Land and revenue in a “traditional town” in Ghana: the case of the Nkwanta sub-division in Mpasatia

Abstract

This narrative of governance and land issues in Mpasatia, a small traditional town in the Ashanti region of, Ghana focuses on the first “modern” plot sub-division project in the town, initiated in 1993. Land has always been a subject of interest in Ghana due to the belief that it belongs to three sets of people, namely the ancestors, those living now and future generations. This conceptualization provides some explanation of how land is delivered for development and how it complicates local governance of land, including land revenue, and also the difficulties associated with traditional settlements copying new urban development in cities like Kumasi. The paper discusses how the model of modernization of new sub-divisions was adopted in the Nkwanta Scheme within Mpasatia, reflecting the radical change seen over the last two decades in Kumasi and Accra, where recent developments have abandoned smaller plots for compound houses, providing big plots for detached villas. The paper provides possible reasons for the limited success of the scheme.