ABSTRACT
This chapter presents case study of how and why a system of land tenure has changed. Conflict and uncertainty at the local level over rules of land tenure is not the outcome of a situation in which changing circumstances are giving rise to conflict between the group and the individual over clearly defined rights in land, particularly the right to alienate land. By asserting themselves and gaining some more control of resources they are beginning to establish some 'room for manoeuvre'. The kind of agriculture found in an area will affect the pattern of holdings in land, use of land and transactions in land. Changes in the traditional system of land tenure have already occurred as a result of changes in clan organisation and the development of a market in land, among other things. Thus what is described is what might be called a contemporary form of customary land tenure, which has incorporated these changes but is not written down.
