Customary Land Tenure in Liberia - Land Tenure and Property ...

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from one or more patrilineages, 43 and include persons who marry into those patrilineages as well as individuals
from outside the patrilineages who have been selectively assimilated. We refer to these extended family units as
“core tenure units,” given that they represent units within which individuals are conferred primary rights to land
and tend to be subsets of one or more larger patrilineages residing in the same area. Persons residing in those
units who are not descended from the same dominant patrilineage(s) are typically considered “strangers.” 44
Spouses who marry into these units assume a somewhat unique status, often having strong rights to access and
use land and natural resources within the core tenure unit, but often weaker rights to retain this access in the
event the marriage breaks down. The land areas claimed by the core tenure unit are typically the areas where
one‟s family members have previously farmed the land, including land which may currently be under fallow.
Other times they may include patches of primary forest. The boundaries of land areas claimed by the core tenure
unit can consist of roads, footpaths, trees, waterways, or simply knowledge passed down through generations.
Rights of access to land differ depending on whether one is a citizen of that particular unit and on one‟s relation
to the dominant patrilineage(s) of the core tenure unit. Priority for access to land is typically reserved for
members of the core tenure unit. Members of neighboring core tenure units (e.g., nearby towns), often from the
same patrilineage or tribe, may be subject to somewhat more stringent rules for accessing land and natural
resources in the core tenure unit, depending on the availability of land and resources. Individuals originating
from distant communities and other patrilineages are generally subject to the most restrictions on accessing land
and natural resources. Governance of land and resource tenure within the core tenure unit is typically vested in
Family Head(s) or a Town Chief and Elders, the vast majority of whom are male.
Communities trace their rights to live, farm, and govern a particular area to the clearing of primary forest and
settlement on the land by their forefathers. In clans that still have unclaimed land available for farming (e.g.,
Nitrian Community and Saykleken, Mana, Motor Road, and Dobli Clans), clearing such land is still used to
establish a claim and even to initiate a settlement that can form the basis of a new core tenure unit. In other
clans, like Tengia, Ylan, Gbanshay, and Little Kola, we were told that all land in the clan falls under an existing
claim.
Once land is claimed, access to it is typically gained via one of the following means: 1) allocation by the one(s)
administering rights in the extended family unit (Family Heads, Town Chiefs, elders, and even town citizens), 2)
gifts of land from parents to children or from town citizens to strangers, 3) inheritance of land by children or the
right to seasonally farm on family/town land from their parents, 4) via marriage – including inheritance as a
widow, 5) borrowing land, and 6) planting trees. Land that is not claimed by a core tenure unit tends to fall under
the governance of the broader lineage and access to it may necessitate asking permission of one or more
customary authorities. This is the case in Dobli and Mana, for example.
Household or individual claims to land for seasonal crops (upland rice and/or cassava, intercropped with
vegetables) can be made on land claimed by the core tenure unit (town, quarter, or family land) and usually last
one to two seasons. Upon marriage, couples will seek land to farm on their own, most often in the town or on
the family land of the husband. Before marriage, most youth farm with their parents. 45 In some cases, individuals
must acquire permission to farm on land within their core tenure unit, while in other cases they can simply go
and find any area that is free and ready to farm (see Figure 4.1 for examples). After one or two seasons of rice
farming, tropical soil fertility is typically depleted and the land needs to revert to fallow for several years before it
43 The term „patrilineage‟ is defined as “a multi-generational group of relatives who are related by patrilineal descent.
Patrilineages usually consist of a number of related nuclear families descended from the same man.” See:
http://anthro.palomar.edu/tutorials/cglossary.htm#sectP.
44 In some of the studied clans (e.g. Ding, Little Kola, and Tengia), we found merged or mixed patrilineages. Moreover,
strangers are sometimes assimilated into patrilineages and in the process acquire rights on par with actual descendants.
45 The logic of waiting until one is married to cultivate one‟s own farm has to do with the strict divisions of labor for
different tasks in the subsistence farming cycle. However, some clans are experiencing pressures from youth (particularly
male youth) to start farms of their own earlier. This is especially the case for tree crops, for which gendered division of tasks
is not so rigid.
CUSTOMARY LAND TENURE IN LIBERIA