The Politics of Custom
The Politics of Custom

Author: John L. Comaroff

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2018-03-08

Total Pages: 370

ISBN-13: 022651109X

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How are we to explain the resurgence of customary chiefs in contemporary Africa? Rather than disappearing with the tide of modernity, as many expected, indigenous sovereigns are instead a rising force, often wielding substantial power and legitimacy despite major changes in the workings of the global political economy in the post–Cold War era—changes in which they are themselves deeply implicated. This pathbreaking volume, edited by anthropologists John L. Comaroff and Jean Comaroff, explores the reasons behind the increasingly assertive politics of custom in many corners of Africa. Chiefs come in countless guises—from university professors through cosmopolitan businessmen to subsistence farmers–but, whatever else they do, they are a critical key to understanding the tenacious hold that “traditional” authority enjoys in the late modern world. Together the contributors explore this counterintuitive chapter in Africa’s history and, in so doing, place it within the broader world-making processes of the twenty-first century.

The Great African Land Grab?
The Great African Land Grab?

Author: Lorenzo Cotula

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2013-07-11

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 1780323115

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Over the past few years, large-scale land acquisitions in Africa have stoked controversy, making headlines in media reports across the world. Land that only a short time ago seemed of little outside interest is now being sought by international investors to the tune of hundreds of thousands of hectares. Private-sector expectations of higher world food and commodity prices and government concerns about longer-term national food and energy security have both made land a more attractive asset. Dubbed 'land grabs' in the media, large-scale land acquisitions have become one of the most talked about and contentious topics amongst those studying, working in or writing about Africa. Some commentators have welcomed this trend as a bearer of new livelihood opportunities. Others have countered by pointing to negative social impacts, including loss of local land rights, threats to local food security and the risk that large-scale investments may marginalize family farming. Lorenzo Cotula, a leading expert in the field, casts a critical eye over the most reliable evidence on this hotly contested topic, examining the implications of land deals in Africa both for its people and for world agriculture and food security.

Property and Political Order in Africa
Property and Political Order in Africa

Author: Catherine Boone

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2014-02-10

Total Pages: 439

ISBN-13: 1107729599

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In sub-Saharan Africa, property relationships around land and access to natural resources vary across localities, districts and farming regions. These differences produce patterned variations in relationships between individuals, communities and the state. This book captures these patterns in an analysis of structure and variation in rural land tenure regimes. In most farming areas, state authority is deeply embedded in land regimes, drawing farmers, ethnic insiders and outsiders, lineages, villages and communities into direct and indirect relationships with political authorities at different levels of the state apparatus. The analysis shows how property institutions - institutions that define political authority and hierarchy around land - shape dynamics of great interest to scholars of politics, including the dynamics of land-related competition and conflict, territorial conflict, patron-client relations, electoral cleavage and mobilization, ethnic politics, rural rebellion, and the localization and 'nationalization' of political competition.

Rural Development Planning in Africa
Rural Development Planning in Africa

Author: Meleckidzedeck Khayesi

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-11-12

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 1349952974

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This book applies a range of theories that focus on current concerns in rural Africa. The contributors lay out the conceptualization, analysis, methods, assumptions, perceptions, and ideas considered in each individual case. Specifically, this project inspires research in the field of rural development in Africa through multi-faceted endeavors that promote the ability of planning to uplift people’s well-being and quality of life.

Institutional interaction in environmental governance
Institutional interaction in environmental governance

Author: Peter Narh

Publisher: Cuvillier Verlag

Published: 2015-06-08

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 3736948328

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In this work, the attempt is made to explore and understand the interaction between different institutions in environmental governance, and the role of human livelihood strategies in this interaction. With a case study of teak farming and sand winning in the Dormaa Municipality and Dormaa East district in midwestern Ghana, the work seeks to contribute to understanding the dynamics and role of institutions and human behaviour relationship in environmental governance. The study has been formulated and conducted following some observations of interaction between statutory and customary institutions in regulating human activities on the natural environment in Dormaa. Prior to this study, observations of this author in some communities in the Dormaa Municipality and Dormaa East district showed that statutory and customary environmental governance institutions influenced each other to shape the ways different people acted on the natural environment. Moreover, it was observed that the actions of people in turn influenced how these institutions functioned and affected each other.

Rural-Urban Dynamics
Rural-Urban Dynamics

Author: Jytte Agergaard

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2009-09-11

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13: 1135256985

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It has increasingly been recognised that rural and urban areas are inextricably interlinked. This book adopts a fresh approach to the issue of rural-urban dynamics through a study of the changing nature of livelihoods, mobility and markets in ten study sites across four countries of Africa and Asia. Building on detailed fieldwork conducted in Ghana, Tanzania, Vietnam and Thailand, the authors explore how settlements and livelihoods are being transformed as long-term inhabitants and recent migrants embrace new economic activities many of which are linked to global markets. The book is structured around the concept of ‘frontier’ which is conceptualized as being a dynamic space where the forces of economic, demographic and social change are brought to bear. The study sites include agricultural frontiers (coffee, cocoa, pineapples and fresh fruit), handicraft and manufacturing frontiers, and mining frontiers (gold and diamonds). In all of the cases, global value chain dynamics have played a pivotal role in shaping local livelihoods. Some settlements are developing into new urban centres whilst others are suffering from a boom and bust experience due to the unreliability of export markets. The similarities and differences between the frontier settlements are drawn out by comparing frontiers of similar types and by highlighting the theoretical and policy implications of the findings from all the frontier types. The originality of the book lies in its combination of conceptual clarity, methodological coherence and empirical richness. By combining detailed empirical findings with theoretical insight from debates on livelihoods, global value chains, mobility patterns, settlement dynamics and rural-urban relations, the book sheds new light on these issues within an overall framework of development trajectories in Africa and Asia. Given scholars’ and international agencies’ current interest in the spatial dimensions of economic development, this contribution is particularly timely with its fresh geographical approach to development issues; this book is a pertinent and authoritative read for anyone researching or learning in the field of development.

Smallholders and land tenure in Ghana
Smallholders and land tenure in Ghana

Author: Lambrecht, Isabel

Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst

Published: 2015-12-18

Total Pages: 36

ISBN-13:

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For decades, policymakers and development practitioners have debated benefits and threats of property rights formalization and private versus customary tenure systems. This paper provides insights into the challenges in understanding and empirically analyzing the relationship between tenure systems and agricultural investment, and formulates policy advice that can support land tenure interventions. We focus on Ghana, based on extensive qualitative fieldwork and a review of empirical research and policy documents. Comparing research findings is challenging due to the use of different indicators, the varying contexts, and the diversity of investments. The interaction between land rights and investment make establishing causality extremely difficult. Setting policy priorities and strategies requires more and better insights into the diverse responses of different stakeholders and the tenure and cropping systems involved.