Local Politics and the Dynamics of Property in Africa - By Christian Lund (original) (raw)
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Introduction: Land Politics in Africa – Constituting Authority Over Territory, Property and Persons
Africa, 2013
Land issues are often not about land only. Rather, they invoke issues of property more broadly, implicating social and political relationships in the widest sense. Struggles over property may therefore be as much about the scope and structure of authority as about access to resources, with land claims being tightly wrapped in questions of authority, citizenship, and the politics of jurisdiction. This dynamic relationship between property and citizenship rights, on the one hand, and the authority to define and adjudicate these questions arewe believecentral to state formation (Boone , 2007 Lund 2008). 1 In a recent issue of this journal, land markets in Africa receive special attention. The editors, Colin and Woodhouse , give special emphasis to the multiple processes of commoditization of land and how they are embedded in different social relations. That particular issue focuses on how a great variety of transactions and market dynamics generate commodity characteristics in land. It adds much-needed African historical and contextual nuance to Polanyi's Great Transformation (1944) as Colin and Woodhouse defy any assumption of markets as singular or uniform or even that they somehow exist ex ante. They demonstrate how markets come about, are structured and are reproduced. In some ways, the present collection complements this focus on market dynamics. We want to investigate the relationships between property and citizenship and political institutions, and how each of these plays a role in constituting the others. This seems especially relevant in the light of the many efforts at land tenure reform that tend to assume the separate and settled existence of property, of citizenship, and of the state. Such compartmentalized understandings of land politics will, no doubt, miss the point. We consider none of these socio-political features as separate or pre-established 1 This article is the result of joint and co-equal authorship. Parts of our argument appear, for natural reasons, in various parts of our respective works, but we have tried to keep selfreferencing to a minimum. We wish to thank Pauline Peters for stimulating and insightful comments on an earlier draft.
‘Land politics in Africa. Constituting authority over territory, property, and persons.’
Africa
Land issues are often not about land only. Rather, they invoke issues of property more broadly, implicating social and political relationships in the widest sense. Struggles over property may therefore be as much about the scope and structure of authority as about access to resources, with land claims being tightly wrapped in questions of authority, citizenship, and the politics of jurisdiction. This dynamic relationship between property and citizenship rights, on the one hand, and the authority to define and adjudicate these questions arewe believecentral to state formation (Boone , 2007 Lund 2008). 1 In a recent issue of this journal, land markets in Africa receive special attention. The editors, Colin and Woodhouse , give special emphasis to the multiple processes of commoditization of land and how they are embedded in different social relations. That particular issue focuses on how a great variety of transactions and market dynamics generate commodity characteristics in land. It adds much-needed African historical and contextual nuance to Polanyi's Great Transformation (1944) as Colin and Woodhouse defy any assumption of markets as singular or uniform or even that they somehow exist ex ante. They demonstrate how markets come about, are structured and are reproduced. In some ways, the present collection complements this focus on market dynamics. We want to investigate the relationships between property and citizenship and political institutions, and how each of these plays a role in constituting the others. This seems especially relevant in the light of the many efforts at land tenure reform that tend to assume the separate and settled existence of property, of citizenship, and of the state. Such compartmentalized understandings of land politics will, no doubt, miss the point. We consider none of these socio-political features as separate or pre-established 1 This article is the result of joint and co-equal authorship. Parts of our argument appear, for natural reasons, in various parts of our respective works, but we have tried to keep selfreferencing to a minimum. We wish to thank Pauline Peters for stimulating and insightful comments on an earlier draft.
Land Regimes and the Structure of Politics: Patterns of Land-Related Conflict
Africa, 2013
The different contributions to this issue exhibit a great variety in the dynamics of the constitution of authority over territory, property and persons. The general literature into which these contributions feed confirms this variation, and this should make us quite cautious about simple explanations of dynamics, causalities and outcomes. I recognize that some highly informed analysts have argued that African land regimes differ so much and so intricately that each can be thought of as sui generisland rules 'only apply in the groups where they have developed' (Reyna and Downs 1988: 10-11). Nonetheless, there is much to be said for attempting to move toward broader theoretical generalizations about how land conflicts vary in form and political expression in Africa. Analysing property regimes, how they vary, and how they are changing may contribute to a better understanding of the structures and processes by which rural Africa is governed and incorporated into the modern state.
2015
This study focuses on the 100 year old land dispute between the two ethnic communities of Nkonya and Alavanyo in the Volta region of Ghana, who have lived together for over 300 years, and have engaged in intermarriages and other interactive social activities until the land dispute emerged and weakened the social relations between them. The disputed land, an area of 6,459.82 acres or 2,616.23 hectares is fertile for agrarian activities, rich in timber and alleged to have deposits of gold, clay and mercury. While on the surface the conflict is known to be a boundary dispute, in the real world, it is the 'raiding' of timber, court verdicts, ethnic politics, the reinventions of history, and the activities of 'elite' groups among other factors that constitute the major drivers of the dispute. In 1913, when the area was still under German control, a map was drawn by Hans Gruner, a German colonial carthographer, in the effort to settle the dispute but it did not. By 1920, the British took over the area and also tried to solve the dispute but again, they failed. So the Nkonya, who have always claimed to be owners of the land on the basis of their first comer status, took the matter to court in 1953. From 1953 till 1980, all court rulings (five) based on the Gruner map have gone in favour of the Nkonya, giving them a legal victory, but not a social victory, i.e. their ability to own and use the land. Today, the major issues that continue to drive the conflict are issues of court verdicts, ethnicity, land security, local and state politics, economic interest in commercial trees, autochthony and first comer narratives among other factors. It is however, the power and agency of traditional authorities, elite groups, and youth groups to instrumentalise and politicise these drivers that is largely responsible for the insolubility of the land dispute. This study critically examines why interventions by colonial officials, traditional authorities and Mediation Committees since the 1970s to date have failed. Also, the study seeks to find out why over the years, the alignment and realignment of the Alavanyo and the Nkonya to different state actors, political parties and their ethnic neighbours in the effort to have matters settled between them have remained unsuccessful. The study concludes that, given the failure of colonial officials, traditional efforts, legal verdicts and mediation committees to resolve the dispute, a broad-based process comprising of conflict resolution experts, the state and social scientists who should factor in the beliefs of the people about land, the role of chiefs, the elite, the youth, elders, women and other significant actors, offers a more sustaining trajectory for resolving the land dispute. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Bulsa of Northeastern Ghana have a saying that "when your hands are in front of you, your head does not hit a wall." In other words, one can succeed in any venture (business, farming, academic) when one is well supported by friends, family and so on. In this work, many people have served as my hands (in the form of material, academic and moral support) so that my head (this study) did not hit a wall or become a failure. I owe a lot of gratitude to many, even though I will only be able to mention a few here. First of all, I am thankful to the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) for giving me the opportunity and the financial support to pursue my doctoral studies. I am equally grateful to my siblings, the Arthur Waser Foundation, and many others for their financial and other forms of support. This work would not have been successful without the kind assistance of the chiefs and peoples of Nkonya and Alavanyo who provided me not only with information, but also gave me their friendship, generosity and love. I will forever remain thankful to them for their supportive hands. I am full of gratitude to Rev. Fr. Stanley Uroda, svd, for proofreading this work and for offering some valuable suggestions. The comments and suggestions of Prof. Dr.
Negotiated or Negated? The Rhetoric and Reality of Customary Tenure in an Ashanti Village in Ghana
Africa, 2008
Customary land tenure is seen as a field in which social and political relationships are diverse, overlapping and competing. Property regimes are, therefore, often analysed in terms of processes of negotiation, with people's social and political identities as central elements. This article studies the negotiability of customary tenure in peri-urban Ghana where land is at the centre of intense and unequal competition and closely tied up with struggles over authority. It focuses on one village to provide a grassroots view of processes of contestation of customary rights to land. The analysis of how and to what extent local actors in this village deal with, negotiate and struggle for rights to land confirms that contestants for land never operate on a level playing field. Postulating the social inequalities of local communities, the article analyses whether it is useful to place all local land dealings under the term ‘negotiations’, or whether such a characterization stretches the ...
2016
Post-colonial Africa has witnessed intermittent and endemic upsurge in chieftaincy disputes, which obviously raises variety of security challenges, which are major setbacks to national development. However, any serious study or analyses of chieftaincy disputes in Africa must necessarily be situated within the context of the postcolonial political economy of most African states. Historically, before the advent of colonial rule, land in Africa had no much economic value, however, with the integration of Africa into the world capitalists system during the colonial period, land which was in most cases under the custodian of traditional rulers became a valuable commodity. Besides, the admixture of colonial and postcolonial native systems produced a cumulous of contradictions in the transfer of land and chieftaincy rights and this resulted in complex and sensitive disputes, sometimes capable of paralysing national security. What are the problems associated with land tenure system and what...