Kinship and Access to Land in the Eastern Cape: Implications for Land Tenure Reform

Abstract

A focus on institutional norms and rules gives an incomplete picture of rural land tenure; building an account of local practice from specific cases reveals nuances and variations that are otherwise elusive. Following the latter approach, the paper describes so-called ‘communal’ tenure in southern Hobeni, a community in Xhora District, in the Transkei region of the Eastern Cape Province. A practice-based approach reveals significant variations in tenure practices, related to the kinship composition of local neighbourhoods. In areas where a few families are numerically predominant, agnatic kinship is the primary means for access to land. In areas that are diverse in their kin composition, other ties (for example, friendship, church membership, common employment, etc.) are used as a basis for access to land. The demographic variation underlying these practices appears to be widespread in communities in the Eastern Cape and beyond, suggesting considerable diversity within the workings of ‘communal’ tenure. These variations reinforce the need for tenure reform to be responsive to local conditions, and for any new land tenure institutions to be downwardly accountable to those who inhabit, use, and make decisions regarding access to land.