"Stool rights" and modern land law in Ghana: A geographical perspective on the transformation of tradition

Michael Hammer

Africa Spectrum, 1998, vol. 33, issue 3, 311-338

Abstract: The article presents a geographical approach to land related conflicts in the context of changing attitudes concerning "tradition" in Africa. An analysis of historical developments in southern Ghana and elements from a case study in western Accra are used to present conflicts that arise from the spatial superimposition of claims and land use by different actors on the scale levels of the state, the stools, local government and the neighbourhood itself. The geographical approach presented here focuses on the spatial interpretation of claims and the changing ways "tradition" is expounded and practised. The article concludes that a formerly established hypothesis concerning the correspondence of actors, their scale-level of action and spatial outcome of their action is not valid anymore. "Traditions", today, are used by all actors, independent of their original scale level of operation. "Tradition" is thus used as a quarry. The deconstruction of normative systems is, however, not the only effect. In the long run this process will lead to emerging pluralistic forms of such regulating systems. These have, today, not yet replaced the consensus which has broken down in the past.

Date: 1998
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