Land, mobility, and belonging in West Africa /

Focusing on portions of northern Ghana and southwestern Burkina Faso in the West African savannah, this historical case study examines the ways in which rural people have gained and contested access to land, how mobile farmers and migrant laborers have organized their communities, and how those who claim indigenous status have exercised power and authority over those who came later. Lentz (social anthropology, Johannes Gutenberg Univ., Germany) explores these practices from the late 18th to the late 20th centuries in precolonial societies, under British and French colonial rule, and in postcolonial states. Based on fieldwork spanning more than two decades that mined oral traditions, interviews, and archival documents, the study investigates mobile precolonial societies. It considers the ways in which the rigid political, ethnic, and legal regimes of the colonial period laid the groundwork for "the ethnicization of property rights and the politicization of autochthony" in the postcolonial period. The author shows how competing historical narratives have been invoked in contemporary struggles over resources; she highlights growing conflicts over who belongs and who is a stranger in the current climate of economic scarcity. This significant study enhances understanding of the dynamics of rural societies across the continent. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students, faculty. E. S. Schmidt Loyola University Maryland