Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T05:48:06.283Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Politics of Land and Urban Space in Colonial Accra

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 May 2014

Naaborko Sackeyfio
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

This article connects the colonial land ordinances and laws of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century with the changing meanings of property, to show both their impact, and how these developments resonated for the Ga-inhabitants of Accra and the Gold Coast Colony. The laws and African responses to them illustrate the ways in which property took on new meaning for a variety of groups. It also presents the framework for understanding why litigation, and the production of land claims became a central feature of land affairs in Accra with the continued development of the town. This analysis contributes to the existing literature on property rights in colonial Gold Coast by carefully considering the intricacies and nuances of land disputes in the colonial capital, and their intersection with larger transformations in land affairs.

Type
Urban Issues
Information
History in Africa , Volume 39 , 2012 , pp. 293 - 329
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Acquah, Ioné, Accra Survey: A Social Survey of the Capital of Ghana, Formerly Called the Gold Coast, Undertaken for the West African Institute of Social and Economic Research, 1953-1956 (London, University of London Press, 1958).Google Scholar
Agbodeka, Francis, African Politics and British Policy in the Gold Coast, 1868-1900: A Study in the Forms and Force of Protest (Evanston, Northwestern University Press, 1971).Google Scholar
Agbosu, Lennox K., “Land Registration in Ghana: Past, Present, and the Future,” Journal of African Law 34–2 (1990), 104–127.Google Scholar
Amanor, Kojo, “Family Values, Land Sales and Agricultural Commodification in South-Eastern Ghana,” Africa 80–1 (2010), 104–125.Google Scholar
Appadurai, Arjun, “Introduction: commodities and the politics of value,” in: Appadurai, Arjun (ed.), The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1986), 3–63.Google Scholar
Asante, Samuel K.B., Property Law and Social Goals in Ghana, 1844-1966 (Accra, Ghana Universities Press, 1975).Google Scholar
Barber, Karin, “Introduction: Hidden Innovators in Africa,” in: Barber, Karin (ed.), Africa's Hidden Histories. Everyday Literacy and Making the Self (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2006), 1–24.
Barnes, Sandra T., Patrons and Power: Creating a Political Community in Metropolitan Lagos (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1986).Google Scholar
Belfield, Henry Conway, “Report on the Legislation Governing the Alienation of Native Lands in the Gold Coast Colony and Ashanti, 1912,” in: Metcalfe, George E. (ed.), Great Britain and Ghana; Documents of Ghana History, 1807-1957 (London, Nelson, on behalf of the University of Ghana, 1964), 536–540.Google Scholar
Bentsi-Enchill, Kwamena, “Do African Systems of Land Tenure Require a Special Terminology?,” Journal of African Law 9–2 (1965), 114–139.Google Scholar
Berry, Sara, “Hegemony on a Shoestring: Indirect Rule and Access to Agricultural Land,” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 62–3 (1992), 327–355.Google Scholar
Brand, Richard, “A Geographical Interpretation of the European Influence on Accra, Ghana since 1877,” PhD thesis, Columbia University (New York, 1971).Google Scholar
Chanock, Martin, Law, Custom, and Social Order, The Colonial Experience in Malawi and Zambia (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1985).Google Scholar
Chanock, Martin, “Paradigms, Policies, and Property: A Review of Customary Law of Land Tenure,” in: Mann, Kristin and Roberts, Richard (eds.), Law in Colonial Africa (Portsmouth, Heinemann, 1991), 61–84.Google Scholar
Chanock, Martin, “A Peculiar Sharpness: An Essay on Property in the History of Customary Law in Colonial Africa,” Journal of African History 32–1 (1991), 65–88.Google Scholar
Cole, Patrick, Modern and Traditional Elites in the Politics of Lagos (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1975).Google Scholar
Downs, Richard E., and Reyna, Stephen P. (eds.), Land and Society in Contemporary Africa (Hanover NH, University Press of New England, 1988).Google Scholar
Eckert, Andreas, “Missions, Land Politics, and Real Estate in Colonial Douala,” in: Debusmann, Robert and Arnold, Stefan (eds.), Land Law and Land Ownership in Africa: Case Studies from Colonial and Contemporary Cameroon and Tanzania (Bayreuth, Eckhard Breitinger, 1996), 187–202.Google Scholar
Elias, Taslim O., Nigerian Land Law and Custom (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1953 [second edition]).Google Scholar
Fallers, Lloyd A., “The Politics of Landholding in Busoga,” Economic Development and Cultural Changed 3–3 (1955), 260–270.Google Scholar
Field, Margaret J., Religion and Medicine of the Gã People (London, Oxford University Press, 1937).Google Scholar
Field, Margaret J., Social Organization of the Gã People (London, Oxford Univeristy Press, 1940)Google Scholar
Firmin-Sellers, Kathryn, The Transformation of Property Rights in the Gold Coast: An Empirical Analysis Applying Rational Choice Theory (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1996).Google Scholar
Gadzekpo, Audrey, “Public but Private: A Transformational Reading of the Memoirs and Newspaper Writings of Mercy Ffoulkes-Crabbe,” in: Barber, Karin (ed.), Africa's Hidden Histories. Everyday Literacy and Making the Self (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2006), 314–337.
Gluckman, Max, The Ideas in Barotse Jurisprudence (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1972).Google Scholar
Hailey, William Malcolm, Native Administration in the British African Territories volume 3 (London, His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1950).Google Scholar
Hawkins, Sean, Writing and Colonialism in Northern Ghana: The Encounter between the Lodagaa and “The World on Paper” (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2002).Google Scholar
Hill, Polly, The Migrant Cocoa-Farmers of Southern Ghana: A Study in Rural Capitalism (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1963).Google Scholar
Ilegbune, Charles U., “Concessions Scramble and Land Alienation in British Southern Ghana, 1885-1915,” African Studies Review 19–3 (1976), 17–31.Google Scholar
Juul, Kristine, and Lund, Christian (eds.), Negotiating Property in Africa (Portsmouth, Heinemann, 2002).Google Scholar
Kimble, David, A Political History of Ghana: The Rise of Gold Coast Nationalism, 1850-1928 (Oxford, Clarendon, 1965).Google Scholar
Kropp-Dakubu, Mary E., Korle Meets the Sea: A Sociolinguistic History of Accra (London, Oxford University Press, 1997).Google Scholar
Kuba, Richard, and Lentz, Carola (eds.), Land Rights and the Politics of Belonging in West Africa (Leiden, Brill, 2006).Google Scholar
Lugard, Frederick, The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa (Hamden, Archon, 1965 [fifth edition]).Google Scholar
Mackenzie, Fiona, “Conflicting Claims to Custom: Land and Law in Central Province, Kenya, 1912-1952,” Journal of African Law 40–1 (1996), 62–77.Google Scholar
Mann, Kristin, “Interpreting Cases, Disentangling Disputes: Court Cases as a Source of Understanding Patron-Client Relationships in Early Colonial Lagos,” in: Falola, Toyin and Jennings, Christian (eds.), Sources and Methods in African History: Spoken, Written, Unearthed (Rochester, NY, University of Rochester Press, 2003), 195–218.Google Scholar
Mann, Kristin, Slavery and the Birth of an African City: Lagos, 1760-1900 (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2007).Google Scholar
Manoukian, Madeline, Akan and Ga-Adangme Peoples of the Gold Coast (London, Oxford University Press, 1950).Google Scholar
Meek, Charles K., Land Law and Custom in the Colonies (London, Oxford University Press, 1946).Google Scholar
Metcalfe, George E. (ed.), Great Britain and Ghana; Documents of Ghana History, 1807-1957 (London, Nelson, on behalf of the University of Ghana, 1964).Google Scholar
Newell, Stephanie, “Entering the Territory of the Elites: Literary Activity in Colonial Ghana,” in: Barber, Karin (ed.), Africa's Hidden Histories. Everyday Literacy and Making the Self (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2006), 211–235.
Ollennu, Nii Amaa, and Woodman, Gordon R. (eds.), Ollennu's Principles of Customary Land Law in Ghana (Birmingham, CAL, 1985 [second edition]).Google Scholar
Ormsby-Gore, William G.A., “Agricultural Policy: Comprehensive Survey by Ormsby-Gore, 1926,” in: Kay, Geoffrey and Hymer, Stephen (eds.), The Political Economy of Colonialism in Ghana: A Collection of Documents and Statistics, 1900-1960 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1972), 139–153.Google Scholar
Parker, John, Making the Town: Ga State and Society in Early Colonial Accra (Portsmouth, James Currey, 2000).Google Scholar
Pellow, Deborah, “The Power of Space in the Evolution of an Accra Zongo,” Ethnohistoty 38–4 (1991), 414–450.Google Scholar
Pellow, Deborah, Landlords and Lodgers: Socio-Spatial Organization in an Accra Community (Westport, Praeger, 2002).Google Scholar
Peters, Pauline E., “The Limits of Negotiability: Security, Equity, and Class Formation in Africa's Land Systems,” in: Juul, Kristin and Lund, Christian (eds.), Negotiating Properly in Africa (Portsmouth, Heinemann, 2002), 45–66.Google Scholar
Peterson, Derek R. and Macola, Giacomo, “Introduction: Homespun Historiography and the Academic Profession,” in: Peterson, Derek R. and Macola, Giacomo (eds.), Recasting The Past: History Writing and Political Work in Modern Africa (Athens, Ohio University Press, 2009), 1–30.Google Scholar
Phillips, Anne, The Enigma of Colonialism: British Policy in West Africa (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1989).Google Scholar
Pogucki, Roman J.H., Report on Land Tenure in Customary Law of the Non-Akan Areas of the Gold Coast Colony Part 11, Ga (Accra, Lands Department, 1954).Google Scholar
Pogucki, Roman J.H., Land Tenure in Ga Customary Law, Gold Coast Land Tenure 3 (Accra, Lands Department, 1955).Google Scholar
Quarcoopome, Samuel S., “Urbanization, Land Alienation, and Politics in Accra” Research Review 8–1&2 (1992), 40–54.Google Scholar
Quarcoopome, Samuel S., “The Decline of Traditional Authority: The Case of the Ga Mashie State of Accra,” in: Odotei, Irene and Awedoba, Albert K. (eds.), Chieftaincy in Ghana: Culture, Governance, and Development (Legon, Sub-Saharan, 2006), 395–408.Google Scholar
Rathbone, Richard, “Law, Politics, and Inference,” in: Peterson, Derek R. and Macola, Giacomo (eds.), Recasting The Past: History Writing and Political Work in Modern Africa (Athens, Ohio University Press, 2009), 113–124.Google Scholar
Rattray, Robert S., Ashanti Law and Constitution (Oxford, Clarendon, 1969).Google Scholar
Robertson, Claire C., Sharing the Same Bowl? A Socioeconomic History of Women and Class in Accra, Ghana (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1984).Google Scholar
Shipton, Parker, “Land and Culture in Tropical Africa: Soils, Symbols, and the Metaphysics of the Mundane,” Annual Review of Anthropology 23 (1994), 347–377.Google Scholar
Shipton, Parker, and Goheen, Mitzi, “Introduction: Understanding African Land-Holding: Power, Wealth, and Meaning,” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 62–3 (1992), 307–325.Google Scholar