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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Pastoralism and Property Rights: The Evolution of Communal Property on the Usangu Plains, Tanzania
Author:Charnley, SusanISNI
Year:1997
Periodical:African Economic History
Volume:25
Pages:97-119
Language:English
Geographic term:Tanzania
Subjects:Sangu
customary law
land law
animal husbandry
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Law, Human Rights and Violence
History and Exploration
colonialism
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/3601881
Abstract:Much of the literature concerning property rights among pastoralists inhabiting Africa's drylands states that, historically, rangelands were held as communal property by most pastoral societies. However, some scholars have recently argued that communal property systems were more a colonial invention than an African tradition. This article addresses the question of how indigenous tenure systems were influenced by the colonial experience on the basis of the case of the Sangu property system (Usangu Plains, Mbeya District, Tanzania). In particular it examines a controversy over Maasai settlement on the Usangu Plains in 1953-1954. After an outline of access to and control over land in Tanzania's Southern Highlands Region in the precolonial period, the author analyses developments in pastoral property rights during the German (1891-1919) and British (1919-1961) periods. She shows that pastoral property rights on the Usangu Plains have never been rigid and static. A system of communal property prevailed between the mid-1800s and the mid-1900s, but the form that it took during a given time period was shaped by a combination of Sangu social and cultural institutions, ecological conditions, and external influences. Notes, ref.
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