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| Title: | The colonial land law legacy in francophone West Africa and its impact on post-colonial land law reform |
| Author: | Rouveroy van Nieuwaal, E.A.B. van |
| Year: | 1993 |
| Periodical: | Droit et cultures |
| Issue: | 25 |
| Pages: | 185-203 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic terms: | French-speaking Africa West Africa France |
| Subjects: | colonialism customary law land law |
| Abstract: | In general, French colonial authorities in West Africa used legislative enactments in order to acquire access to and control over land. Their policy, based initially on the theory of 'domaine éminent', and, from the beginnning of the twentieth century, on that of 'terres vacantes et sans maître', met with stiff African resistance. Similarly, all attempts made by French legislators to interest African peasants in the registration of their customary land rights came to nothing. Africans were unwilling to accept the concepts embodied in colonial land law, such as the theory of vacancy, for example. At the same time colonial legislators and administrators often failed to grasp certain aspects of customary land law, such as the concept of the inalienability of land. In sum, land law policy in French West Africa proved to be a failure. New land law reform projects were started in the sixties and seventies, amongst others in Senegal, Cameroon and Togo. These, too, frequently failed to achieve the objectives envisaged by the African legislators (such as the registration of land rights), or they had effects totally different from those originally intended, or even breathed fresh life into old, colonial rules of law. The question which thus remains to be answered is this: If there is to be legal innovation, what should characterize legislation in order for it to be effective? Bibliogr., notes, ref. |
