Land rights in Africa - Introduction

Land Rights	Introduction	Key principles
Africa General	West Africa	East Africa
Horn of Africa	Southern Africa	Links

In recent years Oxfam GB and many of its partners in Africa have become increasingly involved in the issue of land rights.

This is because access to land, which remains for many people in Africa the ultimate form of social security, is being severely threatened. The threat comes from a combination of local and international factors, which include excessive liberalisation, the search for foreign investment, and an often blind faith in market solutions. It particularly affects land held by groups of people under some form of customary or indigenous tenure, in which access to land is dependent on acknowledged membership of a community. This remains significant across the continent, despite various attempts to extinguish it.

So in many places a land grab reminiscent of the original Scramble for Africa is currently underway, involving mining investors, tourist speculators, ruling elites and corrupt chiefs. As Camilla Toulmin has written, ‘“How can I protect my land rights?” is the question being asked in the cocoa groves of Ghana, the highlands of Ethiopia, and the pasturelands of Tanzania.’

In response, local NGOs have endeavoured to help communities become more aware of their rights - and determine how best to demand and defend them. They have also vigorously lobbied their governments as well as key donors such as the World Bank and DFID. In a number of countries they have come together to form national alliances and coalitions.

Oxfam GB has become involved in many of these struggles and debates, sometimes directly, more often in support of its partners. It has consistently pushed for the need for openness and for genuine public consultation and discussion before new laws are passed which might affect people’s livelihoods for many years to come.

The documents gathered on this website illustrate some of these struggles, which will certainly persist and remain highly significant for many years to come, as people continue to strive for secure access to land and sustainable livelihoods in what, all too frequently, has become very inhospitable terrain.