Poverty and marginalization in West and Central Africa: Autochthony and land rights

Introduction

Questions concerning autochthony (literally meaning emerging from the soil) in the form of the politics of place, belonging, identity and contested citizenship are currently among the most crucial and contested in African politics.

The main objective of this project is to investigate the dynamics of crises of autochthony and how people use or contest claims of indignity in their attempts to frame land rights' conflicts. This objective will be reached by increasing the knowledge-base about: 1) The basis for households rights to land, or lack of such; 2) How people understand the established practices concerning the relationship between different groups with different claims to land; 3) How people foresee (or not) new compromises concerning land right issues.

This is precisely what constitutes the hallmark of the crisis in the three countries we will study - in the civil war in Côte d'Ivoire, in the controversial status of the Banyamulenge in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and also is the centrepiece of the so-called 'Mandingo-issue' in Liberia. In addition, the case of Northern Mali will be used to explore what kind of solutions that can be found and what the outstanding issues still may be, ten years after war.

The project includes cross-country comparisons based on a sample of approximately 2,000 households. This will enable us to produce more systematic information about how the politics of autochthony is actually played out within the context of land rights disputes.

Research design and methodology

Our approach is a combination of a quantitative survey operation and a qualitative study. We will interview households in areas in which there are conflicts over land between groups defined as 'autochthonous' and groups defined as 'immigrants' and 'newcomers'. We will interview approximately 500 households randomly drawn from compact cluster sampling in each of the four cases, while we simultaneously carry out qualitative interviewing in the same geographical area as the survey. These interviews will be done in accordance to ethnographic focus groups and life history approaches. The main theme both for the survey questionnaire and the qualitative interviews is to establish the basis for households' right to land, or the lack of such, and how people envision both established practices concerning the relationship between different groups with different claims to land, and how people foresee (or not) new compromises concerning land rights issues. This will enable us to establish a pattern of how households seek to legitimate their claim to land through assertions about autochthony, and how they view the claims of other groups.

The research will build on well-established research methodologies and fieldwork practices developed by Fafo's experiences in conflict and post-conflict situations in Central Africa and West Africa.

Policy relevance and dissemination

Political conflict embedded in questions about autochthony fuelled by perceptions of relative deprivation and marginalisation is at the heart of the matter in both Central Africa and West Africa. Nevertheless, systematic information about these issues and how people on the ground actually related to them is not available for policy makers trying to establish local and international responses to these conflicts. Both the data gathered and the findings from this project will therefore be of relevance to such policymakers.

Contact

Dr. Polit. Morten Bøås (project leader)

Dr. Philos. Anne Hatløy