De Soto Land Value Increase for Poverty Alleviation Offset by Procurements of Modernity: A case study of Peri-Urbaisation in Gabane Village, Botswana
ABSTRACT
De Soto has argued that many poor people in the world hold much land which is not titled and is often held under customary tenure. Consequently, this form of tenure does not benefit them as much as it would have under more valuable tenure types such as common law, freehold and leasehold. One human development strategy by De Soto contends that when the land held by poor people is appropriately titled to have more value, then many poor people in the world would get out of poverty. The suggested poverty alleviation strategy should be useful to Botswana too where people especially in the rural areas hold a number of land properties under customary tenure and, in a number of cases hold multiple residential, arable, commercial and industrial lands. Although much criticism has been labeled against De Soto, the peri-urbanisation process around Gaborone city in Botswana has shown that peri-urbanisation can raise the value of land under customary tenure rights even when the titles were not changed. The rural population in the urban fringe has taken advantage of the increased land value and has begun an informal land market to sell their lands at higher prices than would be the case under national compensation avenues. This research sought to find out if the De Soto concept could be tested in the Botswana case by documenting land allocations, land transactions as well as subsequent land ownership and living standards. The results showed that the people were not benefitting as expected because instead of using the money to secure assets that would enhance dignified living standards, the people were using the land sale proceeds to pursue modernity and thus to procure liabilities, in the process, some people became poorer and landless.
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Land and access to it has determined the procurement of wealth for many centuries and determined who
became wealthy and who did not (De Soto, 1993). Now, there are arguments that point to information
and knowledge as the current source of wealth creation (Addicott, McGivern, & Ferlie, 2006). Despite
the knowledge possession debate, land still controls paths to wealth and dignified livelihoods to a large
extent (Leonard & Narintarakul, 2006; Quisumbing, Estudillo, & Otsuka, 2004). Land information
systems and their link to supporting a vibrant economic environment attest to this as it is indicated to
support agriculral and economic developments (Ezigbalike & Nkwae, 1999). In his much critiqued book
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Dr. Mulalu I. MulaluLecturer, University of BotswanaDepartment of Environmental [email protected]
Mr. Nicholas GaokgethelweSingle Major Student, University of BotswanaDepartment of Environmental [email protected]
the Mystery of Capital, De Soto noted that poor people are poor because they hold much land in poor
value titles (De Soto, 2001), such as customary as opposed to leasehold or freehold and other fully titled
and registered types of tenure. This implies that once the land titles are improved, people should then
move out of poverty. Yet peri-urbanization introduces the situation where land owned by the poor
obtains higher value due to its appropriation for urban uses, this increases its value despite its being still
held under customary land rights.
Peri-urbanisation is a form of urban expansion and is noted to be driven by population growth, rising
incomes and falling commuting costs (Brueckner, 2000). It differs from urban sprawl in the sense that it
contains largely non-metropolitan growth initially (Buxton & Choy, 2007). It can however be used to
study the growth of metropolitan areas in developing countries (Hudalah, Winarso, & Woltjer, 2007).
The process of peri-urbanisation itself as encroachment into the rural areas that are inhabited by the
poorer nationals of a country often has negative consequences on them. Toulmin for example notes that
land registration interventions that are intended to raise the value of land through titling processes are
riddled with vested interests at many levels that dispossess the poorer claimants (Toulmin, 2009). The
development of biofuel processes such as bioethanol and biodiesel have been noted to fuel exclusion
because poorer people end up losing access to the land they depend on (Cotula, Dyer, & Vermeulen,
2008). Nonetheless, with the advent of peri-urbanization, there is a tendency for the value of land held
under customary tenure to increase in this urban fringe, this is fuelled by demand for land from city
dwellers who have struggled and failed to find land in the city. The poor peoples lands are then bought
and subsequently titled by those who either have capability and knowledge to register them or develop
the power to influence further developments in the urban fringe in a similar manner to the rural
collectives in China (Zhu & Guo, 2013) which then assume control of land development in the urban
fringe. Despite the increase in the land prices, the consequences have shown an addition to poverty
rather a reduction from it, when individuals find themselves impoverished by procurements of liabilities
and becoming landless too in the process.
Nonetheless, according to de Soto, peri-urbanisation should facilitate the people in urban fringe to start
moving out of poverty. However, the reaction to higher land values by poor people in developing
countries has shown that behavioural changes are not induced by land titling alone. In some cases titling
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has increased the physical and human capitals which have then driven the behavioural change to
improve the household (Galiani & Schargrodsky, 2010). In Botswana, the indication is that whereas it is
peri-urbaisation that has increased land values, the procured capital initiated and facilitated the pursuit of
lifestyles followed by the middle class groups. These acts essentially manifest the scenario where wealth
is sold to buy poverty (Rutten, 1992). In other areas, research has indicated that country laws (Wily,
2011) and vested interests (Zoomers, 2010) work to disadvantage and to dispossess the poor of their
land. There are also indications that there is an on-going land grab (Cotula, 2009), in the case of
Botswana, this is particularly evident in peri-urban fringes although land is currently being sold in most
of the official rural settlements, especially those that are close to the suburban spaces of larger villages
and towns.
In the Botswana case, Gaborone, the capital city of Botswana is surrounded by rural villages which
contain both arable and residential land held by the poor. Gabane village, the case study in this research
is one of the villages in Gaborone city’s urban fringe. The unfolding scenario in this case is that the
relatively wealthier members of the community from practically the whole country (due to the primacy
nature of Gaborone city) buy arable land and develop it into residential estates (Figure 1) and they also
buy residential plots which they develop into mansions (Figure 2) which they either live in or rent out.
These land procurement processes result in the loss of land by the rural poor because the land
transactions are effected and recorded by the Land Board which is responsible for the land allocations.
This means that further applications for land are rejected by the Land Board when the records show that
the applicants had been allocated land before. However, since some land has been allocated by the chiefs
before the Land Boards were instituted and other lands are inherited or bought, quite a number of people
hold multiple land properties. Thus there is still the opportunity to find out what impacts the increased
value of land has had on the rural community in the peri-urban fringe and to determine the consequences
of the pursuit of moderninty..
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Modernity has often been viewed as the replacement of an agrarian economy by an industrial one (Dyer,
1989) and is often framed within the period after the middle ages and after the end of the second world
war. In decomposing modernity, Ferguson outlines five basic components of modernity as developed
industries, scientific technologies, liberal and democratic politics, nucleated families and secular world
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Figure 1 Arable land bought and developed into estates or businesses
Figure 2 Residential plots bought and developed into mansions
views (Ferguson, 2005). Modernity is then expected to facilitate developing countries such as those in
Africa to overpower poverty, take part in globalization and achieve a status of equality with other
countries in the world. This is the view of modernity that has persisted, in 1974 Bates presented the
variables of modernity as education, per capita income, urbanization, political participation, industrial
employment and media participation (Bates, 1974). It is interesting to note that some research points to
Africa as the origin of modernity (Conard, 2010; d'Errico et al., 2009), yet Africa considers herself
backward and regards the consumption of western lifestyle goods to be the modernity. For example, like
Buenos Aires, Gaborone city in Botswana can be noted to be filled with cell phone carrying locals,
dressed in the latest United States and European fashions and driving shiny fashionable cars (Guano,
2002). Yet, what does being modern mean to individuals and families? To many inadequately informed
individuals, modernity can be noted to refer to. Modernity has its negative consequences, for social
scientists, these have been noted to include individualization, universlisation, rationalization,
desacralisation or massification. In ordinary language this means excessive accounting to the self,
adoption of the more negative characters of an international individual, loss of empathy due to excessive
rationalization, adoption of a secular lifestyle which tends to reduce personal morality and yet to end up
an unimportant hardly recognized individual amongst the world’s internationals.
2.0 METHODOLOGY
The aim of this research was to document land transactions in the peri urban area of Gaborone and find
out their implications on the livelihoods of people whose lands have been converted to urban land uses.
This was done by: a) documenting the conversion of arable and residential land to urban land uses in the
greater Gaborone area, b) determining the subsequent status of land ownership of people whose lands
have been taken and c) assessing the subsequent livelihoods of people whose lands have been taken.
Data was collected through the personal administration of questionnaires, an attitude scale, and mapping
the landuse over time so that the change in the landuse can be discerned.
2.1 Administering Questionnaires and Attitude Scale, Key Informant Interviews
A questionnaire was designed which was aimed at finding out the following: a) occupations, b)
c) residence profiles, d) plot ownership, e) mode of plot acquisition, f) land transactions, g) role of
respondents in land transactins, h) reasons for land transactions, i) subsequent plot ownership, j) reason
for selling the plots, k) education and income level profiles, l) post land transaction living standard and
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m)assessment of a number of ownerships that are considered to be luxury rather than basic needs. In
order to interview prior owners of the lands who are the main focus of this study, a snowballing
technique was used. This technique made it relatively easier to locate prior occupants of the plots. In
addition, an assessment of subsequent livelihoods was made. Questionnaires were augmented by key
informant interviews and secondary data. Data was also collected from relevant files from the Registry
of deeds. In addition to the questionnaires and key informant interviews, an attitude scale was also
administered. The attitude scale had thirteen statements and was intended to collect information about
the beliefs and assumptions that informed the respondents in their daily decision making.
2.2 Mapping Land-Use Change
Maps and aerial photographs were obtained from the Department of Surveys and Mapping (government
department) and the Department of Environmental Science of the University of Botswana. The
Department of Surveys and Mapping provided the topographic maps that were used to provide base
data. The aerial photographs were available at the Department of Environmental Science and the land
use over the 1990 and the 2010 period were digitized from them. ArcGIS’s ArcMap was used to carry
out on screen digitizing on the aerial photographs.
3.0 PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS
At the analysis stage there is need to look at the results and to reflect back at the objectives and to
determine whether the findings relate well to the original argument, that is whether an increase in the
land values of the poor results in their movement out of poverty. Specifically, there is need to to: a)
confirm the availability of land at the peri-urban fringe, b) verify whether the land transactions are
taking place, c) determine whether the land values are higher than those which are used for land
compensation by the Land Board, d) determine whether there are indications of procurements of
modernity rather than wealth producing assets, e) determine whether the land sales have a positive
impact on the livelihoods and living standard of those who sell their lands, and f) determine whether
those who sell their lands are able to secure other land rights after the land sales.
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3.1 Evidence of Existence of Securable Peri-Urban Land
A Google Earth image was used to show the superimposition of old arable lands and the newer land uses
in them in the Gabane area. In this case there was no need to use temporal images, one image depicted a
background of old arable lands and the mansions and estates that have been built in them. The results
show that 66.10% of this land is held under customary land tenure while the remaining 33.90% is under
common law.
3.2 Evidences of Land Transactions
With regard to evidence that the land transactions are taking place, a free weekly booklet called “The
Botswana ADVERTISER” was used to show the land sales that were advertised every week. A sample
of the information that is availed for the plots is indicated in Table 1. The plot area and the price has
been used to calculate the land value per square meter. The value of land is dependent on the level of
development in the plot, the plot size, whether the plot has a title or not (with those with titles attracting
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Gabane
Figure 3 Evidence of Existence of Securable Peri-Urban Land
higher values), knowledge and aspirations of the seller and locational advantages of the plot, especially
proximity to town/city and access to utilities connections. From Table 1, the land values range from
P41.11/m2 to P171.43/m2. The compensation rates used by the Land Board are as follows: When the
Land Board land values are compared with those used by the local community, it is clear, that the rates
used by the local community are much higher than those used by the Land Board.
The results of this study show that 37.78% had been involved in land transactions and that there is an
equal percentage of those who buy and those who sell (38.24%). The reason for selling the plot show
that this is done under pressure with limited lee way to argue for better prices. The reasons included the
following: a) 14.29% needed the money to develop other plots which most likely were in danger of
being repossessed by the Land Board, b) 21.43% simply needed the money, c) 14.28% feared the risk of
repossession by the Land Board which would then provide very low compensations, 35.71% had been
repossessed by the Land Board. Only 14.29% of the land sales were instigated by the need to invest in
other ventures. In the Gabane area, only 30.36% of the plots were allocated by the Land Board, the
remaining 60.64% represented land that was allocated by the chiefs (28.57%), that which was inherited
(23.21%) and that which was purchased (17.86%). Thus there was still much land that could be
transacted.
3.3 Evidences of the Procurement of Modernity
Within a rural environment where many households struggle to meet their daily basic needs,
procurements of certain items may be deemed to be procurements of modernity and luxury. These items
include: cars, plasma television sets and subscriptions to international television programming,
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Table 1 Evidence of land transactions and the land values used by the local community
Plot Plot Distance (km) LandSettlement status Length Breadth Area Tenure from Gaborone Price Cell-NumberBelabela empty 40 40 1600 customary 10 70000 43.75 71308537Bokaa 2.5 room house 1000 leasehold 130000 130.00 74761000Gabane 1 room 73418229Gabane empty 180000 72906928Gabane arable ### title deed 3700000 41.11 72564856Gakutlo 1.5 room 875 leasehold 150000 171.43 72307505
Kumakwane empty 120000 73222150Kumakwane 800 110000 137.50 73924819
Plot dmensions (m2)value/m2
expensive cellular phones, preference for designer clothing labels, a life of entertaining, enrolling
children in English medium schools from kindergarten to senior secondary school, even more of such
irrationally procured wants. In this study, ownership of cellular phones was 94.4%, 81.11% had
connected electrical power, 34.44% owned microwave ovens, 65.56% owned fridges, 82.22% owned
television sets and 38.89% owned cars. A socio-economic profile should reveal whether such
procurements are justified. With regard to gender, land transactions are carried out by both men
(46.67%) and women (35.33%). The majority of the repondents have either no education or their
education range is primary to senior secondary school. It can be argued that the 13.48% of those who
possess junior degrees represent those who actually bought the land parcels, this would include the
3.37% who possess second degrees. With regard to incomes levels, 78.88% earn less than P6000.00 and
of these 66.67% are either unemployed, employed part of the time or self employed. In order to show
that a monthly income of less than P6000.00 cannot adequately support such lifestyles, Tables 2 (source)
and 3(author estimations from conversations) show monthly expenditures for poor households in South
Africa and Botswana respectively.
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Table 2 Avrage monthly expenditure of the low class in South Africa
% of HHs % of HHs Average MonthlyExpenditure item Spending Cash Spending Remittances ExpenditureFood & groceries 93 82 288Housing 9 10 9Utilities 38 30 36Clothes 42 52 267Medical expenses 30 20 24Transportation 44 34 48Education 31 52 91Entertainment 3 3 18Savings 17 12 200Fuel 44 6 58Farming 15 10 434Building 8 10 576Special events 8 8 239Gifts 4 3 55Other expenses 2 1 81
all these plus TVs, microwave ovens, internet access, cars, cell phones, PCsits all spent, with little to save (61%), then there is also english medium schools, medical aid and funeral schemes
Table 3 Monthly expenditure of the low class in Gaborone
Payment AmountRent 1600Food at home 800Daily bus fare 392Furniture 400Gas 60
The monthly expenditures in tables 2 and 3 should not be compared directly but the ratios of monthly
salaries against expenditures should compare very well. The clear observation that can be drawn from
these expenditures is that the people do not have enough living resources to live decent lives in the
cities. It should also be noted that the modernity procurements such as television sets and subscriptions
to international television programming are not included in the monthly expenditures.
3.4 Land Sales and Impact on Livelihoods and Living Standards
The study reveals the disheartening observation that 44.44% were really concerned about securing basic
needs and that 53.33% were little concerned or not concerned at all. Yet again, with regard to being
satisfied after the land sales, only 35% were fully satisfied. Overall, the livelihoods did not improve after
the land sales, in fact in some cases they deteriorated. On top of this, 85% of those who sold their lands
were not able to secure other land rights. These results clearly do not show rational thinking and perhaps
the results of the attitude scale survey should shed light on this.
3.5 Attitude scale and underlying decision making basis
The results of the attitude scale responses are shown in figure 4. It is surprising to note that the people
did not think that the increased land values can improve livelihoods, perhaps this came from their own
observations that in their cases the proceeds from land sales did not improve the lives of their friends
and relatives. This is explained by the response to the second attitude scale where people agree almost
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unanimously that the people do not benefit from the land sales because they are uninformed about the
use of money. Yet for the sellers, the driving force is obtaining money, this clearly evident from a
number of responses: a) they are willing to sell their plots to improve their financial situations, b) they
consider that government compensation is not enough to secure another plot elsewhere, c) they are
aware that they will not be able to secure another plot from the Land Board but they still sell anyway, d)
they have enough information to participate in the land transactions (from the free weekly Advertiser
magazine), and e) they are ready to sell their plots for money. The buyers on the other hand are not
prepared to wait for the long land allocation queues at the Land Board and are willing to buy land, they
too have enough information to participate in the land transactions. This sets the stage for a vibrant non
official land market.
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Figue 4 The results of the attitude survey
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20.00
40.00
60.00
80.00
100.00
120.00
Agreement versus disagreement to attitude statements
AgreeDisagree
4.0 Conclusions
This study has shown that the increase in the land values of the poor does not necessarily initiate the
process to move out of poverty and that the conceptualization of the movement out of poverty should
not be based on improved land values only. In the Gabane area, which is one of the urban fringes of the
primate capital city of Botswana, many people, especially the youth, do not aim to improve living
standards when they sell land, their basic aim is to enjoy the offerings of modernity, cars, electronics and
social media, designer clothing and a life of social parties. For these people, it is the procurement of
money that is paramount. On the other hand, it is those who buy the lands that aim to improve living
standards. Their salaried employment enables them not only to buy land but to begin the process that
ensures that the land enters the formal capital market . This is done through titling, and titling in turn
enables the buyers to secure it from opportunistic and less profitable repossession by government .
What maintains the informal land market is that people have multiple land properties, from Land Board
allocations, from inheritances, from gifts by other family members and from buying at very low prices
from other less or uninformed rural community members. Linked to the abundant land is that, at the
urban fringe, there are always land buyers from the city and, due to its primacy, Gaborone has buyers
from the whole country, that has created many land buyers. So unless the financial situations of the poor
are improved, they will always give priority to procurement of money over all else.
The pursuit of modernity and the lure of Gaborone appears to be the root evil for the mass irrationality.
The results on incomes indicate that 43% were either unemployed or earned less than P2000.00, yet
Table 3 shows a monthly expenditure of P5316.00. The obvious question here is, how do people live
then? A common answer from casual conversations with the people involved is that they are always
borrowing money and that it is a difficult and stressful life. The other obvious question would then be,
why should people persist in staying in Gaborone? Again there is a common answer, Gaborone is the
place to be, one must be seen to be staying in Gaborone, despite the hardship that this entails. Table 3
then reveals the actual cost of living in Gaborone for the poor and working class.
The apparent deliberate misappropriation of the proceeds of the land sales to procure modernity and
luxury brings to the fore a number of questions; whether the poor people should not be held responsible
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for misusing life’s opportunities? are the poor always victims? should the personal trajectories into
poverty not be reviewed in order to determine who gets social welfare and who does not? These
questions point to future research on lived poverty. In Botswana specifically, although unemployment is
still high, there are many human development programs that the government has made available to
Batswana. However, these development programs are often difficult to access because of their
formalized business requirements but also because of their rather high personal financial contributions.
In some cases, when the business funds are secured, they are often misappropriated due to inadequate or
lack of monitoring. Still in other cases the funds are released to individuals who do not have sufficient
business knowledge. There is thus need to develop human development programs that empower people
to secure enough money to curb the apparent hunger for cash. Thus there is need to assist people to
embark upon processes that facilitate the use of the present resources to invest in a better future, rather
than to use the present to squander investments for the future.
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