1.0 INTRODUCTION
The independence and subsequent reunification of Cameroon in the 1960‟s brought about a huge change in the application of existing norms and practices, in this regard the country made a gradual shift colonial land tenure legislations to formulating its own laws to accommodate its particular realities; this shift in stance included amongst others the framing of an adequate legal and institutional framework for the registration of land.
This study therefore presents an overview of the concept of land registration in Cameroon. This study is therefore in response to the first specific research question (What is the concept of land registration in Cameroon) and answers the first research objective of this study (To examine the concept of land registration in Cameroon).
1.1 EVOLUTION OF THE CONCEPT OF LAND REGISTRATION IN CAMEROON
Considering the pre-colonial period, before the arrival of colonial powers, land was managed by clans, chiefs or land managers on community bases[1]. For each community, land belonged to the first “occupant”[2]. Men were much attached to land because they considered it as the lifeblood of the community. Land was community property, inalienable and even sacred. It was handed down from one generation to another and it was therefore practically impossible to talk about single or individual ownership[3]. Individuals could have the right of enjoyment to satisfy their food and housing needs.
The method of allocating land to members of the clan and possession varied from one region to another and from one ethnic group to another. However, this type of land management was generally known as “customary” or “traditional” land tenure[4]. Customary law principles against individual ownership and alienability of land came under threats during colonial period. Land gradually ceased to be seen as a mere provider of shelter, food and means of communication with the ancestors. It became a source of wealth. History has it that, the first ever act of sale of land in Cameroon took place in 1885[5] , when the Baptist Missionary, Alfred Saker bought a piece of land from the king of Bimbia. This sale marked the development of individual ownership and hence individual ownership was introduced in Cameroon during colonization.
With respect to the colonial period, Cameroon had a dual experience. First, it was the German Annexation, following the signing, on July 12 1884, of the Germano-Douala Treaty, whereby the Douala chiefs transferred the sovereignty of Cameroon to the Germans. Then came the British and French twice, following the defeat of Germany in the First World War and after the Second World War of 1945. When Germany lost the First World War in Cameroon on February 20th 1916, the country was partitioned between Britain and France along the Simon-Milner line[6]. Both Britain and France instituted land laws in the country to favour their interests..
The German colonial administration which was short-lived extended its influence through Cameroon. The land plan of the Cameroonian territory was delimited during German colonial rule. It introduced registration in a land register called Grundbuch[7] as a principle of land securitization mainly in favour of German colonialists who occupied vast expanses of land in the coastal areas[8]. Agricultural plantations were established, with native Cameroonians employed as wage earners. All unregistered lands and unoccupied lands became “ownerless lands”[9]. The British took over these plantations after the defeat of the Germans in World War 1 and 2 which in 1946 were incorporated as the Cameroon Development Corporation (The CDC). Before the Germans were evicted in Cameroon by Britain and France, they had established four categories of land. These were ownerless lands, lands occupied and cultivated by the natives, lands belonging to the German companies, and lands belonging to some natives in absolute ownership and recorded in the “grundbuch”.
The partition of Cameroon by Britain and France in 1916 was endorsed by the League of Nations in 1922. Cameroon became two mandated territories baptized; “The British Cameroon” and “Le Cameroun Français”. Article 9 of the League of Nations mandate gave them extensive powers of administration in their various sectors. This article which by all indications was drafted by the countries themselves, Britain and France were able to introduce land policies to favor their purposes. In British Cameroon, between 1919 and 1927, the northern and southern part of Cameroon placed under the British rule were governed by a different legislation enacted in Nigeria. In 1921 the Land and Native Rights Ordinance (LNRO) was issued and applied in 1927. The aim of this instrument was to enable all natives to use and occupy land[10], thereby assuring, protecting and preserving the interest of customary rights and define the rights and the obligations of the government and other persons claiming to have an interest in land in the territory[11]. Under this Land and Natives Rights Ordinance, the highest interest that could be enjoyed in land in the British Cameroon was a “right of occupancy”[12]. There were two types of occupancy namely the statutory right of occupancy[13] and the customary right of occupancy[14] depending on whether one was a non- native or a native. Customary right of occupancy was available to natives or native communities which occupied lands according to native laws and customs. They neither paid rents for the lands nor were expected to apply for Certificate of Occupancy. The statutory right of occupancy on the other hand was available to non-natives who obtained land through grants by the Governor and eventually the prime minister. The grantees paid rents for land and their title was evidenced by a certificate of occupancy. It should be said that a certificate of occupancy was not a land certificate. It was simply a recognition by the administration of the holders of occupancy. Later on an article which provided that the governor may revoke the customary right of occupancy at any time was added to the land and native rights ordinance. In 1956, a reform to guarantee access to full ownership of land in British Cameroon through freehold or leasehold land was introduced. Apart from these two land categories, all occupied or unoccupied lands were declared as customary land. All these measures stemming from the resistance of customary law at the power relationship at that time demonstrate the importance of traditional forms of access to land and complexity of the land issue which every survey or land project, including the project to modernize the land and survey sectors, must be taken into account. In French Cameroon, there was a dual system of land tenure[15]. Land could be held under the indigenous law or under the received French law. This dual system of land tenure resulted from the fact that the introduction of a novel system of land holding by the mandatory was not accompanied by the abolition of the indigenous system of land tenure which preceded the advent of colonialism.
Land in French Cameroon, were classified under four categories. These lands were, lands used and occupied in accordance with indigenous laws and customs, lands held under the registered property title[16], lands in the “territorial domain”[17] and lands held under concession[18].
The French decree of 21st July 1932, established a system of registration of title and system known as the “regime de constatation des Droits indegenes”. The second, apparently intended to make the title of natives and natives’ communities more secure, enable them to declare their rights to the administrative authorities, after which an administrative certificate was issued affirming these rights. This certificate was not a land title, nor did even something like the corticated of occupancy which empowered its holder to use, occupy and sublet the land provide he respected the development covenants. The certificate issued to the natives under the 1932 decree merely recognized the natives right to occupation of the land. Natives could not sell land nor lease land without the prior approval of the administrative authorities. The whole procedure itself calls for two remarks; the procedure presupposes a non-recognition of natives rights in land and the procedure added nothing to the right which colonial administration thought the natives had in hand. Hence, natives remained land occupiers.
With regard to the post-colonial period, French Cameroon gained independence on the 1st of January 1960 from France while on the 1st of October 1961 British Cameroon united with French Cameroon to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon. Just prior to independence, the French and the British administrations had given local institutions more autonomy in their territories. In 1959, the territorial assembly of Cameroon conferred legal standing to customary land tenure system without requiring land registration. Individuals and communities could also obtain title over customary holding. In 1963, the first national land legislation was enacted. This was the decret-loi of 9 January 1963.This decret-loi repealed the statutory recognition of customary tenure and indigenous people could only enjoy the right of occupation and not ownership over their lands and established four categories of lands: the national lands, State lands, lands held under customary law and lands held under registered property title. One finds that this law (1963) did not say whether communities could own land. It only allowed a precarious right of enjoyment over land. These communities as against individual were not recognized as legal persons to be able to register land.
However, individual members within the customary communities were allowed to claim a right to ownership over parcels of land they were entitled to hold under customary law. The process started by causing their rights to be recognized by the local administrative authority which when satisfied issued the applicant a “Livret foncier”[19]. This then qualified him to go through the process of registration of title which was concluded by the issue of a certificate of title.
These two processes of “contatation” to obtain a “livret foncier” and then “immatriculation” to obtain a “titre foncier”, were replaced by a single process by the law of 7th July 1966, regulating the registration of title.This was necessitated by the realization that the process of “immatriculation” was in many ways a repetition of the “constatation” procedure.
On June 2, 1972, the United Republic of Cameroon came in to being. There was the unification of laws on the creation of the unitary State especially in the field of land law considering the importance of land to the country’s economy, one of the tasks which the government intended to carry out without delay. A Commission was set up on November 14, 1972, to study the land laws of the former States of East and West Cameroon with the view to enact a uniform land legislation for the whole of Cameroon. The commission was then required to prepare draft legislation to harmonize the English, French and customary rules of land tenure for application on the whole territory. The reports of this Commission resulted on July 6, 1974 in the enactment of three Ordinances to harmonize the system of land tenure[20], State lands[21] and compulsory acquisition of land through expropriation[22]. These ordinances were the Ordinance No. 74-1 establishing rules governing land tenure in Cameroon, Ordinance No.74-2 establishing rules governing State lands and Ordinance no 74-3 establishing procedures governing expropriation for public interest. These Ordinances were followed afterwards by three other decrees in 1976. These were decree No.76 /165 of 27th April 1976 establishing the conditions to obtain land title, decree No.76 /166 of 27th April 1976 establishing the terms and conditions of management of national lands and decree No.76/167 of 27th April 1976 establishing the terms and conditions of management of private property of the State. These decrees have been followed by many other presidential and prime ministerial decrees. On the 16th of December 2005, decree No.2005 /481 of 16th December 2005 was passed by a presidential decree repealing certain provisions of the 1976 decrees. This new Ordinance (1974 Ordinance) unified the land tenure regime of the two former territories and maintained land title[23] at the center of the new national terms regime.
Today, the most comprehensive legal framework governing land in Cameroon is the 1974 land tenure Ordinance which clearly states that “all land in Cameroon belongs to the State”[24].
1.3 CATEGORIES OF LAND IN CAMEROON
1.3.1 National Land
In principle all land in Cameroon is national land given that the state is the guardian of all lands and has the capacity to intervene to ensure its rational use[25], this is initially gives the concept of national land a very wide and unrestricted scope. However, Section 14(1) of the 1974 ordinance defines national land as all lands except those which have been classed as private property and public property of the state or expressly registered as private property. Notwithstanding, private property may be automatically be converted to national land if the owners of such properties fail to convert their land register books and certificates occupancy to land certificates within a period of 10 years in urban areas and 15 years in rural areas from the date of the 5th of August 1974[26]. This is the same with holders of court judgments according them ownership in land who fail to convert such judgment into title deeds/land certificate[27].
The conversion of private property to national land for failure to register the former within the specified time does not mean lands peacefully occupied and used by Cameroonian or traditional communities shall at once become national land, section 17(2) the first 1974 ordinance provides that such person shall continue to occupy and use the said land and may apply for land certificates according to the relevant laws in force. The use of the word ‘May’ which is not mandatory in the wordings of the law here suggests that the requirement to eventually apply for land certificates is not crucial to these set of person who already in occupation of the land for a lengthy period of time.
Further, the attribution of all initially all land in Cameroon as national land is clearly a continuation of colonial land tenure which has been adopted by the state in the administration of its lands. The concept of national land under the 1974 ordinance is more or less a mirror image of the concepts of herrenloss lands and terre vacante under German and French administration respectively.
It is worth remarking here that, though the aforementioned 1974 to establish rules governing land tenure defines national land, the procedure and means of registering occupied or exploited national lands is set out by the decree No 76/165 of 27th April 1976
1.3.2 State Land
Cameroonian land law equally mentions state lands as a form of land tenure.The rules governing state land are enshrined in Ordinance No 74/02 of 06 July 1974. Despite the fact that the ordinance does not expressly define what state land is but rather divides it into public and private property of the state and other bodies, state land can be ordinarily taken to mean; lands which have been specifically mapped out by the state for a particular public purpose or which by nature is intended for public use.
The public property of the state comprises of all personal and real property which, by nature or intended purpose is set apart either for the direct use of the public property or for public services.[28] As a general rule, such properties cannot be sold; mortgaged or pledged neither can they by prescription become the land of another.[29] Conversely, a public property of the state which is of no use considering the purpose for which it was originally kept for may eventually be reclassified as private property of the state and may be then be subject to sale.[30]
The private property of the state on its part includes personal and real property of the state acquired without consideration or for a valuable consideration according to the rules of ordinary law per section 10(1) of Ordinance No 74/02of 06 July 1974, this is to say in terms of land, any property acquired by the state from private individuals forms part of its property. Also lands which support buildings, structures and installations, maintained by the state, properties being struck off the list of public property and others also fall within the ambit of private property of the state.
The registration procedures for state lands are quite different from that of national lands. The registration entails a transfer of the title to land from the state to either an individual or body for a reasonable consideration. The registration of state land is regulated by Decree No 76/167 of 27 April 1976 to establish terms and conditions for the management of private property of the state read together with Ordinance No 74/02 of 06 July 1974 to establish rules governing state lands.
[1] Ntoko Ntonga Rene ‘’ The Rights of Landowners and Their Limitations under Cameroonian Law” available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3702305. Accessed on 18th April 2023.
[2] African Development Bank “a diagnotic study for modernization of the land and surveys sectors” (2009).
[3] As was asserted by the Nigerian Chief in 1912, while addreessing the West African Land Committee. The Chief had declared: “I conceive that land belongs to a vast family of which many are dead, few are living and countless numbers are unborn”. This statement received judicial blessing in the celebrated case ofAmodou Tijani v. Secretary Southern Nigeriain which Viscount Haldane, delivering the judgment of the Privy Council said: “The next fact which is important to bear in mind in order to understand native land Law, is that the notion of individual ownership is quite foreign to native ideas. Land belongs to the community, the village or the family, never to the individual.
[4] Available at website https://www afdb.org>afdb. Accessed 16 April 2023.
[5] Victoria Centenary Committee, Victoria – Southern Cameroons, 1858-1958, Spottiswood, Ballantyne and Co.London 1958, 102 cited by Anyangwe : The Cameroonian Judicial System .
[6] Viscount Milner was Britain’s Secretary of State for the Colonies, Monsieur Simon was France’s Minister for Colonies.
[7] German lands register.
[8] Signing the infamous Imperial Decree of 15 June 1896. This decree abolished the customary land tenure and instituted the notion of land belonging to the crown.
[9] Ownerless lands are land without masters.
[10] Article 3 of the LNRO declares all land in former west Cameroon to be native lands and then goes ahead to enumerate a few exceptions amongst which are “all those lands over which a native had acquired a valid title or interest before the first day of March 1916″
[11] Section 1 of the LNRO.
[12] The right of occupancy is defined in Section 2 of the 1927 Ordinance as a title to the use and occupation of land and include the title of a native or native community lawfully using or occupying land in accordance with native law and customs, but does not include a license granted under section 26 of the Ordinance.
[13] The statutory right of occupancy according to S. 50(1) of the Nigerian Land Use Act, is a right of occupancy granted by the Governor pursuant to S . 3 of the Act. Section 5 of the Act empowers the Governor to grant satutory right of occupancy in respect of land in any part of the State to any person for all purposes.
[14] By virtue of S. 50(1) of Nigeria Land Use Act of 29th March, 1978, Customary Right of Occupancy means the right of a person or a community lawfully using or occupying land in accordance with customary law and includes a customary right of occupancy granted by a local government under the Act
[15] Before 1960
[16] These lands existed principally in the urban areas and were those held under German title recorded in the: grund buch”.
[17] Some of these lands were land gotten by virtue of conquest, ownerless lands, (terre vacantes et sans maitre), indigenous reserves, made up of lands situated around villages on which natives made their farms, grazed their cattle etc, and expropriated lands.
[18] These lands were granted to persons engaged in businesses as commercial agriculture and were available to both the natives and the French colonialists and were preceded by wide publicity to guarantee the rights of those concerned.
[19] Was introduced in French Cameroon by decree in 1932 by the French Administration. Article 4 of the drecree makes reference to lands covered by “livret foncier”. Under this decree, a “livret foncier” could be issue stating on the face of it what customary rights were enjoyed over a piece of communal land and by who.
[20] Ordinance No. 74-1 of 6th July 1974.
[21] Ordinance No.74-2 ibid.
[22] Ordinance No.74-3 ibid.
[23] Land title is an official document that ascertain the ownership right of an individual over a piece of land.This document does neccessarily exist in all countries. It obtains in countries where property right is recognised by the administrative authority. Where the principle of land registration is used as it is in Cameroon, the land title or the certificate is a copy of the recording of the landowner’s rights in the register
[24] Section 1(2) of the 1974 Ordinance.
[25] Section 2(1) Ordinance No 74/1 of 06 July 1974 to establish rules governing land tenure.
[26] Ibid Section 4(1)
[27] Section 5(1) ) Ordinance No 77/01 of 10th January 1977
[28] Ordinance No 74/02 of 06 July 1974 to establish rules governing state lands. Section 2(1)
[29] Ibid section 2(2).
[30] Section 5(3) Ordinance No 77/02 of 10th January 1977