 Where did all the land go? Enclosure & social struggle in Kivu (D.R.Congo)Frank Van Acker Review of African Political Economy, 2005, vol. 32, issue 103, 79-98 Abstract: Kivu's traditional patrimonial system revolved around the distribution of access rights to communally held land in return for rents that were redistributed through the system. The social capital embedded in this institutional framework was a public good. The introduction of a ‘modern’ land law in 1973 destroyed the social cohesion of that patrimonial system; it sanctioned efforts to capitalise and appropriate the full value of these rents. At the time of the law's introduction, market mechanisms for factor markets including land, were not developed, so they had to be simulated. The core of this simulation consisted of exchanging social capital, built up in networks that involved political power-holders and state administrators, for assets. The social capital embedded in these networks was a ‘club good’ rather than a public good; both are non-rival in nature, but with a club good, unlike public goods, exclusion is workable. Its effect was therefore marginalisation and dispossession of those not belonging to the ‘club’, and the erosion of the existing social capital tied up in the traditional institutional framework by breaking the patterns of reciprocity and assurance featured in it. This evolution has contributed to a change of social structure and a crisis of legitimacy that increased social tensions and the potential for conflict. The customary leadership was able to cling to their positions by mobilising their clientele on an ethnic platform, conveniently using the issue of nationality: ‘foreigners’, especially the Banyarwanda and Banyamulenge, were accused of having unrightfully appropriated customary land and of having subverted the customary order. Date: 2005 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:revape:v:32:y:2005:i:103:p:79-98 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1080/03056240500120984 Access Statistics for this article Review of African Political Economy is currently edited by Graham Harrison, Branwen Gruffydd Jones, Claire Mercer, Nicolas Pons-Vignon, Aurelia Segatti and Ray Bush More articles in Review of African Political Economy from Taylor & Francis Journals |
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