Autochthonous, conquest and overlordship rights in land: Constructing allodial rights in the Kpandai area in Northern Ghana in the pre-colonial times

Abstract

In 1991-92, a conflict over the allodial title to lands in the Kpandai area broke out between the Nawuri and the Gonja, prompting the necessity to interrogate the concept of allodial rights. In Northern Ghana in general, allodial rights in land are ethnicized - the right of absolute ownership of land resided in an ethnic group. Nonetheless, the modes of acquisition of allodial rights in land differ from place to place, though generally they are embedded in the historical traditions of societies. By and large, the modes of acquisition of allodial rights in land by an ethnic group are determined by variables such as autochthonous and conquest rights, lease and gift. This study interrogates the ownership of Kpandai in the pre-colonial period, using, as determinants, tools such as autochthony, conquest, and I overlordship. It argues that allodial rights in lands in the Kpandai in the pre-colonial period resided in the Nawuri by virtue of rights of autochthony and autonomy.