In fascinating contrast to Botswana’s beleaguered northern (and in Mozambique’s case, western) neighbour, a much simpler colonial history gave the newly independent government a great deal of latitude to find a manageable method of land allocation.
“In the 1890s, the colonial administration requested the chiefs of the five principal Tswana tribes (Ngwato, Ngwaketse, Kwena, Kgatla and Tswana5) identify the boundaries of their tribal territories” (Machacha). Machacha goes on to enumerate the singular bounty left from the days of Bechuanaland (as a British Protectorate):
“At independence, in 1966, Botswana inherited three types of tenure:
- Tribal land (native reserves): 48 per cent;
- State land (Crown lands): 47 per cent;
- Freehold land (white settlement): 6 per cent;
Since independence, significant amounts of State land have been converted into tribal land to relieve the congestion in tribal areas. Today, only 23 per cent of Botswana’s land is under State control, but this figure may be lowered further as more State land is tribalized.”
There are two significant elements to Botswana’s land policy that distinguish it from other less successful attempts to manage a colonial inheritance.
Firstly, Botswana is country of big, open spaces. It is dry, and mostly desert. At the time of independence, overpopulation and uneven development was not a problem. Until the discovery of diamonds, Botswana’s major problem was rain. If anything, given the scarcity of water, bore-holes (to tap in to aquiferous water) might have been a source of contention.
The second element is the establishment of the Land Boards. “With the enactment of the 1968 act, 12 main land boards were established in the country, and started operation in 1970” (Machacha).
The land boards scheme was a working compromise that has served the country well. For thirty-two years, the Land Boards have been serving as a bridge between tribal leaders and the national administration. The critical element of the Tribal Land Act (which empowers the Land Boards) is as follows:
“all the right and title of the chief and the tribe in each tribal area … shall vest in the Land Boards ... in trust for the benefit and advantage of the tribesmen of that area and for the purpose of promoting economic and social development of all the people of Botswana” (Machacha).
A delicate combination of checks and balances limits the ability of chiefs to act unilaterally, without consultation, while investing in them the responsibility of acting in the community’s best interests.
Like all schemes, the Land Board faced a major challenge resolving historical claims. Historical claims are an important problem. Regardless of the nature of title, whether it be customary, communal, individual leasehold or freehold, or any variation of tribal scheme, historical claims have the thorny characteristic of being undocumented. As the need to prove title becomes increasingly more important for contemporary administrations, the emphasis on documentary proof presents a problem for administrations attempting to validate claims for land on a historical basis. The possibly spurious claims to hereditary title over large areas by “historical occupants” has proven difficult for the Land Boards to authenticate. A governmental mandate to recognize historical claims of exactly this nature is one of the surprisingly few difficulties that the Land Boards face. Instructed to accept verbal evidence, there has inevitably been some allocation of land to persons without a true claim to it. Lack of basic resources to manage the Land Boards, as well as inadequate training and record keeping, mean that the scheme has definite scope for improvement. Botswana’s main problem now, however, is not land, but people, and specifically AIDS6.
Footnotes:
- The name Botswana derives from the fact that the overwhelming majority of citizens belong to the Tswana tribe.
- Botswana has the highest percentage of adult AIDS infections in the world. 33% of adults are infected. Tragically, land may become plentiful in Botswana in the future.
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