Land leases in Sierra Leone : a survey of leases granted under the Protectorate Land Ordinance of 1927

The Protectorate Land Ordinance of 1927 was introduced to "simplify the law relating to the tenure of land by non-natives in the Protectorate". It was an attempt to regularize and unify existing practices, which in part were based on very old African customs around the so-called landlord-stranger relationship. Section 6 provides that if a tenancy created by a lease exceeds three years, a deed, i.e. an agreement under seal, has to be executed. Section 9 requires these deeds to be registered in Freetown. The Register of Land Leases consist of these deeds, or indentures. This report presents data extracted from this register which contains some 3000 documents. Introduction - Geographical distribution - Commercial leases - European commercial leases - Missionary leases - Concluding remarks. Seven appendices: Record form - Successive definitions of non-native - Leases by district, chiefdom and town - Commercial leases by town and year of commencement - African commercial tenants in 1930 - European commercial tenants - Missionary tenants