Paper short abstract:

Chiefs are key players in Ghana’s land administration framework and thus in negotiating recently increasing land transactions. By comparing two cases of conflicts over land, I highlight how the actions of traditional authorities impact the emergence and dynamics of related conflicts.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper, I analyze how traditional authorities' (chiefs) actions are linked to land transactions and related conflicts by examining two cases of large-scale land commodification processes in the Ashanti and Northern Region of Ghana. The paper will be based on empirical data gathered during fieldwork in November 2015 and March to June 2016.

Chiefs are key players in Ghana's land administration framework which is based on a pluralistic legal system: The customary and the statutory system. Approximately 80% of land is administrated under the customary tenure regime with chiefs holding the land in trust for their communities and thus playing a crucial role in land transactions. Particularly large-scale land commodification processes are frequently contested and result in conflicts.

Regardless of a sharp increase of chiefs' power in recent years, especially international donors tend to see traditional authorities mainly as mediators within their communities and between the community and third parties as well as agents of development facilitating the implementation of development projects. But traditional authorities are not anachronistic. They have been shaped in a specific historical and socio-political context and are subject to cultural and political change which by itself is contested within society.

By comparing two cases of conflicts over large scale land commodification processes I highlight how traditional authorities are perceived in conflicts over land by local residents, how they perceive their own role, what narratives are used to legitimize or delegitimize their actions, and in what ways different forms of traditional rule impact the emergence and dynamics of conflicts over land.