‘Land’, ‘Tenure’ and Land-Tenure

It is probable that no single topic has exercised so many students and men of affairs concerned with Africa as has that of land. It is equally probable that no single topic concerning Africa has produced so large a poor literature. We are still abysmally ignorant of African land practices. That ignorance derives less from want of ‘facts’ than that we do not know what to do with ‘facts’ or how to interpret them. The reason for this state of affairs is close at hand: there exists no good analysis of the concepts habitually used in land-tenure studies, and certainly no detailed critique of their applicability to cross-cultural study.