4 - The Institutional Foundations of Land Authority in Zambia and Senegal

Summary

The contemporary systems of customary authority and land rights in Zambia and Senegal are a composite of precolonial, colonial, and post-colonial institutions. Chapter 4 provides an overview of these three key layers of superimposed political institutions. It places particular emphasis on the differences between the British and French colonial era institutions, showing how the two European powers used distinct narratives to justify their rule and then created land policies to reinforce them. The British and French colonial approaches led to the system of official chiefs in Zambia and unofficial customary authorities in Senegal, respectively. This variation in state recognition of chiefs as land authorities is a critical and representative difference among customary authority systems in Africa that guides the book’s case selection and conclusions. Chapter 4 concludes with an overview of the most important land and customary authority policies enacted between 1960 and 2012 in the independent countries.