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Is Land Inalienable? Historical and Current Debates on Land Transfers in Northern Ghana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 May 2011

Carola Lentz
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Abstract

The article traces the history of debates on land transfers in northern Ghana and discusses the ways in which African and European views on land tenure influenced and instrumentalized each other. Using the case of Nandom in the Upper West Region, I analyse how an expansionist group of Dagara farmers gained access to and legitimized control over land previously held by a group of Sisala hunters and farmers claiming to be the ‘first-comers’ to the area. Both groups acknowledge that the Sisala eventually transferred land to the Dagara immigrants, symbolically effected by the transmission of an earth-shrine stone. However, the Sisala interpret this historical event in terms of a ‘gift’, invoking the language of kinship and continued dependency, while the Dagara construe it in terms of a ‘purchase’, implicating exchange, equality and autonomy. These different perspectives, as well as colonial officials' ideas that land ownership was ultimately vested in the ancestors of the first-comer lineage and therefore ‘inalienable’, have shaped early disputes about the Nandom earth shrine and Dagara property rights. Competing conceptions of pre-colonial African land tenure continue to provide powerful arguments in current land conflicts, and shrinking land reserves as well as the political implications of landed property, in the context of decentralization policies, have exacerbated the debate on the ‘inalienability’ of land.

L'article retrace l'historique des débats sur les transferts de terres dans le Nord du Ghana et traite de la manière dont les perspectives africaines et européennes sur la question foncière se sont mutuellement influencées et instrumentalisées. À partir du cas de Nandom dans l'Upper West Region, l'article analyse la manière dont un groupe expansionniste d'agriculteurs dagara a obtenu l'accès et la légitimité du contrôle de terres ayant appartenu à un groupe de chasseurs et d'agriculteurs sisala revendiquant leur statut de « premiers arrivants » dans la région. Les deux groupes reconnaissent le transfert des terres par les Sisala aux immigrants dagara, transfert symboliquement effectué par la transmission d'une pierre de sanctuaire en terre. En revanche, les Sisala interprètent cet événement historique en termes de « cadeau », invoquant le langage de parenté et la dépendance continue, tandis que les Dagara l'interprètent en termes d'« achat », impliquant l'échange, l'égalité et l'autonomie. Ces perspectives divergentes, ainsi que les idées des officiels coloniaux selon lesquelles la propriété foncière revenait essentiellement aux ancêtres des premiers arrivants et était donc « inaliénable », ont façonné les premiers désaccords portant sur le sanctuaire en terre de Nandom et les droits fonciers des Dagara. Les conceptions divergentes du foncier africain précolonial continuent de fournir des arguments puissants dans les conflits de terres actuels ; de plus, l'amenuisement des réserves de terres et les implications politiques de la propriété foncière, dans le contexte des politiques de décentralisation, ont exacerbé le débat sur l'« inaliénabilité » de la terre.

Type
Research Articles
Information
Africa , Volume 80 , Special Issue 1: Interpreting Land Markets in Africa , February 2010 , pp. 56 - 80
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2010

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