A Reinvented Landholding: The history and future of Land Leasing in Africa

Abstract

Although land leasing is one of the most ancient landholdings (Merril, 2020) in the African continent, there is limited literature that explores its dynamics and its processes of endless reinvention. Much of the literature that focuses on land tenure systems explores freehold land under statutory law and communal land under customary law. This analysis restricts an expansive understanding of the dynamics of land tenure practices across the continent. This paper explores land leasing, specifically the 99-year leasehold and how it has been redefined across precolonial, colonial and post-independence eras in the continent. An analysis of the role of land leasing unveils the institutional and cultural rationalities that are constantly colliding especially in peri-urban areas, where land leasing is enacted amidst urban and rural, modern and traditional practices that coexist in these spaces. Using Mbabane in Eswatini as a case study, this paper investigates the cultural rationalities embedded in peri-urban areas where there is an interplay with informal dynamics of land leasing and unrecognisable planning systems. The thrust of the paper is to unveil the third wave of land leasing that is orchestrated through informal dynamics and off-the-radar institutions beyond formal recognised institutions.