigenous land conflicts
1. ‘Indigenous’ land claims in Kenya: A case study of Chebyuk, Mount Elgon District
Claire Médard
2. Shades of grey: Post-conflict land policy reform in the Great Lakes Region
Chris Huggins
Theme 2: Between ‘traditionalism and modernity’: Insecurity, privatisation and marginalisation
3. The politics of communal tenure reform: A South African case study
Ben Cousins
4. Karal land: Family cultural patrimony or a commercialised product on the Diamaré Plain?
Bernard Gonné
Theme 3: Renewed land interests, land use, and conflicts
5. The conflicting distribution of tourism revenue as an example of insecure land tenure in Namibian communal lands
Renaud Lapeyre
6. Land rights and enclosures: Implementing the Mozambican Land Law in practice
Christopher Tanner
7. Biodiversity conservation against small-scale farming? Scientific evidences and emergence of new types of land crises
Catherine E Laurent
Theme 4: State building, politics and land
8. The role of land as a site and source of conflict in Angola
Jenny Clover
9. Two cycles of land policy in South Africa: Tracing the contours
Ruth Hall
10. A legal analysis of the Namibian commercial agricultural land reform process
Willem Adriaan Odendaal
Theme 5: Land policy development, planning and (non-)inclusiveness
11. The Ituri paradox: When armed groups have a land policy and peacemakers do not
Thierry Vircoulon
12. Understanding urban planning approaches in Tanzania: A historical transition analysis for urban sustainability
Wakuru Magigi
Theme 6: Regional scopes of land conflicts and changing norms
13. The Zimbabwe crisis, land reform and normalisation
Sam Moyo
14. Regionalisation of norms and the impact of narratives on southern African land policies
Chris Alden and Ward Anseeuw
