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Whose Security? Deepening Social Conflict over ‘Customary’ Land in the Shadow of Land Tenure Reform in Malawi

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  • Pauline Peters
  • Daimon Kambewa

Abstract

Malawi, like other countries in Africa, has a new land policy designed to clarify and formalise customary tenure. The country is poor with a high population density, highly dependent on agriculture, and the research sites are matrilineal-matrilocal, and near urban centres. But the case raises issues relevant to land tenure reform elsewhere: the role of ‘traditional authorities’ or chiefs vis-à-vis the state and ‘community’; variability in types of ‘customary’ tenure; and deepening inequality within rural populations. Even before it is implemented, the pending land policy in Malawi is intensifying competition over land. We discuss this and the increase in rentals and sales; the effects of public debates about the new land policy; a new discourse about ‘original settlers’ and ‘strangers’; and political manoeuvring by chiefs.

Suggested Citation

  • Pauline Peters & Daimon Kambewa, 2007. "Whose Security? Deepening Social Conflict over ‘Customary’ Land in the Shadow of Land Tenure Reform in Malawi," CID Working Papers 142, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    • Handle: RePEc:cid:wpfacu:142
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Peters, Pauline E., 2009. "Challenges in Land Tenure and Land Reform in Africa: Anthropological Contributions," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 1317-1325, August.
    2. Djurfeldt, Agnes Andersson & Hillbom, Ellen & Mulwafu, Wapulumuka O. & Mvula, Peter & Djurfeldt, Göran, 2018. "“The family farms together, the decisions, however are made by the man” —Matrilineal land tenure systems, welfare and decision making in rural Malawi," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 601-610.
    3. Lovo, Stefania, 2016. "Tenure Insecurity and Investment in Soil Conservation. Evidence from Malawi," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 219-229.
    4. Kang, Munsu & Schwab, Benjamin & Yu, Jisang, 2020. "Gender differences in the relationship between land ownership and managerial rights: Implications for intrahousehold farm labor allocation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    5. Juliet Katusiime & Brigitta Schütt, 2023. "Towards Legislation Responsive to Integrated Watershed Management Approaches and Land Tenure," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-27, January.
    6. Pauline Peters, 2007. "Challenges in Land Tenure and Land Reform in Africa: An Anthropological Perspective," CID Working Papers 141, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    7. Mwathunga, Evance & Donaldson, Ronnie, 2018. "Urban land contestations, challenges and planning strategies in Malawi’s main urban centres," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 1-8.
    8. Hanatani, Atsushi & Sato, Mine, 2011. "Assessing Effectiveness and Sustainability of Communitymanaged Informal Irrigation in Africa: A Comparative Institutional Analysis of “Temporary" Irrigation in Malawi," Working Papers 34, JICA Research Institute.
    9. Berge, Erling & Kambewa, Daimon & Munthali, Alister & Wiig, Henrik, 2013. "Lineage and Land Reforms in Malawi: Do Matrilineal and Patrilineal Landholding Systems Represent a Problem for Land Reforms in Malawi?," CLTS Working Papers 9/13, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Centre for Land Tenure Studies, revised 10 Oct 2019.
    10. Mette Løvschal & Marie Ladekjær Gravesen, 2021. "De-/Fencing Grasslands: Ongoing Boundary Making and Unmaking in Postcolonial Kenya," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-21, July.
    11. Deininger, Klaus & Ali, Daniel Ayalew & Holden, Stein & Zevenbergen, Jaap, 2008. "Rural Land Certification in Ethiopia: Process, Initial Impact, and Implications for Other African Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(10), pages 1786-1812, October.
    12. Sidney Madsen, 2022. "Farm-level pathways to food security: beyond missing markets and irrational peasants," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 39(1), pages 135-150, March.
    13. Sidney Madsen & Rachel Bezner Kerr & Noelle LaDue & Isaac Luginaah & Chipiliro Dzanja & Laifolo Dakishoni & Esther Lupafya & Lizzie Shumba & Catherine Hickey, 2021. "Explaining the impact of agroecology on farm-level transitions to food security in Malawi," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 13(4), pages 933-954, August.
    14. Salmerón-Manzano, Esther & Manzano-Agugliaro, Francisco, 2023. "Worldwide research trends on land tenure," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    15. Alemu Mekonnen & Hosaena Ghebru & Stein T. Holden & Menale Kassie, 2013. "The Impact of Land Certification on Tree Growing on Private Plots of Rural Households: Evidence from Ethiopia," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Stein T. Holden & Keijiro Otsuka & Klaus Deininger (ed.), Land Tenure Reform in Asia and Africa, chapter 13, pages 308-330, Palgrave Macmillan.
    16. Yuh-Jin Bae, 2021. "Analyzing the Changes of the Meaning of Customary Land in the Context of Land Grabbing in Malawi," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-21, August.
    17. Zuka, Sane Pashane, 2019. "Customary Land titling and inter-generational wealth transfer in Malawi: Will secondary Land rights holders maintain their Land rights?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 680-688.
    18. McNamee, Lachlan, 2019. "Indirect colonial rule and the salience of ethnicity," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 142-156.
    19. Emmanuel Olatunbosun Benjamin, 2020. "Smallholder Agricultural Investment and Productivity under Contract Farming and Customary Tenure System: A Malawian Perspective," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-17, August.
    20. Deininger, Klaus & Savastano, Sara & Xia, Fang, 2017. "Smallholders’ land access in Sub-Saharan Africa: A new landscape?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 78-92.
    21. Katusiime, Juliet & Schütt, Brigitta & Mutai, Noah, 2023. "The relationship of land tenure, land use and land cover changes in Lake Victoria basin," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Land Tenure; Land Reform; Land Rentals and Sales; Malawi;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Z1 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics

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