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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Swazi Traditional Land Tenure Systems and Their Obstacles to Economic Development
Author:Sikhondze, Bonginkosi A.B.
Year:1994
Periodical:Transafrican Journal of History (ISSN 0251-0391)
Volume:23
Pages:69-80
Language:English
Notes:biblio. refs., ills.
Geographic terms:Swaziland - Eswatini
Southern Africa
Subjects:traditional rulers
customary law
land law
Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Development and Technology
Economics and Trade
Economics, Commerce
land tenure
economic development
Tradition
history
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/24520270
Abstract:Swazi traditional institutions have had an adverse effect on the economic development of Swaziland. Customary land tenure systems in particular have frustrated projects that could have boosted the economic development of the country. Swazi chiefs have been noted for their efforts to preserve the status quo in land allocation. Chiefs and their councils frustrated prosperous cultivators by reducing the amount of land allocated to them, and by preventing the privatization of landholdings. They sanctioned the enclosure of land and opposed the construction of passable roads. These policies were carried out under the pretext that progress would lead to the contamination of Swazi culture. This article deals with the period from 1894, when the ox-drawn plough was introduced in Swaziland, which led to the expansion of land cultivated by each family, up to World War II, when it became apparent that chiefs would lose the fight with enterprising cultivators. Ref., sum.
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