Zanzibar Property Confiscations
Consolidated Data on Confiscation and Revocation Orders
Created by Sandra F. Joireman of the University of Richmond and Julia Verne of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, this dataset consolidates published confiscation and revocation orders appearing in the Zanzibar Gazettes between 1964 and 1987. It records the individuals named in the orders and the properties affected, providing a systematic source for examining property confiscation following the 1964 Zanzibar Revolution. The orders were issued under Presidential Decree No. 8 of 1964, the Confiscation of Immovable Properties Decree. The dataset supports historical, legal, and comparative research on property rights, revolutionary redistribution, land governance, postcolonial state formation, and the long-term consequences of state property confiscation.
Access the dataset: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/SFIA3W
Confiscation Orders
Created by Sandra F. Joireman of the University of Richmond and Julia Verne of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, this digital archive contains PDFs of public confiscation orders associated with property takings during and after the 1964 Zanzibar Revolution. The orders were issued under Presidential Decree No. 8 of 1964, the Confiscation of Immovable Properties Decree. The archive preserves the original published documents underlying the companion consolidated dataset, allowing researchers and other individuals to consult the source materials directly and examine the language and implementation of individual confiscation orders. Together, the PDF archive and consolidated data provide primary-source and structured-data resources for research on property confiscation, land governance, revolutionary change, and the legal history of Zanzibar.
Access the archive: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/B24IGH
Research using these datasets
Sandra F. Joireman and Julia Verne, “Property Confiscation in the Zanzibar Revolution,” African Affairs, Volume 124, Issue 496, July 2025, Pages 235–260, https://doi.org/10.1093/afraf/adaf022.
Verne, Julia, and Sandra Joireman. “Enteignungen und Flucht, Besitz und Belonging? 60 Jahre nach der Revolution in Sansibar.” In Geographien der Gewalt: Konfliktgeographien. Aktuelle Brennpunkte und didaktische Impulse, edited by Volker Wilhelmi, Elmar Theveßen, and Florian Pfeil. Mainzer Kontaktstudium Geographie, Band 24. Mainz: Geographisches Institut, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, 2025.
Kenyan Settlement Schemes
This is an approximately 70 page booklet that presents maps and some descriptive statistics pertaining to all Kenyan settlement schemes since 1962 for which we were able to obtain Survey of Kenya maps. This document is to be used for scholarly purposes only (ie., not for commercial or legal purposes). The data and maps have been prepared for the purposes of academic and policy research. All boundaries are approximate; they are indicative only and are not intended to have legal standing or be used for official purposes. Users outside the NLC should cite this work as Lukalo, Boone, Browne, and Joireman, “Kenya Settlement Schemes Data Project,” London, Nairobi, and Richmond: NCL, LSE, and UoR, 2019. (2021-03-08)
Access the data Mapping Settlement Schemes in Kenya.
Research using this dataset
Catherine Boone, Fibian Lukalo, Sandra F. Joireman, Promised Land: Settlement Schemes in Kenya, 1962 to 2016, Political Geography, Volume 89, 2021.
Ethiopian Pre-revolutionary Court Records
High Court, Ethiopia
This collection contains archival records from the Shoa High Court in Ethiopia and was assembled to support research on land tenure, judicial practice, and the policies and intentions of the Ethiopian imperial government. The collection includes a systematic sample of High Court cases from 1947, 1957, 1967, and 1974, comprising 412 cases and, for many of them, a detailed summary of the dispute. Researchers should note that the court’s jurisdiction changed in 1967 from serving as an appellate court for the country as a whole to serving Shoa alone, which affects comparability across the sampled years. The collection nevertheless provides an unusual record of property disputes, court activity, and legal and institutional change during the final decades of imperial rule in Ethiopia.
Access the dataset: https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR37819.v1
Awraja Courts, Ethiopia and Eritrea
This dataset contains archival records from three awraja, or sub-provincial, courts in Ethiopia and Eritrea during the final decades of Ethiopian imperial rule. The records were collected from Tegulet and Bulga in Shoa, Sidama in Sidamo, and Hamasien in Eritrea – areas selected because they represented three distinct systems of land tenure while remaining under the authority of the Ethiopian state. Individual court cases provide information about the geographic location and nature of disputes, as well as demographic characteristics of plaintiffs and defendants, including gender and ethnic group. The collection supports comparative research on land litigation, tenure systems, access to formal courts, and demands for institutional change before the 1974 revolution and the subsequent nationalization of land.
Access the dataset: https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR37817.v1
Research using these datasets
Joireman, Sandra Fullerton, “Property Rights and the Role of the State: Evidence from the Horn of Africa,” Journal of Development Studies, Vol. 38, No. 1, October 2001.
Joireman, Sandra Fullerton, Property Rights and Political Development in Ethiopia and Eritrea: the State and Land, 1941-1974, (Oxford: James Currey/ Athens: Ohio University Press), 2000.
Joireman, Sandra Fullerton, “Contracting for Land: Lessons from Litigation in a Communal Tenure Area of Ethiopia,” Canadian Journal of African Studies, Vol. 30(3) (February 1996).