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people could not acquire land through the family group to which they
belonged on the maternal side. In this given part of West Africa, that family
group-thematrilineage-determines rights to land. For those who belonged
to family groups which lacked such rights, other kinds of family relations
might be mobilized. Husbands may use their wife's family land; wives may
have access to the land of their husband's family; children may farm on
paternal land; in-laws may provide a person with some of their family land.
However, such access does not confer the same rights to land as is the case
with the matrilineage. Usually only very small plots can thus be acquired
on a short-term basis for the growing of food crops; for all other purposes
the usufruct of land can only be obtained by renting it on a yearly basis.
During this same period a start was made with the construction of
individual farm plans which showed every piece ofland, whether or not it
was cultivated. This was preceded by a list of general questions based on
the measurement of individual farms, and a pre-testing phase based on data
that had been compiled earlier. On the basis of these farm plans, a farm
operations questionnaire was then drawn up.
When I left Ghana in January 1979, the research was continued
by Mr Agbodzah, the geographer at the University of Cape Coast, with a
research assistant who had earlier been employed at the Centre.
Political developments in Ghana prevented much news being received
about the progress of the research until Paul Haanen, a non-western
sociologist with research experience in rural Ghana, agreed to go there to
investigate, at my expense, for a period of five weeks. In particular, he was
to finish the necessary interviews and to check earlier interviews for any
lacunae or errors. Reaching Ghana in November 1979, he ascertained that
the map of the family lands was more or less finished and that
questionnaires of two family lands had been completed; and also the list
of general questions, the farm plans and those regarding the farm
operations were completed.
The general questions gave rise to some problems. The answers
from the list were needed to get an impression of the number of male and
female farmers per family land. It soon appeared that on the family land
Amoanda there were far more farmers than had originally been assumed.
This made it impossible to measure all the individual plots and to interview
all the farmers who worked there. The guidelines laid out for Paul Haanen
thus had to be changed since our initial intention had been to interview each
individual farmer on the five selected family lands and to draw the outlines
of their farms on the survey map.
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