The Law of the Land

Principles of Land Law

The Land Laws of the Yoruba country are simple and effective, there being no need of any complicated or elaborate laws, as there is enough land for all the members of the various tribes. Whatever land for all the members of the various tribes. Whatever land is not effecively occupied is for the common benefit of all; no one need own any land which he cannot utilize, except farm land left fallow for a short period.

Theoretically and traditionally we have seen above that Yoruba land belongs to the Alafin of Oyo as the supreme head of the race. “The land belongs to the King” has passed into a proverb. But it must be understood, that it is not meant that the land is the private property of the King, it is only his as representing the race, in other words, Yoruba land belongs to the Yoruba people and to the no other, hence as the Yorubas are split into so many tribes, the head of each tribe, and even he has no power to alienate it permantely of his own accord to an alien. All lands, therefore, including forests and the plain are owned by some tribe or other, and no one belonging to another race or another tribe can make use of the land without the permission of the King and chiefs who hold the land for their tribe. Members of the tribe have no difficulty at present in obtainings as much land as each requires for agricultural purposes in which every one is supposed to be engaged; with the increase of population however , it is felt that some difficulties will arise in future, but the chiefs can cope with such cases.

Lands are never sold, but may be granted to outsiders for life, and to their heirs in perpetuity; but where the land so granted had been under cultivation, it is understood in every case that the fruit bearing trees, especially the palm trees, and kola-nut trees, etc., on the land are not included in the grant; hence the common expression “The grantee is to look down not up,” i.e. he is to confine his attention to plants he has cultivated and not on fruit-bearing trees he met on the spot.

Land once given is never taken back except under special circumstances as treason to the State which renders the grantee an outlaw, and he is driven altogether from that State or tribe, and his land confiscated. Even when left unutilized, if there are marks of occupation on it, such as trees planted, or a wall built, etc., it cannot be taken back without the consent of the owner.

There is no subject in which the Yoruba man is more sensitive than in that of land. This normally quiet and submissive people of their land forms one of the main conditions of their admitting an European officer among them by the Ibadans at the beginning of the British Protectorate.

The forests are under the direct guardianship of the hunters who form among themselves a fraternity recognized all over the land, subject of course to the town authorities. Any laws, rules, or regulations relating to forests that are to be made, must recognize the rights, privileges and services of the hunters, especially, as it is by them effect can be given to those laws. It is their duty to apprize the chiefs of any town, of any spies, expeditions, or raids that have that town or its farms for their objective. Crimes commited in the forest must be traced, and the authors tracked and unearthed by them. Any animal bearing traces or marks of their bullets or arrow-wounds must be restored to them. All information relating to forests must be given by the hunters to the chiefs of the town.

The forests are free to every member of the tribe for procuring building materials, medicinal herbs, firewood, etc.

Inheritance. --- When a man die, his farms are inherited by his children, and so from father to son in perpetuity, and, like the house are not subject to sale. If this children are females, they will pass on to the males relatives, unless the daughters are capable of seeing the farm kept up for their males relatives until the boys are of age to take up the keep of the farms.

No portion of such farms can be alienated from the family without the unanimous consent of all the members thereof.

These are the simple, fundamental and universal laws applicable to all the tribes in general, but subject to modifications and development according to the local exigencies of each place. These exigencies may be due to the proximity of large populations, and consequently higher value of land, the nature of the land, whether forests with economic plants in them or pasture land, and the locality whether near the coast where foreign intercourse affects local habits, or far inland where the tribes remain in their simplicity. But in every case the ruling of the local chiefs, and their councillors must necessarily be the law for that tribe since the fundamental laws are not-violated.

None but citizens born or naturalized can own land permanently in this country. Land granted to foreigners for a specific purpose reverts to the owner or the State on the grantee leaving the country. These are the general laws, to be observed rather in the spirit that in the letter.