Paper short abstract:

Somaliland's pastoral communities have long held land under collective customary ownership with rapid urbanisation driving privatisation, utilising a combination of customary and legal mechanisms to formalise that process. This paper explores those dynamics, drawing on primary research.

Paper long abstract:

Somaliland is traditionally dominated by pastoral communities with a complex system of collective customary ownership, operating within a predominantly oral legal tradition known as xeer. However, urbanisation rates have increased markedly in recent years, with Hargeysa in particular growing rapidly. Urban growth has been predominantly unplanned and in Hargeysa falls outside formal legal arrangements in most cases, navigating instead a somewhat opaque system of privatisation that employs varying systems that make shifting use of xeer, legal courts and Islamic courts to formalise land transfer from collective ownership to private. Transactions are often, though not always, designed to reduce visibility to the tax authorities but also frequently involve notaries to 'formalise' arrangements. Implicit in these systems is a systematic means of transferring ownership from customary, clan-based groups to individual ownership. While individuals are able to profit personally from this transfer, the customary collective often retains a limited right to interfere in land sales should they be unhappy with transfers of ownership at any point. This results in sometimes complicated arrangements in which conflict over tenure is fairly common. This paper will explore those dynamics and will draw on primary research conducted as part of the research project Complex land markets in urban transitions in Somaliland and Uganda.