Janine Ubink

In the land of the chiefs : customary law, land conflicts, and the role of the state in Peri-Urban Ghana

The central themes of this book are customary law, traditional leadership and local land management. International policy is currently witnessing a renewed interest in customary tenure systems and traditional leadership, through which it aims to enhance the efficiency of local governance, and create general access to and secure rights in land. Contrary to these ideas, practice reveals a lack of security of customary tenure in many areas. Mounting evidence displays that customary systems often evolve inequitably and that traditional elites benefit disproportionally from commodification of land. In an effort to understand customary land management by traditional authorities, and the role policymakers, lawmakers, judges and civil servants play in this process, this book studies practices of land management in peri-urban Kumasi. It combines local case studies with theories about efficient land management, the resilience of traditional leadership, the negotiability of customary law and the gap between judges’ customary law and local practices. Doing so, it offers a unique body of empirical and theoretical knowledge for those interested in customary land management, as well as those interested in how customary law functions both at the local level and at the level of the state, in interaction with judges, lawmakers, policymakers, and civil servants.

Traditional Authorities in Africa. Resurgence in an Era of Democratisation

Traditional authority is a distinguishing feature in the landscape of contemporary Africa. In many African countries, traditional leadership remains important in organising the life of the people at the local level despite modern state structures. Traditional leaders deliver essential services that African states do not always succeed in delivering; they act as intermediaries between the government and the local population; and they are often a political force to reckon with, wielding enormous electoral and general influence in their own communities due to their control over resources and people

Traditional Authority Revisited: Popular Perceptions of Chiefs and Chieftaincy in Peri-Urban Kumasi, Ghana

Abstract In Ghana a large proportion of the land is vested in ‘stools’ (customary communities). The current Constitution recognises the traditional authorities as custodians of this land, and customary law as the regulating order. In the Ashanti Region it is the chiefs who are caretakers of the customary lands. Peri-urban areas, such as peri-urban Kumasi, are arenas of severe struggles over land between chiefs, local government and community members and families. These actors are all trying to manage the rising demand for residential land, attempting either to profit from conversions of agricultural to residential land or to resist the demand and hold on to their farmland. Chiefs are often the main beneficiaries of land conversions, although they are customarily and constitutionally obliged to administer land in the interest of the whole community. This paper reports on research into the little-studied question of popular perceptions of chiefs and chiefly rule. It finds that in the study area there is support for chieftaincy, but that this is not based on high satisfaction with the way chiefs perform their tasks. The reasons are rather found in common perceptions that chieftaincy is essential to the culture and to the identity of the communities. People can simultaneously support the institution of chieftaincy and be highly critical of the performance of certain chiefs or certain tasks.

Tenure security: wishful policy thinking or reality? A case from peri-urban Ghana

Many areas in Africa facing land shortage and competition witness increasingly restricted and insecure access to land for the poor majority. Mounting evidence of reduced tenure security shows that customary systems are often unable to evolve equitably. In contrast with this crisis in customary land administration, current international land policy is witnessing renewed interest in customary tenure systems. Ghanas current land policy resonates with this international trend. This article focuses on peri-urban Kumasi, Ghana, to acquire an insight into struggles and negotiations over customary land tenure in a rapidly urbanizing area. It then tries to explain why policymakers, in Ghana and in general, do not yet seem to have reflected the crisis in customary land management in their policies. The article concludes with some recommendations as to how policymakers could respond.