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Certificates of Claim
Certificates of Claim were a form of legal instrument by which the colonial administration of the British Central Africa Protectorate granted title to individuals, companies and others who claimed to have acquired land within the protectorate by grant or purchase. The proclamation of the British Central Africa Protectorate was endorsed by the Foreign Office in May 1891, and Harry Johnston as Commissioner and Consul-General examined and adjudicated on all claims that land had been acquired before or immediately after that date. Between late 1892 and Match 1894, Johnston issued 59 Certificates of Claim for land, each of which was equivalent to a freehold title to the land claimed. Very few claims were disallowed or reduced in extent, and around 3.7 million acres, or 15% of the land area of the protectorate, was alienated, mainly to European settlers. No Certificates of Claim were issued after 1894, but this form of land title was never abolished and some land in Malawi is still held under those certificates.
==Background to the Land Issue==
In pre-colonial times, the right of land ownership in of much of Malawi belonged under the rules of customary law to the African communities that occupied it. Community leaders could allocate the use of communal land to its members, but were usually prohibited from granting it to outsiders. Neither the leaders nor the current members of a community could alienate its land, which they held in trust for future generations. Customary law had little legal status in the early colonial period, as in 1902 the Parliament of the United Kingdom enacted the British Central Africa Order, which provided that English Law would generally apply in the British Central Africa Protectorate and that the Crown had sovereignty over all the land in the protectorate, which others held as its tenants.〔B Pachai, (1973). "Land Policies in Malawi: An Examination of the Colonial Legacy", p. 685.〕
In the period after 1860, southern Malawi suffered insecurity through warfare and slave raiding: this led to the widespread abandonment fertile land. Local chiefs tried to gain protection from European companies and settlers who entered the area from the 1860s by granting them the right to cultivate vacant, insecure land. The African Lakes Company was formed in 1877 to cooperate with the missions established in central Africa by combating the slave trade, introducing legitimate trade and developing European influence there. Despite its benevolent aims, its local agents claimed to have made treaties or agreements with several chiefs, although there was little documentation for its large claims. Some of these treaties claimed to a transfer of sovereignty to the company, which may have had the ambition to become a Chartered company.〔B. Pachai, (1978). "Land and Politics in Malawi 1875-1975", pp. 36, 151-7.〕 Three others individuals claimed to have purchased large areas of land. Eugene Sharrer claimed to have acquired 363,034 acres, and he had attempted to induce chiefs to give up their sovereign rights: he also possibly intended to form his own Chartered company. Alexander Low Bruce, the son-in-law of David Livingstone and a director of the African Lakes Company, claimed 176,000 acres, and John Buchanan and his brothers claimed a further 167,823 acres. These lands were purchased for trivial quantities of goods under agreements signed by chiefs with no understanding of English concepts of land tenure.〔J McCraken, (2012). "A History of Malawi", 1859-1966, pp. 77-8.〕〔Sir Harry Johnston, (1897). "British Central Africa", p. 85.〕
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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