“Aside from the question of human rights, the [se] issues of land rights have stopped generally poor rural majorities from being acknowledged as owners of invaluable capital assets, an in the process have helped prevent them from clambering out of poverty.”1

“Almost every war that broke up since the beginning of civilization on the banks of the Nile had something to do with land,” said Liberia Vice President Joseph N. Boakai at the launch of consultations organized by the Governance Commission on Land Reform at the Samuel K. Doe Stadium on Wednesday, May 7, 2008. It was the last of the series of consultative meetings the Commission had held through the country in the course of the year, bringing together stakeholders. Representatives of the public sector of Montserrado County, including surveyors, mayors, and commissioners, representatives of various ministries as well as members of the civil organizations joined the Commission to brainstorm over the many delicate issues.

Chaired by Sandra Howard-Kendor, the consultations were attended by more than 150 people, who after the opening plenary session, broke up into four discussion groups to comb over series of questions put forward by the Commission.

In her opening remarks, Commissioner Howard-Kendor said that “the issue of land is very crucial in post-conflict Liberia and a potential area for possible conflict.” She added that the Commission, as lead coordinating agency wants to articulate “discussions on the way forward for initiating the reform on land use, management and title, in clearer, transparent, legal and judicial manner.”

According to Vice President Boakai, the government was working on a variety of policies that would ensure equitable land tenure in the framework of the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS). Among other burning issues, he said government was looking at the Ducor land issue but will not rush to make any decision and wants to avoid making the same mistakes of past administrations. “Before we take any step, we want to consult our people, throughout the breadth and length of this nation. We will then set up a Land Commission that would lay out policies to consider every aspect and situation.” Vice President Boakai emphasized the link between peace and land issue.

Land tenure and peace are closely linked in Liberia, for obvious historical reasons. The very setting of Liberia, as underscored by the Assistant Minister for Lands, Surveying and Cartography at the Ministry of Lands, Mines and Energy gave rise to conflict around land ownership. He said that land tenure in Liberia went through two fundamental stages, starting with the pre-colonial era when the customary land ownership prevailed until independence in 1850. From 1850, the customary land ownership was replaced by statutory land ownership. Tribal chiefs, who had no knowledge of the western concept of land ownership and paper, put their thumbs on deeds, giving away their lands when they thought they were just lending them to visiting “strangers” in search of farm land.

For two days, the participants discussed an array of subject relating to land and put together recommendations that were later presented in the final plenary session on Thursday, chaired by Commission Chairman, Dr. Amos C. Sawyer.

The topics of discussion ranged from zoning laws, public education regarding the rights of children, access of women and youth to landownership, the difference between a “stranger” and a “foreigner” when it comes to land acquisition, the different types of land -public, private, communal, swamp land.

One major social consequence of the Liberia civil crisis has been the big demographic shift that saw the migration of people from rural areas towards Monrovia. This population movement has first led to people occupying public and private buildings. When centers for displaced persons were officially closed, many newcomers chose to build habitation on any land they could find. This brought the “false legal” notion of “squatters’ right. This subject was discussed mainly by the Assistant Minister of Land and he quickly pointed out that there was no such thing as “squatters’ rights.”

Some participants pointed out that the illegal land occupation is sometimes encouraged by government when its agents collect real estate taxes from squatters. However, one observer pointed out that the money never reached the government coffers.

As recently as a few days ago, land dispute has led to death of two in Maryland County. In Bassa County relationships between locals and a rubber company were severely tested about the same issue after the manager of the company was shot by unknown people after the company tried to expand into tribal lands. For many years, formally cordial ties between the various ethnic groups in Nimba and Lofa have turned sour once refugees and displaced people started to return home and found their land occupied by others. One of the topics discussed concerned how these land disputes were resolved at the community level. The Ministry of Defense was sued in Supreme Court by the people of South Margibi who claim that their ancestral land was taken away by President Tubman to build the Shiefflin military barracks. Courts are filled with cases of lands sold to multiple buyers and the list of grievance goes on.

The groups made several recommendations that included but not limited to a comprehensive enforcement of zoning laws especially in Monrovia where people build their homes without consideration for roads and the nature of the neighborhood, the standardization of all land regulations, improvement of record keeping, the imposition of taxes on land not developed by owners and the creation of a credit system for the purpose of land development.

There was a consensus among groups that the family or community elder approach to resolving land dispute was the most effective so far. The Mayor of Ganta said that her community was able to resolve many of the critical disputes that opposed mostly Mandingoes and other tribes over land ownership.

However, the most contentious and emotionally charged subject was that of land ownership by foreigner. There was an agreement on the fact that in Liberian parlance, “stranger means someone who moves from one village or county to another one.” That person must go through locals to secure land. When the discussion turned to the issue of “foreigners,” the tension rose in the audience.

In Liberia, land-ownership is tied to citizenship and citizenship is tied to a specific race: only people of Negro descent can be citizens on Liberia. By correlation, non-negroes can neither own land nor attain citizenship.

Dr. Amos C. Sawyer, Chairman of the Commission returned in time to lead the discussion on the subject. Every person in the 150-person audience seemed to want to address the subject. The lines of demarcation were clearly drawn from the onset. A member of the audience suggested that opening citizenship and land ownership to the “white man” could only enhance the development process, adding that “people come here and make money and because they cannot be cictzens, they take their money and go build homes in Ivory Coast, Nigeria or Lebanon…” His last words were browned by boos. Dr. Sawyer had to remind the audience that Liberians needed not agree but had to accept and respect each other’s views on any subject. A young woman from Brewerville said that granting the right to non-negroes to own land in Liberia was like selling “away our birth right… If the international community wants to help, let them help but we must not allow them to come here and dictate to us about how to run our country” received a thunderous applause. A few people attempted to find a common ground between these two extreme positions by suggesting that may be “non-negroes” could be granted some limited rights to landownership. This was however far from attaining any sense of consensus.

In his closing remarks, Dr. Sawyer pointed out that it was time that Liberians move away from its archaic and checkered past based on a certain ready of history that continues to perpetuate many false notions about the national identity. He added that the government was planning to set up a Land Commission that would serve as a conduit to resolving all land issues as well as formulating policies. “We must review our national symbols for the sake of national unity.”

On Tuesday, May 13, the Commission organized a briefing session for political parties and civil society organizations to go over some of the same issues. The meeting lasted about three hours and all political parties were represented and participated in a lengthy debate about land tenure and land reform. Dr. Sawyer told the audience that the discussions were aimed at creating awareness about the process and constituted an important step in the process of good governance.

The Governance Commission, aware of the important role Liberians in the Diaspora play in local politics, especially when it comes land, decentralization and other constitutional matters, intends to take the consultations across the Atlantic to have an exchange with Liberians in exile. “We held consultations in every region of the country, and wherever we met with chiefs, elders and other community leaders; they all came up with the same answer: we need to talk to our children in America. Therefore, it would be a big mistake to go forward without involving the Diaspora in these consultations. Since we can bring everyone home, we have to find a way to get to them,” said Dr. Sawyer. Given their number, their wealth and professional skills, one can argue that Liberians in the Diaspora constitute the largest and most powerful “county” in the Republic.

The series of consultations in the US could take place in late June 2008 in four different cities in the US prior to the Land Commission and discussions on decentralization and other constitutional matters. The Commission is set to start consultations with organizations in the US who could accommodate the consultations.

1) Liz Alden Wily, So Who Owns the Forest, an investigation into forest and customary land rights in Liberia, Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), Monrovia, Liberia, FERN, Brussels, Belgium/Moreton-Marsh-, UK (November 2007)

---

© 2008 by The Perspective
E-mail: editor@theperspective.org

To Submit article for publication, go to the following URL: http://www.theperspective.org/submittingarticles.html