Contemporary Journal of African Studies (CJAS)

From the Editorial Team

Akosua Adomako Ampofo — Sat, 04 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction: African land digitalisation outcomes for vulnerable social groups -- actors, complexities and contexts.

Lamine Doumbia, Peter Narh — Sat, 04 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This Special Issue examines the relationship between the digitalisation of land administration and customary landowning communities in Africa, drawing on empirical studies from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, and Mali. Across these contexts, digitalisation has emerged as a central land administration reform, framed as a technical solution to (in)efficiency, (in)security, and conflict through the creation of digitised land registers, automated procedures, and data-driven governance systems. While these reforms promise transparency, efficiency, and improved tenure security, this Special Issue argues that digitalisation is not a neutral or purely technical intervention. Rather, it is embedded within broader neoliberal discourses and political–economic structures that reconfigure land relations, often to the detriment of customary landholders.

The contributions demonstrate that digital land administration frequently marginalises customary tenure systems by privileging statutory, individualised, and market-oriented land relations. In doing so, it facilitates processes of land commodification, financialisation, and external investment, while weakening communal control, sociocultural reproduction, and local livelihoods. Empirical findings highlight how limited participation, gendered exclusions, weak institutional coordination, and external control over land data exacerbate inequalities and constrain communities’ ability to contest dispossession or derive benefits from their lands.

At the same time, the Special Issue avoids romanticising customary tenure, recognising internal inefficiencies and conflicts. Instead, it advances a critical argument that sustainable and equitable digitalisation requires a bottom-up, participatory approach grounded in local sociocultural values and commons-based land relations. The collection concludes that digitalisation must be reimagined as a complementary process that supports social reproduction, capital formation from below, and community-defined development pathways, rather than as a technocratic instrument of land liberalisation and control.

Legitimising Public Action by Digitising Urban Land: Social Perceptions and Popular Strategies of Resistance

Moubassiré Sigué — Sat, 04 Jul 2026 22:02:25 +0000

Urban land management is a major challenge in view of the rapid expansion of cities in general and African cities in particular. The introduction of digital technology in the management of cadastral and property affairs in Burkina Faso is seen as an alternative to securing land tenure. However, the introduction of such a policy measure disrupts the traditional levers of land-related social organisation. This raises the following questions: What are the societal implications of digitising the land register in Burkina Faso? What are the resistance strategies of people affected by the digitisation of urban land? To what extent does the digitisation of land ownership represent an instrument for legitimising political power and social control? This research is theoretically rooted in the sociological theories of the Chicago School of urban phenomena. Using a hypothetical-deductive anthropological approach, empirical data obtained from semi-structured interviews and direct observation were supplemented with documentary information. The results show, on the one hand, that digitisation of the land register represents an alternative way of preventing land disputes and conflicts, and helps to legitimise public action. On the other hand, the democratisation of land information affects social groups such as property developers, land brokers and certain institutional players. These affected populations adopt resistance strategies that are deemed unfavourable to the digitisation of land governance.

Gouverner la terre par les instruments: Une analyse socio-historique du processus de digitalisation des procédures foncières au Cameroun à partir du Réseau Géodésique national

Gely Menguena — Sat, 04 Jul 2026 21:55:05 +0000

At the end of the 2010_S the Ministry of Domains, Cadastre, and Land Affairs of Cameroon lauched an ambitious land reform focused on modernising the national cadastre. As part of this initiative, a National Geodetic Network was established to replace the older, heterogeneous reference frame works inherited from previous periods. These earlier systems, based on a collection of independent geographic points, were used for mapping and planimetric work but had significant technical limitations. This fragmentation of reference systems largely contributed to the vulnerability of land registry, which was frequently contested or the subject of disputes.

For local populations, the introduction of the geodetic network is seen as a tool to pacify land relations and reduce property conflicts. For the State, it represents a strategic instrument to enhance the accuracy of mapping, boundary demarcation, and infrastructure development, while also facilitating the issuance of more reliable and traceable digital land titles. However, more than a decade after its launch, the project has struggled to achieve its intended outcomes. This slowdown raises questions about the technical, institutional, and financial obstacles that continue to hinder the effective implementation of the reform

Gender and the Trajectories of Land Digitalisation in Kenya: Recounting Gains and Losses

Njoki Mwareri — Sat, 04 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The digitalisation of land administration systems in Kenya has been widely promoted as a means of enhancing transparency, efficiency, and accessibility in land governance. Leveraging technologies such as satellite imagery, drones, geospatial databases, and computerised land registries, these initiatives often supported by institutions like the World Bank, aim to simplify land registration processes and reduce the logistical burdens of accessing title deeds, particularly for smallholder farmers. While the potential benefits of these reforms are considerable, emerging evidence suggests that digital land governance may also reproduce and deepen existing structural inequalities. This paper critically examines the gendered implications of land digitalisation in Kenya, arguing that such processes can unintentionally reinforce patriarchal norms and exclusionary land tenure practices. In many marginalised regions, digital systems have been found to privilege individuals with formal land claims—often men, while neglecting the customary and informal tenure rights that many women depend upon. Moreover, the default listing of male household heads as landowners within digital registries risks entrenching women’s historical disenfranchisement from land ownership and control. The paper contends that unless gender-sensitive safeguards are integrated into digital land reforms, such initiatives may exacerbate rather than alleviate land-related injustices.

Reformatting the Commons: Digital Land Reforms and Grassroots Contestation in West Africa

Lamine Doumbia, Peter Narh — Sat, 04 Jul 2026 21:51:19 +0000

This manuscript is an examination of processes and outcomes of digitalisation of land administration and governance in Mali and Ghana. It examines how these processes in the two countries affect customary land tenure and administration, as well as the social groups, most of whom reside in villages and communities governed by customary land. We draw on ethnographic field research conducted in Mali, especially in and around Bamako, from key state institutions with mandates over land, and in the peri-urban areas of Kumasi and Koforidua in Ghana, along with their respective regional Lands Commissions. Digitalisation is well placed to resolve conflictual and complex customary land tenure and delivery challenges confronting societies and governments in the two countries. Nevertheless, our findings indicate that, despite state efforts to engage customary land tenure systems and actors, especially in Mali, land digitalisation largely remains disconnected from customary tenure arrangements. The neoliberal foundations of digitalisation erode any equitable outcomes, which remain elusive for many.

Digitalised Participatory Land Administration and Peasant Livelihoods: Tools for Community Empowerment, Western Region-Ghana

Ebenezer Osei Jones — Sat, 04 Jul 2026 22:01:32 +0000

This study, conducted in the Ellembelle District of Ghana's Western Region—a hub of oil and gas activities, examines the land transfer deal between local communities and the ENI oil exploratory company. The research focuses on the level of participatory land administration, the impact on peasant livelihoods, and the relationship between participatory land administration and livelihood outcomes. A total of 300 beneficiaries of the ENI Livelihood Restoration Plan were randomly selected for the study. Data analysis employed frequencies, percentages, means, standard deviations, correlation, and ordinary least square regression. The findings reveal that respondents perceived the level of the digitalised participatory land administration process as inadequate, with low ratings for land policies, institutional arrangements, and land information. In contrast, the level of peasant livelihoods after the land transfer was rated as moderately high concerning livelihood assets, resilience to vulnerability, and risk management strategies. A positive and moderate correlation was found between the level of peasant livelihoods and land policies, while a positive but low correlation was observed between livelihoods and demographic factors such as sex, age, educational level, and capacity training. Notably, the study identifies that 97% of the variation in peasant livelihoods can be attributed to a combination of factors, including sex, age, educational level, skill development programmes, and land policy. These findings have significant implications for designing and implementing participatory land administration initiatives aimed at enhancing peasant livelihoods in the context of large-scale land acquisitions.

Restitution beyond the museum: Introductory comments to a report on the MIASA/ACT workshop “Inspiration and Reciprocity: Transferring insights and perspectives on restitution matters from Africa to Europe”

Edwina Ashie-Nikoi, Akosua Adomako Ampofo — Sat, 04 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Inspiration and Reciprocity: Transferring insights and perspectives on restitution matters from Africa to Europe

Andreas Mehler — Sat, 04 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The workshop “Inspiration and Reciprocity: Transferring insights and perspectives on restitution matters from Africa to Europe”, held on 26 and 27 September 2024 at the University of Freiburg (UFR) and organized in collaboration with the Africa Centre for Transregional Research (ACT), was the Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA)’s first event taking place outside the African continent. It aimed at discussing and promoting the research findings on restitution issues elaborated particularly at MIASA at the University of Ghana (UG), Legon, Accra, and more broadly on the African continent.