Colonialism and the Displacement of Indigenous Land Tenure Systems in Benue State

This study examines how British colonial land policies disrupted and displaced indigenous land tenure systems among the Tiv and other ethnic groups in Benue State, located in Nigeria's North Central geopolitical zone. Pre-colonial land tenure in the Benue Valley was governed by communal customary systems that regulated access, use, and inheritance of agricultural land through kinship and community councils. Drawing on a descriptive historical design, the study reviews colonial land ordinances, administrative reports, boundary commission records, and secondary literature published between 2019 and 2024. The Political Ecology Framework and Colonial Land Law Theory provide the conceptual anchors. Findings reveal that the Land and Native Rights Proclamation of 1910 and subsequent colonial land legislation effectively vested ownership of all land in the colonial Crown, extinguishing communal tenure rights and creating a dual tenure system that generated lasting confusion between statutory and customary land rights. The study traces how these colonial disruptions contributed to the Tiv-Fulani land conflicts that recur in Benue State, as colonial boundary demarcations left ambiguous land use rights that remain sources of violent dispute. Recommendations include comprehensive land tenure reform that formally recognises customary communal land rights. Keywords: colonial land tenure, Benue State, Tiv, indigenous land rights, farmer-herder conflict.