Divergent paths: Customary land tenure changes in Greater Gaborone, Botswana

•The paper explores evolution of land rights in two peri urban areas of Gaborone, Botswana.•Population growth does not always spur land tenure changes.•Political, legal and socio-economic changes drive tenure changes.•Land shortages and insecurity constrain tenure changes.

The primary objective of this paper is to discuss and account for the divergent paths followed by the evolution of land and property rights in two peri-urban settlements abutting the city of Gaborone, Botswana. It appears land tenure changes in both settlements have neither been driven by population growth nor conformed to trajectories predicted by the Evolutionary Theory of Land Rights. Both villages have rejected preference for individual land ownership in the face of increasing land demand spurred by rapid population growth and land shortages in Gaborone. While Mogoditshane has been characterized by ‘illegal’ and seemingly chaotic land transactions and developments, Tlokweng has, until recently, resisted such practices. Tlokweng communities have, instead, adapted several strategies to restrain alienation of land to outsiders and collectively supported persistence of the commons. Based on studies undertaken by the author in the two villages between 2004 and 2010, the paper attributes the divergent paths to cross-cutting factors including differing levels of land tenure insecurity, geopolitical contexts and urbanization as well as state laws and policies.