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

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he/she is fully integrated as a clan member, and there is no fixed period defining when a stranger can be
treated like a citizen. In some cases it may never happen. In Motor Road, strangers are readily assimilated
with the exception that they can never plant life trees.
In Tengia, Upper Workor, and Dobli Clans, strangers are never fully assimilated. In Upper Workor, strangers
are forbidden from ever planting life trees and the stranger‟s children may only inherit farming and house plot
land if he marries a clanswoman and dies before her. If she dies first, neither he nor their children retain
rights to the land – a situation that rather mirrors widow eviction and underscores the importance of lineage
ties to perpetual land rights.
Rules governing whether strangers can plant life trees vary. In Ylan, Saykleken, Ding, and Nitrian, assimilated
strangers may do so. However, in Ylan, these rights can be revoked if the stranger leaves the town or
misbehaves. If he is married to a clanswoman and either leaves or dies, the trees and the land will be inherited
by his widow and children. In Dobli, some clan members maintain that strangers can never plant life trees,
while others say strangers can do so with the explicit permission of the Family Head and can pass this land on
to their children. However, the land will always be regarded as belonging to the landowning family. This
closely mirrors the rules in Tengia, where strangers may plant cocoa and coffee trees only if accorded
permission by the Family Head (landowner); these rights are subject to continuous occupation and payment
of a portion of the proceeds earned from those crops to the town. Strangers can pass the rights to tree crops
on to their children, who must also remain on the land to assert their rights to the trees. The only means by
which the stranger can assume full rights to the land and trees is if the landowner gives him the land as a gift.
Stranger access to land has been controversial in Ylan, where outsiders, including IDPs, referred to as
“business people,” have acquired deeds for land in the clan without the consent of clan members.
Figure 4.4: Stranger adoption process in Nitrian Community
Women’s Access and Rights to Farm Land and House Spots
Women acquire rights to land through many of the same channels as men: inheritance and gifts from their
natal families, borrowing, and, much less frequently, through planting life trees. However, a primary means by
which women access land is also through marriage, such that women‟s rights to land are substantially framed
by customary marriage traditions. In all of the studied clans (and apparently among all tribes in Liberia), the
marriage system is predominantly patrilocal, whereby women relocate to their husband‟s communities upon
marriage and therefore access land for housing and farming there. Marriage traditions combined with
traditions of lineage-based claims to land result in women generally having weaker rights to land compared to
men. This is particularly the case when it comes to rights to administer and retain land in their husbands‟
communities when they are widows and rights to administer land in their natal communities.
Prior to marriage, daughters, like sons, typically farm with their parents, although there are some variations.
In Ding, parents will sometimes give a portion of the parcel they have claimed for seasonal cropping to their
daughters who are expected to contribute part of the harvest to the household. For any portion of the
produce they have sold, daughters must share part of their proceeds with their mothers as a token of
CUSTOMARY LAND TENURE IN LIBERIA