Land and Power in Africa: What Recent Land Reforms Have Brought About Shinichi TAKEUCHI (African Studies Center – TUFS / IDE-JETRO)

Introduction A wave of land law reforms in Africa since the 1990s. What have been their effects and consequences? Commercialization of land (Alden Wily 2014, Amanor 2018) Effects over the State-building The consequence has been quite different from donors’ assumption of the reform. The paper identifies three different patterns of the consequences, illustrating directions of the transformation of African states and societies.

About the research Based on the joint research carried out during FY 2015-2016 at IDE-JETRO. Comparative research on the land law reform and its consequences. Eight researchers (area specialists) analyzed ten African countries Burundi, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia

A wave of land law reforms A number of African countries have launched land law reforms since the 1990s.

Objectives and Motivations International community (donors) Strengthening tillers’ rights for promoting investments. Improving land governance. Securing users’ rights. Context of the land law reforms in Africa Democratization and marketization Revising previous land policies Reorganizing power in post civil war period

Land policy in the state-building Control over land has been one of the central issues in politics since the colonial times. Recent land law reforms: A shift from the state-centered land policy?

Strengthening the state control through land registration: Rwanda and Ethiopia Systematic land registration Federal land law in 1997 (Ethiopia), Organic land law in 2005 (Rwanda) Strong motivation (sense of crisis) for social transformation Enhancing rational land use Challenges of high population density and land shortage Power consolidation in the post-conflict settings: RPF, EPRDF. Tight control over land Obligation of effective land use Ban on dividing small plots of land Land consolidation: imposing particular crops for cultivation Deliverance of land certificates has never strengthened private land rights, but the state control over land.

Implementing the land law for the consolidation of one party dominant system: Mozambique and Tanzania Recognition of customary land rights Land law in 1997 (Mozambique), Village Land Act in 1999 (Tanzania) Hailed by the international community. Similar history of the state intervention in the land. Problematic “customary” land tenure. State control over the customary land management Intervention by the local administrations and/or the ruling parties (FRELIMO, CCM). Historical process to strengthen the state control over land Socialist policy: villagization, collective farms Oppression policies against chiefs Decentralization

Delegation of power to the chiefs: Zambia Strengthening chiefs’ power over land 1995 Land Act requiring chiefs’ approval for land deals. Chiefs often hold more effective and stronger power than the government. No ruling party consistently intervening in the land management.

Discussion Effects of the land law reform on the state building The reform has rarely strengthened private property rights. Three different patterns, closely related to the nature of political regime. Former rebels, tight control over the society Dominant parties issue of independent movement establishing their control Democratic regime change ensuring chiefs’ autonomy Large scale land deals by foreign companies have not necessarily exacerbated the state fragility (Sassen 2013). Challenges for democratic governance (Excessive) state control vs. chiefs’ control