Editor's Notes
| Published date | 01 October 1959 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/j.1099-162X.1959.tb00139.x |
| Date | 01 October 1959 |
JOURNAL
OF
AFRICAN
ADMINISTRATION
Volume
XI
.
Number
4 .
October
1959
Editor's
Notes
EARLIER
this year, with the passing
of
legislation based on the recommenda-
tions of the
Kenya
Working
Party
on African
Land
Tenure,
a system ofregistra-
tion
of
title was introduced in those parts of Kenya,
notably
the
Central
Province, in which individualization of existing rights in
land
is sufficiently
advanced. Existing rights, proved to the satisfaction
of
local representative
committees to
approximate
to full ownership, will in the process of registration
be converted into freehold titles.
The
evolution in thought
and
practice which
culminated in these measures has been so
rapid
as to be almost arevolution,
as
Mr.
Branney shows in his survey
of
the background to the Working
Party's
proposals (which he discusses in
another
article). Despite earlier
and
dis-
Connected measures, mostly in the nineteenth century, in the direction
of
registration
of
ir.dividual title the principle remained largely theoretical
until
the idea of
the
sanctity
of
'native law
and
custom' was modified in the face
of
mounting pressures:
of
population on
natural
resources
and
of
the
need for
greater
prcductivity;
of social
and
political change.
Since the war, too, there has been agrowing realisation
not
only
that--
whatever
might
be the 'custom' or 'customary law'
(and
no precise definition
of these terms is
possible)-accepted
African
practice
in
regard
to
land
tenure
has in certain areas developed over the years in the direction of individual
ownership,
but
also
that
it is often innacurate
and
misleading to describe
customary tenures as communal.
In
many
African societies
custom
in
regard
to
land recognizes the dominance
of
avariety
of
individual interests over
communal
rights. These points
are
clearly
made
in
Mr.
White's
report
on his
land
tenure
survey in
Northern
Rhodesia,
and
they
are
of
great
importance when it is
necessary to examine existing rights in
land
and
to consider
the
nature
of
the
formal title which should be registered.
From
these studies
ofland
tenure.develop;
rnents in
Kenya
and
Northern
Rhodesia it seems clear
that
administrators no less
than
research workers
(and
in no field isthere agreater need for close association
between
them)
should concern themselves with existing
and
accepted
gradua-
tions
of
individual rights in
land
up
to
and
including ownership,
rather
than
with the conception
of
'communal'
or even
'customary'
tenure.
**** *
Mr.
Sady's article on community development
and
local government
and
OUr
note on international organisations for development in Africa
are
in a sense
complementary.
The
former discusses the relations between two kinds
of
activity having, it
may
he, different objectives
but
nevertheless interdependent.
169
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