By: Gloria Dandridge
My internship with the Land and Equity Movement has given me a new perspective on land. As an American city dweller, I think of land in terms of the building built on the land. In Uganda, land is in many cases the only source of income or the only way of feeding ones family. The value of the land among the people has nothing to do with the property built on the land. Also, in the United States, there is only one way to show land title. In order for title to transfer from one person to another, the owner must have a valid deed of title and convey it to the new buyer. In Uganda, there is more than one land tenure system. For example, one system is that of customary land title and another is that of a freehold land title. This originated from colonialism where the British had one set of laws and Ugandans had a separate legal system to govern themselves under customary law. After Uganda gained independence in 1962, they adopted the British law as the law of the land, but customary law still remains valid law in the Constitution as long as the customary law is not repugnant. Customary law is the law that is known by the people and many of them only relate to the customary law. While this is true, customary laws are not favored by the people in positions of power.
Because of this dynamic, land laws and land transactions are very complicated. For example, succession under customary law protects widows and orphans on the land even though land passes through the patrimonial lineage. There is no such protection in the formal system. Title to land is only a matter of paper work, and it does not consider anything outside of that. Customary land laws have principles that are designed to consider families and the community at large. Because many of the local community members relate to the customary law, vulnerable people are at risk of being taken advantage. For instance, customary land may be converted to a freehold estate under the law, but a freehold estate may not be converted to customary land. When the land is passed to the customary heir, who has the responsibility to protect all of the customary owners, the customary heir could get the proper paperwork showing freehold ownership and remove everyone he does not want around. The people most likely to experience an ousting are widows and orphans. There is nothing in the formal system to protect them. They end up having to leave their land, even though they should have been protected and their ownership rights should have been enforced.
This is a very interesting phenomenon that LEMU is actively addressing. Because 80% of land ownership in Uganda is under the customary land tenure, LEMU seeks to bridge the gap by linking communities to policy makers. LEMU is empowering communities to follow the good practices of customary law, since customary law is officially recognized in the Constitution. Many people in the Western World only see one way of owning land, and customary land is a difficult concept to grasp. LEMU, however, is a local organization that sees land the same way that communities see that land. Because of this truth, LEMU is a very valuable asset to Uganda concerning land disputes. I am so privileged to be working with an organization that works alongside communities to reconcile land disputes, while also addressing legal discrepancies in the system. These complications in Uganda need to be addressed and LEMU is an excellent organization working very hard to make a difference.