Paper short abstract:

In this paper, I will note the "differences in reception" that structure the understanding of several real estate practitioners (sub-prefects, bailiffs, surveyors, lawyers, managers of real estate companies and civil servants) of the land categories set out in the Cameroonian legal system.

Paper long abstract:

In Cameroon, land management is regulated by the 1974 ordinances, which have undergone several modifications. These ordinances delimit land into three main categories: the national domain, the private domain and the public domain. According to the land law in force, the public domain includes all the spaces that belong neither to the national domain nor to the private domain and that are both artificial and natural spaces. This domain, unlike the others, is inalienable. This categorization seems self-evident.

However, if this strict categorization is measured against the discursive practices of professionals and experts on land issues, it emerges that it takes on plural varieties and forms : practitioners and jurists do not have the same conceptions and apprehensions not only of the definition of these categories, but also of the related procedural systems (A). But this plurality of conceptions of the legal categories thus given does not mean, however, that they are essentially aimed at circumventing, turning away from or standing outside the legal register relating to land registration. In practice, the reality resists this dichotomous perspective: although developed through informal networks, this standard knowledge does nothing more than renew the matrix of the legal land regime through three processes: rereading, incorporation and attestation. It is this set of processes that I designate, drawing on the reflections of Paul Ricoeur, as the "refiguration" of land law in Cameroon (B).

Paper short abstract:

Five land uses dominate the airport reserve: agriculture, villages, unplanned settlements, residential/ commercial zones related to the airport, French restricted military areas. Land tenure is pluralistic. Conflicts over land and leadership emerge due to population pressure and airport expansion.

Paper long abstract:

The study argues that French legacies need to be understood as wider path dependencies resulting from of colonialism, especially French West Africa, and the francophonie, rather than reducing the analysis to the French as initially main actors in city making and defining legal land tenure. Around the FHB International Airport in Abidjan, five land uses dominated the airport reserve: urban agriculture; villages; large and dense unplanned settlements; residential/ commercial zones related to the airport; and French restricted military areas. Since the declaration of the reserve as a public utility, residents established a pluralistic tenure system. Nobody may hold legal land titles. Nationality and belonging, followership and alliances with either the autochthonous Ebrié, with West African migrant communities and/or with the municipal council were of central importance in order to live and work on the airport reserve. Due to persistent population pressure and airport expansion, long-standing customary land arrangements between the Ebrié and some communities of farmers and fishermen of migrant origin are scrutinised. Villages, going back to diverse social and tenure contracts and holding different legal rights in the municipal governance system, compete over the legitimacy to give out temporal land titles. Land transactions impact the spatial form and composition of the resident population on the airport reserve and therefore are contested. Obscure land scams further fuel the emergence of land conflicts. The study presents the analysis of ethnographic data from November/ December 2021.

Paper short abstract:

With urban land markets increasingly commodifying in East Africa, land rights are challenged by post-colonial meanings of land ownership. Research on land access revealed that transactions are complex and influenced by dynamic factors that are dependent on both customary law and new legislations

Paper long abstract:

As urban land markets are increasingly commodifying, the rights and customary laws that protect local residents are progressively challenged by an economic system that poses questions to both procedural as well as distributive spatial justice. When assessing the framework conditions for land transactions in East Africa, it can be observed that laws and concerned institutions present only one, though essential, part of the complex land market. However, this complexity does not necessarily translate into a fairer access or enhanced procedural justice. Socio-cultural aspects, such as status, sense of belonging and access to specific information indicate that there are multiple influential factors, related to the specific actors, that overrule the “modern”, i.e. westernized or post-colonial, understanding of land transactions as transferring property rights.

In nearly any transaction there are additional, informal practices at play that invoke varying outcomes at different scales. With the point of departure from the panel text, i.e. that there are a “myriad of local practices that are not cast into legal texts”, we focus on research findings from an intense quantitative and qualitative research conducted at the household level in Kampala and Arua, Uganda. From our research we conclude that the understanding of a “right to land” which would be based on customary law, is challenged by the post-colonial understanding of land as privately owned property. The trajectory of land transactions over time indicates that understandings of land law and tenure are dynamic.

Please note that we present in English, but follow the French discussion.

Paper short abstract:

Land (re)distribution for private use and certification has long been promoted as a method of ensuring the benefit of the land to the local community. This is not always the case, as it is mediated by structural and socio-cultural factors.

Paper long abstract:

As elsewhere in parts of Africa, the Karrayu upper Awash community is one of the most marginalised pastoralist societies in Ethiopia. Successive regimes implemented large-scale ventures in the valley in the name of ‘development’, all of which were associated with land concessions and grants for the purpose. To this effect, more than 100,000 hectares of land were confiscated from the Karrayu communities, and they were evacuated and denied access to land. Consequently, they have been alienated from the land on which their livelihood is based. However, in the last decade, Ethiopia's Oromia region has implemented a new large-scale irrigation project, which is said to be a response to previous wrongdoing and has been celebrated with many 'firsts,' changing the narrative to first "community-managed," first "integrated approach," and first in ensuring pastoralists access and benefit from their land. To that end, previously communally owned land was distributed to pastoralist households and individuals, including women and youths of both sexes. Many of them were also given land certificates as proof of ownership. Meanwhile, officials framed the project as a means of securing land rights and benefiting already marginalised pastoralists. It is at this point that this paper challenges the widely held belief that land distribution and certification ensure that local people benefit from the land. Using a project as an example, the paper demonstrates how land distribution and certification do not always benefit the owners as promised. It elucidates the disparity between the ownership title and the actual benefit from the land.