Opinion Piece on Land Reforms in Ghana

Abstract

In this piece, Professor Raymond Bagulo Bening reflects on the role of a Study Group in promoting land reforms in Ghana. Critically, this reflective piece highlights the vital role of academic advocacy for national reforms. Land is critical to Ghana’s development and has played an essential role in the nature and trajectory of the country’s development. Beyond the economic value of land and its role in agriculture, many Ghanaian societies view land as an extension of who they are. Land is deeply embedded in the cultural values of societies. Historically, land is owned by stools/skins, clans and families. However, colonialism, in many ways, transformed land access and tenure in Ghana and altered the overall structure of the land ownership and use in the Ghanaian society. Thus, this reflective piece brings to light a critical event in land reforms in Ghana that is often not the focus of research.