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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Lex Loci meets Lex Fori: Merging Customary Law and National Land Legislation in Madagascar
| Panel |
36. Between customs and state law: The dynamics of local law in sub-Saharan Africa
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| Paper ID | 289 |
| Author(s) |
Evers, Sandra J.T.M.
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | Land registration is one of the cornerstones of the Malagasy government plan to improve the economic development of Madagascar. Acting under strong pressure exerted by the IMF, the Malagasy government launched the PNF (Plan National Foncier) in 2004 to implement a national land registration system. From the outset, land registration has proven to be complex and problematic, due to competing notions between positive law and customary law. This paper proposes historical and anthropological perspectives on this issue and will discuss land access, registration, dispute resolution and the legitimacy of local fora anchored in customs versus a judicial system inspired by French Civil Law. Land registration is a key area where Malagasy customs collide with vazaha (foreign) economic and cultural references.
This paper is the fruit of a joint research project between the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) and the Institut de Civilisations/Musée d’Art et Archéologie (Université d’Antananarivo), which was initiated in January 2005. During the first two years of this research, thirteen Dutch master students and thirteen Malagasy students jointly carried out fieldwork and research on natural resource management and poverty. This unique project allowed Malagasy and Dutch researchers to exchange viewpoints and combine synergies to better attack this important societal and academic thematic in a comprehensive manner.
Publications of Dr Evers include: ‘The Fate of the Landless in the Southern Highlands of Madagascar,’ Journal of Peasant Studies 2006, vol. 33, nr. 3, pp. 413-444. ‘Trumping the Ancestors: the Challenges of Implementing a Land Registration System in Madagascar’ in Competing Jurisdictions: Settling Land Claims in Africa, Sandra Evers, Marja Spierenburg, Harry Wels (eds.), Leiden Brill Academic Publishers, 2005, pp. 223-243. Constructing History, Culture and Inequality. The Betsileo in the Extreme Southern Highlands of Madagascar, Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2002.
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