Answer to Question #306453 in English for Tokelo

Question

’Land is life’’. With this view in mind, discuss the African philosophy and ownership of land. In your discussion consider aspects of land, space and resources and how Africans relate to these by describing examples from an African language of your choice in terms of poems or other literature texts from the language

Answer 1

Land is Life is a global movement on the frontlines of safeguarding the rights of Indigenous Peoples to protect lands, cultures and biodiversity for all humanity.

African land tenure is not based on ownership but on use and access. Since Africans have common rights to land, communal rights override individual rights, which are subsumed to the overall communal good. Tenure rights are built through reciprocal obligations and mutuality. Unlike Euro-American considerations, the African views life and what it is constituted of as a totality. Land is neither a commodity nor an individual possession. It doesn't belong to humans but is a gift from God. Land is understood as embracing the ecological, cultural, cosmological, social and the spiritual.

The continent has 40 percent of the world's gold and up to 90 percent of its chromium and platinum. The largest reserves of cobalt, diamonds, platinum and uranium in the world are in Africa. It holds 65 per cent of the world's arable land and ten percent of the planet's internal renewable fresh water source. African land laws debunk the idea of ownership. Instead land is a natural endowment that can neither be bought nor sold. African land tenure is not based on ownership but on use and access. Since Africans have common rights to land, communal rights override individual rights, which are subsumed to the overall communal good.