ABSTRACT
Simply described, a national land policy defines what actions a government intends to take in managing the country’s land and related natural resources. In eastern and southern Africa, the period 1990-2006 was one of unprecedented attempts to reform land policy and related laws. In southern Africa international donors and funding agencies sought to support a peaceable transition to multi-racial democracy. In East Africa, land tenure reform and related legal reforms were linked to the peace building effort following civil conflicts. Policy objectives included the harmonisation of received law and customary law, and the transformation of colonial systems of land administration and urban planning, better to serve the majority of the population. Policy and related legislative reform progressed in several countries, particularly where efforts were made to integrate customary and statutory land administration in a national system, and decentralise authority over land administration. In the preface to his final work, McAuslan (2013, p. x) describes his ‘lifetime’s commitment to grappling with the endlessly challenging and fascinating topic of land law in the region’. He provides us with an authoritive and scholarly review of development and change in the land laws of seven countries in Eastern Africa over the period 1961-2011. The following account describes some of the background to his consultancy assignments in three of these countries – namely Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda. To these three countries, I have added two more in southern Africa – Lesotho and Botswana. Regrettably, despite promulgating good laws, governments have subsequently amended or implemented them in a way that has undermined their worthy aims. Tension between democratic and traditional forces has frustrated land law reform. There are doubts about the transparency and honesty of the declared land policy aims and whether they are really designed to include the rural poor.
