Leasehold estate

About: Leasehold estate is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1589 publications have been published within this topic receiving 21480 citations. The topic is also known as: leasehold & tenancy.

Land Tenure System in Igboland

Abstract: In comparing briefly land tenure among the Igbo with other African groups, discussing the significance of land among the Igbo, delineating their traditional land tenure system, methods of land acquisition or patterns of holding, the paper goes further to show some of the major changes in the traditional land tenure system and the factors responsible for the changes. It also dwells to some extent on problems or effects of Igbo land tenure on development It shows that traditionally land belonged to specified groups in the community who had the right of use with no power of alienation. Traditionally land was the property of the living and the dead and the idea of disposing of it was a sacrilege. Even then portions of land had always been owned collectively and individually. Individuals always could transfer their rights to land to others under specified and accepted native system such as land pledging, land gift, land borrowing, leasehold, and kola tenancy. As a result of intensive contact with European powers, introduction of money economy, indigenous technological innovation, and demographic factors, major changes have occurred in Igbo traditional land tenure system. There is open alienation of land, land fragmentation, and the transformation of communal ownership to individual and private holding. Women now have rights in land even though the patrilineal inheritance system, that is, the norm prohibiting women from inheriting in their parental home is still operative. Among the Igbo land is intricately connected with the social structure and questions relating to land tenure are inevitably tied up with future political and economic development. The social well-being of people on land is closely related to their rights to the soil. Many a time there is real and imaginary interference to these rights. The result is that land dispute constitutes a very serious problem to development. Conditions that affect efficiency in production in a given system may influence not only the way in which land is used but the qualities of labour and capital used to form a productive unit. [Nigeria, Igbo, Land ownership] Azuka A. Dike, Dr. phil., is a Senior Lecturer in, and Head of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He is a graduate of Brandeis and Columbia Universities and of the Graduate Faculty, New School for Social Research.Dr. Dike is the author of many articles and chapters in learned journals and books. He serves on the Documentation Board of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES) and the Commission on Urban Anthropology (IUAES). Address: Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology, Univ. of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.243 on Wed, 05 Oct 2016 04:44:59 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 854 Azuka A. Dike Anthropos 78.1983

'That Place was Wonderful!' African Tenants on Rhodesdale Estate, Colonial Zimbabwe, c. 1900-1952

Abstract: This study traces the experience of African tenants on Rhodesdale Estate in colonial Zimbabwe,1 and their subsequent transformation into squatters by World War II. It further explores tenant resistance against forced destocking and colonial labor demands and concludes by analyzing their struggle against forced removal from Rhodesdale. The first part of the study focuses on the lives of Rhodesdale tenants on Crown land, and demonstrates the resilience of their economy in the face of the colonial onslaught, as shown by the economic success of some black entrepreneurs. The majority of former tenants of Rhodesdale who were interviewed described the estate as "a wonderful place," because there was abundant and fertile land and most tenants owned large herds of stock that provided draft power and enabled them to fulfill many of their socioeconomic and religious obligations. The tenants were therefore naturally reluctant to enter into labor agreements with European farm owners, and even when forced to sign these agreements, they did not always honor the terms. Informants exhibited a profound sense of nostalgia about Rhodesdale when they compared the favorable conditions there with the problems they encountered in Gokwe, where they were settled after eviction from Rhodesdale. Gokwe was a dry, malarial, and inhospitable region of northwestern Zimbabwe. It was part of the Sebungwe region, which lies within the Zambezi River valley tsetse fly belt, and had therefore been uninhabitable. Rhodesdale was situated on the highveldt, the best agricultural region of the country, which had an ideal climate and rich soils suitable for the cultivation of a variety of marketable crops and stock raising. In addition, informants compared the earthly bother of the reserves, for example, the maize control regulations and the official, colony-wide centralization initiatives in Gokwe to the relative absence of similar regulations in Rhodesdale.2 More significant was that Rhodesdale tenants were settled in Gokwe under the Land Husbandry Act (LHA) of 1951, which severely restricted the amount of land and the number of stock each household could own.3 This article argues that in their response to the machinations of the colonial system, the tenants on Rhodesdale estate were neither passive nor malleable-on the contrary, they resisted coercion and subordination as they struggled to carve out a living for themselves and their families. The residents established a viable socioeconomic niche that enabled them to survive in Rhodesdale. A clear manifestation of their determination to create an independent existence was their unwillingness to accept the labor demands of settler farm owners. Official reports are replete with evidence that clearly indicates the reluctance of Rhodesdale tenants to enter into labor agreements with the farm owners. They preferred to work on land where they alone controlled production rather than seek employment with the European farm owners. They also resisted pressure to reduce their herds because their socioeconomic existence was largely dependent on the ownership of large numbers of cattle. Several studies on southern and eastern Africa have demonstrated that in the early years of colonial land alienation, labor tenants had a much stronger hand to play in negotiations with the landowners, as the owners were then undercapitalized and desperately short of labor.4 The present study makes a significant contribution to this growing body of literature by demonstrating that the lives of Rhodesdale tenants were not entirely reorganized around the interests of white settlers, with the latter wielding enormous power over helpless victims. It is argued here that in settler areas, control of social life of the tenants was negotiated between the settler farm owners and the tenants in ways that render the conception of domination inadequate. While the colonial state put in place legislation to circumscribe the activities of tenants, the reality on the ground was that tenants often enjoyed a high degree of autonomy and economic independence. …

Hybrid land markets: monetarised customary land transactions in Zambia

Abstract: This paper examines the growing trend of monetarised transactions of customary land in Zambia, and the impact of these dealings on customary land practices and norms. While transactions of customary land involving money are not a new phenomenon in many parts of Africa, including Zambia, the growing demand for land, especially in areas where land shortages are emerging, has led to a steady growth in these transactions, with the practice becoming more widespread. In the Zambian context, this is directly linked to the policy that allows customary land to be converted into leasehold tenure. Local elites, urban dwellers, and foreign investors are taking this opportunity to acquire customary land which they then convert to leasehold tenure. However, while these dealings have some features of a conventional market, they are, at the same time, bound up in local customary land norms. Although such transactions have been reported widely in the literature, there has been little analysis of their nature and t...

Property Rights and Housing Value: The Impacts of Political Instability

Abstract: Political instability may weaken investors' belief in property rights, putting the investors in fear that part of the investment may be wasted due to poor protection. As a result, the investors are unwilling to pay a premium for the security of rights when facing political uncertainty. This article attempts to test the above hypothesis using 10-year freehold and leasehold housing transaction data in Hong Kong and Singapore, where different political scenarios, comparable land lease structures as well as similar property cycles were established during the period. The conceptual model yields testable predictions about our hypotheses, and the empirical results verify the predictions.