"This Situation Is Incongruous in the Extreme": The History of Land Policies in the Upper Regions of Ghana

TY - CHAP

T1 - "This Situation Is Incongruous in the Extreme"

T2 - The History of Land Policies in the Upper Regions of Ghana

AU - Lund, Christian

PY - 2018/1/1

Y1 - 2018/1/1

N2 - This chapter examines the period of colonial rule in Northern Ghana and investigates how at various stages local administrators in their pragmatic efforts to deal with a number of dilemmas in effect made dramatic decisions on the land tenure system. Having explored the motivations for, and the challenges of, the colonial government’s land policies in Northern Territories, it argues that the first rationale was for the colonial government to take total control over land. The chapter contends that the total control was in tandem with the direct rule until 1932 and that it was also to direct development in Northern Territories for the eventual integration with Gold Coast economy and Ashanti Colony. Anchored on this motivation, it discovers that the colonial government believed it could guarantee the protection and security of land for all ʼnatives.' To expound the second rationale, the chapter ties this with the Lugardian notion of “natural evolution” of the customary land tenure that was destined to catch up with political development of transforming the native governance. In addition, the chapter exposes the contradiction that found expression in policy instability and/or ambiguity in that the ordinances that spoke to the British intention differed from the treaties the chiefs signed with the British. The chapter, while pointing out how the two motivations appear to have been harmonized in the centralized nations of Northern Territories with the emergence of the Indirect Rule, demonstrated that the impact of this harmonization was the subjugation of the earthpriests’ authority to almost irrelevance.

AB - This chapter examines the period of colonial rule in Northern Ghana and investigates how at various stages local administrators in their pragmatic efforts to deal with a number of dilemmas in effect made dramatic decisions on the land tenure system. Having explored the motivations for, and the challenges of, the colonial government’s land policies in Northern Territories, it argues that the first rationale was for the colonial government to take total control over land. The chapter contends that the total control was in tandem with the direct rule until 1932 and that it was also to direct development in Northern Territories for the eventual integration with Gold Coast economy and Ashanti Colony. Anchored on this motivation, it discovers that the colonial government believed it could guarantee the protection and security of land for all ʼnatives.' To expound the second rationale, the chapter ties this with the Lugardian notion of “natural evolution” of the customary land tenure that was destined to catch up with political development of transforming the native governance. In addition, the chapter exposes the contradiction that found expression in policy instability and/or ambiguity in that the ordinances that spoke to the British intention differed from the treaties the chiefs signed with the British. The chapter, while pointing out how the two motivations appear to have been harmonized in the centralized nations of Northern Territories with the emergence of the Indirect Rule, demonstrated that the impact of this harmonization was the subjugation of the earthpriests’ authority to almost irrelevance.

M3 - Book chapter

SN - 978-1-53613-408-7

T3 - African political, economic, and security issues

SP - 183

EP - 208

BT - Critical Notes on Northern Ghana’s Development

A2 - Bolaji, M. H. A.

A2 - Apusigah, A. A.

PB - Nova Science Publishers

ER -