210 THE EEGULATION OF NUMBEES 



limits of the properties are very well defined and well known 

 among the Ababua ; cultivation renders the title good.^ The 

 Baganda ' lived in their gardens or plantations. These gardens 

 were often joined one to the other, and a number of people lived 

 in a community, often forming four or five miles of continuous 

 garden with famihes living each on their own plot.' ^ Even the 

 fallow land among the Akikuyu was ' all in private ownership ', 

 and could not be brought into cultivation without the owner's 

 consent.^ In British Central Africa a man making a garden is 

 • perfectly free to choose so long as the ground is not in cultiva- 

 tion, or has not been bespoken by some one else ; and, once 

 marked, no one can interfere with it '.* Of the same region we 

 are told that ' these negroes have clear ideas of property. The 

 waste land is usually considered to belong to the chief, but planta- 

 tions and enclosures belong personally to the individual who 

 originally made them. . . . Natives have clear ideas of large or 

 small estates, or of their kingdom ; and in the case of the former 

 they are marked by the planting of certain trees of thick growth, 

 while of course streams and mountains are recognized as boun- 

 daries and natural hmits of territories.' ^ Of the Thonga tribe 

 in Portuguese East Africa we hear that ' each man has his own 

 field which he tills '.^ Speaking of the Bantu races south of the 

 Zambezi, Theal says that ' the chief apportioned to each head of 

 a family sufficient ground for a garden according to his needs, 

 and it remained in that individual's possession as long as it was 

 cultivated '.' So Conder says of Bechuanaland, ' the land belongs 

 to the chief. He divides it among his head men and they in turn 

 among their people. There is no division of grazing land. The 

 mealie fields are practically the property of the cultivator so long 

 as they are tilled. I found each patch to belong to an individual, 

 and to be divided generally by untilled land from the next patch.' ^ 

 Among the Ovaherero the whole land is common property, but 

 the rights of tribes and also of individuals to particular spots are 

 recognized so long as they are occupied. Whoever first appro- 

 priates a spring and the surrounding pastures can maintain his 

 right. ^ 



' Halkin, loc. cit., p. 493. ^ Roscoe, Baganda, p. 15. ' Routledge, 



Prehistoric People, p. 39. "' Wemer, loc. cit., p. 179. ^ Johnston, 



British Central Africa, p. 471. « Junod, South African Tribe, vol. i, p. 307. 



' Theal, Yellow- and Dark-Skinned People, p. 230. * Conder, J. A. I., vol. xvi, 



p. 86. * Hahn, Z. G. E., vol. iii, p. 255. For Madagascar, where conditions 



are much the same, see Parker, J. A. I., vol. xii. 



