What is it about?
When civil wars cease, displaced people are trying to reaccess their family land or assert their rights on the land on which they resettled during the conflicts. At the same time, local people are seeking to maintain their control of the land they occupy. As a consequence, social and property relations, and even land governance relations can become tense and thorny. Existing struggles over land are aggravated and new struggles emerge. Drawing on an ethnographic approach, this article explores the challenges and opportunities of implementing a new land rights registration public policy in the Sub-Sahara African context where competing land claims are profuse.
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Why is it important?
Our findings show that there are critical political dimensions to land disputes and land tenure in war-torn settings. Land rights registration initiatives are most likely to inflame already ambiguous property relations, with possible detrimental consequences on peace-building.
Perspectives
Writing this article was a great pleasure as it provides valuable insight into the messiness of social change in conflict-affected contexts. All co-authors were glad to contribute to the academic literature on an under-researched country.
Rosine T. Djomo
Wageningen Universiteit en Researchcentrum
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Defusing Land Disputes? The Politics of Land Certification and Dispute Resolution in Burundi, Development and Change, October 2020, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/dech.12621.
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