The Politics of Land (and) Violence in Ghana Nicole Renee Lefore Milton-Freewater, Oregon B. A International Studies, Whitworth College, 1991 MSc. Development Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London,1996 A Dissertation Presented to the Graduate Faculty Of the University of Virginia in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department ofpolitics University of Virginia December 2012 ii The Politics of Land (and) Violence in Ghana Nicole Renee Lefore Abstract Conflict over land has increased and the nature of land-related violence has changed in Ghana, as well as in other countries in Africa, undermining economic growth and threatening political stability. Violence over land had once been primarily between customary groups over boundaries, or between peasants and the state over expropriation of customary land by those in power. Now, violence has become more destructive and deadly, and is most often between factions within the ruling class who have no customary claim to the land under dispute. This research seeks to explain how relations in land have changed and what caused the related change in the nature of land violence. It uses class analysis to examine differences in land relations across regimes since the 1970s to the early 2000s. The study finds that the nature and levels of violence changed alongside the instrumental role of land in ruling class strategies for gaining power and accumulating wealth. In the 1970s, the military regime used land for accumulation and patronage. Peasants engaged in sporadic violence to resist the loss of land, while the ruling class deployed state coercion to suppress resistance. The authoritarian regime that took over state power in 1981 sought the support of subaltern classes. Violence over land changed, with the regime using state coercive bodies to repress rivals and defend subaltern interests in land. Following democratization in 1992, land became instrumental in the intra-ruling class factional contest for state power to build patron-client networks, provide revenue for iii electoral politics, and enable primitive accumulation. Violence occurred when disputants from rival ruling class factions without customary rights to the land deployed private coercive means to acquire and defend land. The dissertation concludes that factional conflict within an inchoate ruling class was a primary underlying cause of land violence and the changes in the nature of violence over land in Ghana. The study offers lessons for future development planning in land institutions and governance. iv Table of Contents Acknowledgements vii Acronyms Ix Chapter 1. The Emerging Trend of Violence in Changing Land Relations 1 Section 1. Shifting the Focus to Land Violence 3 Section 2. Addressing the Land Violence Question 6 Section 3. Presenting the Case: Method and Evidence 10 Section 4. Current Approaches to Land Violence 13 Section 5. An Introduction to Changing Land Relations and Political Power 16 Section 6. A Preliminary Look at the Ghana Case 23 Conclusion. The Structure of the Dissertation 27 Chapter 2. Competing Explanations for Land Violence 28 Section 1. Rational Choice Theories and Land 29 Section 2. An Alternative Paradigm: Negotiability, Contingency and Cultural Durability 41 Section 3. Patterns of Violence: Structural Arguments and Class Differentiation 50 Section 4. Land Violence: A Class Argument 58 Conclusion 73 v Chapter 3: The foundations of a conflictual land market: Ghana under the NRC/SMC 75 Section 1. Means to Access and Maintain Power: The Political Strategy 77 Section 2. Means of Accumulation: Global Market Shocks and Shifting Strategies 86 Section 3. State Coercion and Dominance of a Ruling Class Faction 98 Section 4. Forging a Violent Land Market: Resistance to Primitive Accumulation in Land 103 Section 5. The Mounting Opposition and the End of the Generals 109 Conclusion 117 Chapter 4. New Political Strategies and a Counter-movement in Land Relations: The PNDC Years 119 Section 1. Means to Access and Maintain Power: Fusing the Political and Coercive Strategies 122 Section 2. Means of Accumulation: Tackling Domestic Political Challenges and Defending Structural Adjustment 152 Section 3. Land Relations during the PNDC: A Countermovement (and Back Again) 164 Section 4. Slippage in the Countermovement: The Transition to elected District Assemblies 172 Conclusion 176 vi Chapter 5: Electoral Patronage, Privatized Coercion, and Land Violence: Ghana under democracy 180 Section 1. Means to Access and Maintain Power: Electoral Politics 182 Section 2. Means of Accumulation: Election Financing, Patronage and the Market 203 Section 3. State Coercion and the Democratic Transition: Instruments of 215 Institutional Weakness Section 4. Land Relations and Democratization: the Emergence of a Violent Land Sales Market 230 Conclusion: The Central Questions of the Dissertation 241 Chapter 6. Answers to the questions on Ghana’s land violence 245 Section 1. Review of the Case and Comparative Analysis 245 Section 2. Causes of Land Violence in Ghana: Answers from Case Analysis 254 Section 3. An Alternative Argument for Land Violence 267 Section 4. A Limited Explanation and the Need for Further Study 273 Section 5. Recommendations for Development-oriented Policy and Planning 277 Conclusion: Consequences of the Emergence of the Land Market 283 Bibliography 285 vii Acknowledgements Much of Ghana’s history of land is either undocumented or captured in documents that are not accessible or are held by private individuals. The sensitive nature of the topic of land ownership contributes to the difficulty in obtaining information on land. And much of the knowledge on the history of the politics of land remains only in the oral histories. This dissertation would not have been possible without the assistance of numerous people willing to share their knowledge and documents, including the following: staff of the National Archives of the Ghana Public Records Office, who assisted with finding documents under challenging conditions; former cadres P. K. Abonie, Kwao Sackey and Africanus, among others; customary leaders and youth associations, particularly those from James Town, Weija and La, with special thanks to Nii Sackey; former officials of the National Investigations Committee; officials of the Ghana Police Service, Bureau of National Investigations and National Security; K. B. Asante for explaining the politics of land relations between customary holders and government prior to independence and under the CPP; former Accra Mayor, Nat Nuno- Amarteifio; former officials of the PNDC; researchers at the Kofi Annan Peace Keeping Institute in Accra; and former and current Members of Parliament. This dissertation is dedicated to Naa Archarwa Barnor. viii The love of property and consciousness of right and wrong have conflicting places in our organization, which often makes a man's course seem crooked, his conduct a riddle. Abraham Lincoln ix Acronyms ACDR: Association of the Committees for the Defence of the Revolution AFCDR: Armed Forces Committees for the Defense of the Revolution AFRC: Armed Forces Revolutionary Council BNI: Bureau of National Investigations CDO: Citizens Defence Organization CDR: Committee for the Defence of the Revolution CPP: Convention People’s Party CVC: Citizens Vetting Committee GBC: Ghana Broadcasting Corporation GNA: Ghana News Agency IMF: International Monetary Fund NDC: National Democratic Congress NIC: National Investigations Committee NPP: National Patriotic Party NRC: National Redemption Council PDC: People’s Defence Committee PNDC: Provisional National Defence Council PP: Progress Party SFO: Serious Fraud Office SMC: Supreme Military Council WDC: Workers Defence Committee 1 Chapter 1. The Emerging Trend of Violence in Changing Land Relations In December 1998, in the village of Ablekuma, near Accra, Ghana, a local dispute over land turned violent, attracting national attention. A number of policemen had acquired land in a disputed land deal. Land speculators often gave plots of land to police as a means to protect their acquisitions. In this case however, that protection had turned to conflict. A series of violent clashes had already taken place between the policemen and armed guards hired by the opposing claimants. On a December day, two policemen went to the village armed and prepared to fight. Their opponent’s guards met them with force to drive them away. The situation spun out of control. Local newspapers reported the bloody event in detail. “. the policemen refused to comply [with demands of armed guards] . deflated the tyres of the [police] vehicle and dragged the two [police]men out . and pounced on them with sticks and pieces of blocks and hit them several times with the butt of an AK 47 rifle . The two peace officers tried in vain to explain their mission to the mob, but it did not listen, and at one stage, shot the policeman Jerry [“Taller”] from the back, leading to his instant death. [The other policeman] Kweku Ninja, on realising that his colleague had been murdered, took to his heels, but due to the injuries he sustained on his head, he could not get far. He was chased with a white car [of land guards]. knocked down, dragged to the village and shot. the mob then dragged the dead men into the bush, and returned later soaked in blood and mud to inform the people that ‘they had finished them’ and that no one will ever find their bodies. The villagers . were warned [by the land guards] that anyone who dared talk to a stranger about the incident would be killed in the same 2 manner . ..”1 Colleagues of the policemen, also embroiled in the dispute, went to Ablekuma to look for ‘Ninja’ and ‘Taller’, but the villagers refused to talk to them or lead them to the bodies. The police retaliated and set the thatch roofed village on fire, leaving dozens homeless. The public followed the media reports and became outraged. Parliament debated the ‘problem’ of land guards and land disputes that they acknowledged threatened the peace. President Rawlings visited Ablekuma and met with the disputants and villagers. His involvement led to the discovery of missing bodies of land guards.