In this chapter, we analyse land reform policies in post-colonial African countries. To improve the livelihoods of rural populations and overcome the political influence of agrarian elites, land reform was considered rural social policy par excellence among socialist intellectuals and elites. After decolonisation and national independence, land reform was on the agenda among socialist-leaning elites, parties, and unions in Africa, who promoted rural social reform as a necessary tool in accomplishing political equality and rural development. However, the potential of land reform in African countries turned out to be limited given the lack of government capacities in reorganising the peasantry, the complex challenges of promoting both agricultural productivity and rural equality, and the short time frames in which the land reforms could be properly implemented. Finally, governments could not solve the problem that more generous land redistributions and collective farming approaches would have needed a much more intrusive and despotic state to incentivise and discipline the peasantry. We trace these aspirations and challenges in a comparative analysis of post-colonial Tunisia, Zambia, and Mozambique between the 1950s and the 1970s, before socialist land reform was eventually given up in favour of more liberal agricultural policy approaches.