Monetary land transactions in western Burkina Faso: Commoditisation, papers and ambiguities

In: The European journal of development research: journal of the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), Volume 14, Issue 2, p. 109-128

Abstract

In western Burkina Faso, new land transactions based on money are on the rise, and the actors of these transactions try to make them visible through formal and informal means. The diversity of the practices of formalisation reflects the variety of resources and expectations actors have as far as securing rights is concerned. In an institutional context marked by uncertainty and a plurality of norms, the practices of formalisation play a key role in the strategies by which the actors try to make their claims and rights legitimate, visible and more likely to be enforced and not challenged in the future. In order to bridge the gaps and ideological tensions between "customary" and modern perceptions of land (as a commodity), the actors of the transactions combine discourses and practices which carry meanings and refer both to the images of custom and to the logic of commercial exchange. (InWent/DÜI)