Subject Area: Politics and Cultural studies (Development studies)
Supervisor: Dr. Gerard Clarke and Dr Krijn Peters
Research Degree: PhD
Thesis Title: Analysing Contemporary Land Tenure and the Impact of Land Reforms on Rural peoples’ Livelihood in face of Customary Land: A case of Southern Province, Zambia.
In many parts of Africa, the last two decades have been characterised by the purpose and direction of land reforms, formulation of national policies and enactment of new land laws. The land question in Africa presents great diversity and specificities, as it largely depends on localised historical, economic, social, political and cultural factors. In Sub Saharan Africa the narrative on the legacy of colonialism resulted in dual land tenure systems.
The truism is that the legacy fashioned the need for land redistribution, and elevated land tenure security problems. My thesis presents a detailed review of literature which explores the evolution of land tenure systems in selected countries in sub Saharan Africa and contemporary land concerns to the changing political and socio-economic conditions.
My work presents a practical case study linking agrarian transformation underway in Africa, the social-political development of land reforms, land commodification and concentration, and the agrarian question to produce theoretically informed and grounded insights into the complex and dynamic outcome to land in Zambia, and elsewhere in sub -Saharan Africa.
My research aims to investigate how land tenure systems and land reforms influences the livelihoods of majority of rural communities in Zambia; and consequentially land administration which is a key component to the development strategy.
