Towards Inclusive Economic Growth in Africa: Recognition of Customary Commons as the Main Asset of the Rural Poor

This paper reviews how far national laws in Africa acknowledge the communal lands of communities as their property, as compared to family house and farm plots. This is examined in context of the role which commons ownership by communities could and should play in lessening rural poverty. These include rangelands, forest/bushlands, marshlands and other off-farm resource lands, often with lucrative extractive and non-extractive potentials. These are generally developed without community partnership. Findings suggest resistance to acknowledgement of communal lands as lawfully owned in over half of all 55 states. In effect, governments sustain their colonial designation as unowned wastelands, albeit lawfully used. Yet the one quarter of African states which do now acknowledge community ownership of resource commons also suggest the tide may be turning. There is need to promote this lawful possession is entrenched as a sustained stake in new takings and exploitation of these lands, not merely for fairer compensation for losses incurred, but towards adoption of economic growth path which are more directly inclusive of the rural poor. Inter alia, it is timely for post-2030 sustainable development goals to promote this.