A question of honour: property disputes and brokerage in Burkina Faso

Abstract

AbstractWhen conflicts over land arise in the region of Dori, in northern Burkina Faso, bribery of officials through ‘brokers’ is common. However, farmers often pay more in bribes than the land at issue is worth. ‘It's a question of honour’ people say. Disputes are arbitrated by competing state institutions. ‘Brokers’ monopolise and manipulate access to the institutions and largely control the legal outcome. People do not expect protection from the state but rely on their honour in countering adversaries. When the only defence of property is the owner's honour, and not the state, the price of infringement must be set high as a deterrent. The land in question may not be important, but any usurpation of it is an attack on the honour and hence on the whole property of the aggrieved party. To let one field go is to invite invasion of the rest. Competition for access to land between farmers is matched and complicated at a higher level by competition for jurisdiction between the various political and legal authorities.