Security of Land Tenure in Southern Africa: Unregistered land rights in Namibia

Land rights are the legally or socially recognised entitlements which individuals or groups access, possess, use, transfer and exercise in various ways on land and land-based natural resources. Unregistered land rights are the rights people hold on land that has not been formally recorded in the government land registration system. Historically, all land worldwide was unregistered until the first registration systems emerged. Unregistered land rights arise because formal titling processes are complex, costly and inaccessible. Many people occupy land without any entry in the official registry. In Africa, unregistered land accounts for 90 per cent of the continent’s rural land, mostly in customary and indigenous jurisdictions. Due to the lack of official written records, ownership and the exercise of land rights on unregistered land are proven by physical possession and oral records. Similarly, more than half of the land in Namibia, about 57 per cent (approximately 47 million hectares), is unregistered land. This means the country’s land administration system excludes more than half of the country, leaving the land rights of many Namibians unregistered and legally unprotected.