De Soto and land relations in rural Africa: breathing life into dead theories about property rights

Abstract This article interrogates the ambitious claim that the procedural act of formalisation of property rights has a causal link with the empowerment of poor people. The article explores this claim primarily through examining the work of Hernando de Soto, in light of similar arguments made in earlier policy prescriptions on formalisation of land title in rural sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in Kenya, which has had the longest history of experimentation with formal titling in the region. Contemporary arguments such as de Soto's ignore lessons learnt and therefore reproduce five shortcomings of earlier arguments linking formal land title to productivity in sub-Saharan Africa. First, a narrow construction of legality that equates legal pluralism with extra-legality. Second, an underlying social evolutionist bias which presumes that individual ownership is ultimately inevitable for all social contexts. Third, an unproven link between formal title and access to credit facilities. Fourth, a narrow understanding of markets in land to refer only to ‘formal markets’. Fifth, failure to acknowledge that formalisation can result in both security and insecurity. Ultimately, this article observes, the current recasting of formalisation of property rights systems as empowerment of the poor sidesteps the issue of substantive redistribution and downplays the role of the state in such redistribution.