Living in communication allows other's stories or life experience to become one's own. Sharing of life experiences affirms people and prepares them for understanding each other. To understand is to be open to the life experiences of others, to be influenced by the world of others, and this is fundamental in living together as a community. Tenure Pre-Westernized systems of land tenure in Central African forests illustrate well how Central African communalism plays itself out on the land. Unlike our Western emphasis on individual ownership and on seeing land as a commodity, under Central African tenure systems, the goals, aspirations, and property of the individual and those of the community exist hand in hand within a total system in which the two ideals are held in some degree of balance.
Land is neither private property, nor is it communally owned and worked in a socialist sense.
Rather, land in most cases is held in communal trust, it belongs to the group, to all members of the community, extending usually at least to the level of the clan. In general, such a communal arrangement means that no one who wants and needs land goes without. However, within such forms of common property ownership, each individual at the same time has their own piece of land that truly 'belongs' to them. One's rights to that land are to be respected by other members of the community and one is prohibited from crossing the boundary into another person's land or fishing area without their permission. At the same time, the community keeps individualism from getting out of hand by preserving a communal sense and communal systems whereby the land belongs to everyone.