The Enigma of Access

I conducted about 17 months of field research for this book in Botswana, Ghana, and Kenya between 2002 and 2005. I undertook archival research, participant observation, semistructured interviews, and many informal discussions with state officials, land users, land market racketeers, NGOs involved in land issues, etc. Given the sensitive nature of the subject matter that I was researching, I was always concerned about whether people would be willing to talk to me and whether they would try to mislead me. I quickly learned that, while some were unwilling to talk, many were very eager to. I also discovered quickly that learning the “truth,” if anything like that does exist, would require clever investigative work.

Some government officials in Ghana simply refused to talk. A landguard in Ghana asked me to bring USD 100 and a bottle of schnapps to appease the god he had erected in his backyard if I wanted an interview. He could only speak with the permission of the god, who had to be appeased before it would consent! Given the even more sensitive nature of land issues in Kenya, I expected only limited fruits on my way there.

My contact person in Kenya, who had worked with many other researchers, confirmed that getting a permit from the Ministry of Education to study land issues normally took weeks if one was fortunate. His view was that, in Kenya, state officials had a lot to hide when it came to land issues.