Analyzing the Changes of the Meaning of Customary Land in the Context of Land Grabbing in Malawi

Yuh-Jin Bae
Additional contact information
Yuh-Jin Bae: Institute of African Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Yongin-Si 17035, Korea

Land, 2021, vol. 10, issue 8, 1-21

Abstract: Ordinary Malawians who live in customary land have been suffering from land grabbing due to their weak and ill-defined land rights. Although Malawi has experienced a number of land reforms that should have contributed to strengthening customary land rights, many people in customary land still suffer from land grabbing. Accordingly, it is important to understand the factors that lead to land grabbing in customary land in Malawi. Thus, by looking at the overview of land laws and policies throughout history, this study has two aims: (1) to analyze the historical changes in the meaning and position of customary land in Malawi and (2) to analyze the land grabbers in Malawi before, during, and after the colonial era. In order to achieve the main goals, this research mainly analyzes land laws and policies connected to customary land in Malawi. The main findings of this research are that (1) the meaning of customary land changed before and after the colonial period, but little has changed between the colonial period and the present. Since the creation of land laws during the colonial period, the land rights of the people who live in customary land have not been secured, and (2) the land grabbers changed from the British colonial rulers and European settlers to the Government of Malawi. Further, with the recent land laws, such as Land Act 2016 and Customary Land Act 2016, wealthy Malawians may become new land grabbers who can afford to obtain the customary estate grants. By examining the main results, it was found that from the colonial period until the present, customary land has been vulnerable to land grabbing as its weak position still resembles that of the colonial era. Thus, Malawi appears to face significant challenges in amending its customary land laws for the benefit of the poor.

Keywords: customary land; land grabbing; Malawi; land law; colonial era (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/8/836/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/8/836/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:10:y:2021:i:8:p:836-:d:611446

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().