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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The politics of land and urban space in colonial Africa |
Author: | Sackeyfio, Naaborko |
Year: | 2012 |
Periodical: | History in Africa (ISSN 1558-2744) |
Volume: | 39 |
Pages: | 293-329 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Ghana |
Subjects: | land law colonial policy Ga land conflicts property |
External link: | http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/history_in_africa/v039/39.1.sackeyfio.pdf |
Abstract: | The year 1874, when the British declared the Gold Coast (Ghana) a Crown colony, marked the beginning of Accra's transformation into a colonial city and with it the dramatic transformation of the Ga people's sociopolitical and economic structures. From the last decades of the 19th century, the Ga inhabitants of Accra adapted their institutions and used them to interact with British law and government structures, creating a new blend that made Accra a thriving colonial city. This article focuses on the colonial land ordinances and laws of the late 19th and early 20th century which changed the meaning of property in the colony. These laws and African responses to them illustrate the ways in which property took on a new meaning for a variety of groups. The article explains why litigation and the production of land claims became a central feature of land affairs in Accra. The language of property rights drove the idea of property as a commodity and represented one of the most significant material and conceptual shifts in the Gold Coast during the first half of the 20th century. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French. [ASC Leiden abstract] |