Uchendu Eugene Chigbu

Land management is a broad measure for strengthening the quality of life of people (and their environment) through improvements in the state of land. Land administration is the aspect of land management that ensures that the use, development, security and value (and other elements) of land operate harmoniously to achieve land management objectives. Without land management, there will be no land administration. Without land administration, land management will not reach its goals. It is safe to say that land management and land administration are intertwined. Land management is both an art and a science. 

In traditional African settings, land management was more an art than a science. Before the imposition of European cultural land traditions, which textbooks refer to as the conventional system, land management was largely an art. To a small extent, this art of land management is still partly practised today under customary tenure systems where traditional authorities (mostly customary custodians and chiefs) play the role of land managers and land administrators. In these traditional or customary settings, land management is expressed in diverse activities representing people-to-land relationships in auditory, visual, oral, writing, performing artefacts, and decision-making.

Land management in the African heritage

In pre-colonial Africa, land was managed by individuals recognised to be experts through pieces of training obtained through their fathers or apprenticeship under local elders versed in tackling land matters. This sort of training (usually called informal in textbooks) was earned through observation and apprenticeship. In patriarchal societies, fathers passed on this knowledge to their sons, who then passed it on to their sons throughout generations. In matriarchal societies, knowledge of land practices was passed on from mothers to daughters, who then passed it on from generation to generation. 

This was the predominant mode of education then. It was an educational system that required individuals vested with land responsibilities to use their technical and imaginative skills in land-related activities. The basic knowledge for conducting these tasks includes understanding traditional knowledge and the community’s traditional land or cultural history. The basic knowledge required consists of the ability of an individual to express him/herself fearlessly and the charism to be considered an honest arbiter in the courts of queens/kings in the land parlance. Depending on the political jurisdiction, the African leaders (e.g., emirs, queens, kings, elders or traditional custodians) used their leadership to provide institutional arrangements that guided land matters. So, the traditional land managers (usually called land overseers in various African languages) were regulated by powerful authorities. When they show partiality in their work, the leaders can punish them. And when they perform well, they are rewarded with traditional titles and gifts. To uphold nobility and dignity in the land profession, they applied preparative or investigative procedures in their duties to provide justifications for their decisions. Considering that the community (rather than the individual) owns the land (under customary tenure), a land overseer was viewed as a custodian of the people on land matters. Hence, the profession was considered with political and socioeconomic respect. Partiality was viewed as a betrayal of the trust of the people.

Customary land management

The traditional African land management setting was a structured and regulated system. The land overseer (meaning the land surveyor in the conventional system) had various tasks to do in communities. These tasks include land-use planning, land development, land demarcation, land valuation, land taxation, and land conflict resolution, to mention a few. 

Traditionally, land-use planning involved deciding where community members were to farm, build, and collect water and forest products (among many other issues). This was done as collective decisions of communities and their leaders. The land overseers’ task was to provide expert advice during these meetings and afterwards ensure that these decisions were implemented. 

Land development involved giving approvals for where and what buildings to erect. This is a household decision guided by the land overseer. In many cases, peer groups (e.g., age groups) provided the workforce. In more advanced ancient civilisations of Africa, specialist builders (traditional building constructors) were there to enable the development of complicated structures and city developments. 

This was the case in the kingdoms of Kush (780-755 BCE) in Sudan, Zimbabwe (1220-1450 CE) in Zimbabwe, Buganda (1100 CE till date) in Uganda, Benin (1440-1897) in Nigeria, Lunda (1660-1887) in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nri (1043-1911) in Nigeria, and many others. I have chosen not to mention ancient Egypt as its history is well known.

Land demarcation, valuation and taxation involved division or sharing of land, determination of land values and ascertaining values for compensation (as contribution to community needs and gifting) were done for specific purposes. Land demarcation was necessary when a child reached adulthood and needed to be allocated a portion of land for their independent livelihoods or at the point of starting a family. 

Even though the land was not sold, it was transferred (through inheritance and gifting) from person to person or family to family. The amount of land (size), tenure (period to be used) and its worth (value) had to be determined during such transfer. There were diverse ways to measure size. 

The International Metric System (metre rule) was not used. Instead, footsteps (the number of steps made to cover a distance in length, width or circles) were used for walkable parcel measurements. Span (the distance from the end of the thumb to the end of the little finger of a spread hand) was used for internal house measurements. Land overseers used ropes and sticks (of agreement lengths) for measuring lengthy sizes (including volumes, heights and altitudes). The worth of land values (and taxes) were estimated in agricultural products such as cassava, yam, potatoes or timeframe of reciprocal service or gifts. 

Since land overseers were regularly engaged in these activities, they constituted human land registrars because they knew who owned what land and which rights they have on that land. 

This made them the natural persons to serve as jurors in cases of land and natural resource conflicts. Today, many chiefs in traditional African societies still tap from the customary pearls of wisdom of the past in their duties as custodians of the people in land matters.