Custom and capitalism: Changes in the basis of land tenure in Ismani, Tanzania

Customary land tenure rules in Tanzania are incompatible with conditions of land shortage arising from agricultural development within an individual and incipiently capitalist framework. They are not equipped to deal with market land values, nor with individual demands which do not rest on a wider set of social obligations. Gross inequalities in land ownership are growing without controls because government policy has caused customary law to be retained for most rural land. In Ismani where agriculture is relatively developed, commercial land transactions are carried out secretly, and are consequently subject to cheating and insecurity. The only (still inadequate) means of securing title is by taking a dispute to court.