Local Politics and the Dynamics of Property in Africa (review)

BOOK REVIEW Local Politics and the Dynamics of Property in Africa by Christian Lund Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008, $85.99, 224 pp. Many government policy makers, donor agencies, and analysts are seeking straightforward ways to clarify and strengthen property rights over land, particularly in Africa. They won’t find the answers in this volume. Instead, they will find a nuanced presentation of the underlying complexity and dynamics of property rights, and why simplistic policies or mechanistic treatments of property rights are unlikely to produce their anticipated results. Christian Lund’s study of land policies and conflicts in the Upper East region of Ghana begins with a theoretical introduction that bears careful reading and rereading . The analysis begins by laying out the continuity between ‘‘state’’ and ‘‘society,’’ with a range of institutions claiming public authority, especially at the local level. Land rights are then examined as a particularly important context for negotiation over not only the land itself, but authority over the land. This provides insights into the particularities of land in Africa, including the strong ties between land and social identity, and that land tenure is generally less exclusive, with multiple interests in property recognized as legitimate. Subsequent chapters present the history of land policies in the Upper East region of Ghana in the colonial era, through independence and the 1979 Constitution, and then delve into a series of ‘‘microhistories’’ of debates and conflicts. Many of the cases deal with areas of rising land values that bring out conflicts, including cases of urbanization, forestry, and irrigation, as well as analysis of a violent ethnopolitical conflict. Rather than the sense of inevitability that many histories convey, Lund stresses the tensions, struggles, and responses of different actors, including what they appeal to in their efforts to translate their claims into rights. These illustrate the broader principle that ‘‘laws, regulations, and policies do not determine access and use of resources as such, but erect a structure of opportunities for negotiation of these rights’’ (p. 155). Throughout the volume, the focus is on individual agency—the role of individuals’ actions in shaping and reshaping institutions . It is not only that institutions (rules) condition behavior, but that ‘‘behavior and rules also validate and recognize institutions ’’ (p. 174). The negotiations and actions of different actors are not portrayed as a simple interplay among government, customary authorities, and land users. There are different types and levels of ‘‘government’’ authorities, and different political parties vying for the right to be in ‘‘government’’ at any level. Within the customary institutions , there are different roles and interests between the chiefs and the earthpriests. Further, there can be conflicts between authorities and different categories of land users, both those with ancestral claims and ‘‘strangers.’’ The case studies provide clear illustrations of the legal pluralism concepts of ‘‘forum shopping’’ (in which disputants appeal to different institutions based on which they know and expect will provide Land Economics N November 2010 N 86 (4): 840–842 ISSN 0023-7639; E-ISSN 1543-8325 E 2010 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System support for their claims). But there are also ‘‘shopping forums’’—authorities that may intervene in particular disputes in order to assert their power and strengthen their recognition. In each case, it is interesting to see what symbols are invoked, along with what bases for claims and institutions that the contestants appeal to. In the case of ethnopolitical dispute of a chieftaincy, flags and rubber stamps, symbols of the government , played a key role along with the skin, stool, and staff—customary regalia and symbols. Lund provides a great deal of detail on the cases, but manages to connect these up to larger principles. History plays a key role in the volume. Lund analyzes the lasting imprint of different policies on land in the colonial era, as well as since independence—a vacillation between the government trying to control land directly versus indirect rule or greater local control. But history is more than context: it is used by rival claimants for resources and power, although with different interpretations of the past. Earthpriests appeal to history as continuous tradition; chiefs refer to history as key events. Within...