Land, Law and Politics in Africa

Jan Abbink works as a senior researcher at the African Studies Centre, Leiden, and as a research professor at VU University, Amsterdam. His interests are political anthropology, ethno-history, and culture and religion in the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Somalia). Current research projects are on Ethiopian regional history and livelihoods, the rhetoric and practice of ‘development’, and religion and community formation in Northeast Africa.Mirjam de Bruijn is an anthropologist and senior researcher at the African Studies Centre, Leiden, Professor of African Studies (Contemporary History and Anthropology of West and Central Africa) at Leiden University and director of the Research Masters in African Studies at the ASC. Her research has developed around the theme of mobility and she has done extensive fieldwork in Chad, Mali and Cameroon on (interdisciplinary) projects on migration, conflict and poverty, and mobility and communication technology.

• ContentsFigures, tables and boxes ix1 Introduction: Land, law and conflict mediation in Africa 1Jan Abbink2 Partenariat et interdisciplinarité: La voie alternative de Gerti Hesseling et du LASDEL 14Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan & Mahaman Tidjani AlouHISTORICAL AND CULTURAL ASPECTS / ASPECTS HISTORIQUES ET CULTURELLES3 Cultural models of power in Africa 25Walter van Beek4 Human rights in the traditional legal system of the Nkoya people of Zambia 49Wim M.J. van Binsbergen5 ‘Sons of the soil’: Autochthony and its ambiguities in Africa and Europe 80Peter Geschiere6 How can Africa develop? Reflections on theories, concepts and realities 99Patrick ChabalLAND ISSUES AND ECONOMICS / PROBLEMES FONCIERS ET L’ECONOMIE7 L’économie sociale et solidaire pour stimuler le développement ascendant et endogène 117Abdou Salam Fall8 Land conflicts in Senegal revisited: Continuities and emerging dynamics 141Mayke Kaag, Yaram Gaye & Marieke Kruis9 ‘More punitive penalties should be given to urban farmers’: Laws and politics surrounding urban agriculture in Eldoret, Kenya 162Romborah R. Simiyu & Dick Foeken10 Settling border conflicts in Africa peacefully: Lessons learned from the Bakassi dispute between Cameroon and Nigeria 191Piet KoningsPOLITICS AND CONSTITUTIONAL LAW / POLITIQUE ET DROIT CONSTITUTIONNEL11 Democracy deferred: Understanding elections and the role of donors in Ethiopia 213Jan Abbink12 La production d’un nouveau constitutionnalisme en Afrique : Internationalisation et régionalisation du droit constitutionnel 240Babacar Kanté13 Le juge constitutionnel et la construction de l’Etat de droit au Sénégal 258Fatima Diallo14 Sur les traces du droit vivant dans le labyrinthe du droit foncier et des pratiques locales au Mali 287Moussa DjiréTHE CHALLENGES OF LAW AND CONFLICT / LES DÉFIS DE DROIT FACE AU CONFLITS15 Effectuating normative change in customary legal systems: An end to ‘widow chasing’ in northern Namibia? 315Janine Ubink16 Decentralization and the articulation of local and regional politics in Central Chad 334Han van Dijk17 Conflict mobility and the search for peace in Africa 353Mirjam de Bruijn & Egosha E. OsaghaeAppendix: Bibliography of prof. dr Gerti Hesseling 367List of authors 381