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anyone to acquire a right to farmland. Given that land is in great demand<br />
and highly valued, such a vague and general principle could never regulate<br />
its distribution. As things are, land is invariably held by localized (sub-)<br />
lineages; that is to say that it will not be sufficent to belong to the Nsona or<br />
the Kona ebusua, but that you will· only have a substantive claim to<br />
(unoccupied) family land if you happen to belong toa landholding Nsona<br />
or Kona ebusua. What this really means can be seen from the unmistakable<br />
fact that of all localized ebusua resident at Abura-Dunkwa, only a minority<br />
hold family land (Thble 2).<br />
As can be seen from Thble 2 there are only a few clans (generalized<br />
lineages), most localized lineages ('families') of which have at least some<br />
family land at Abura-Dunkwa, i.e. lWidan (5 out of 6), Adwenadze (6 out<br />
of 8) and Nsona (7 out of 14). Within the other clans only one or a few<br />
'families' own land. Of the Anona clan, which is represented with eight<br />
separate ebusua totalling as many as 187 adult members (i.e. 23 on average),<br />
none owns any family land. On the whole only 28 out of a total of73 mbusua<br />
or 380/0 hold land at Dunkwa. For those who belong to non-landholding<br />
families it is of little avail that there are one or more landholding families<br />
within the same clan also resident at Dunkwa. For example, none of the<br />
seven landholding Nsona mbusua will grant farming rights on their land<br />
to members of the seven non-landholding Nsona mbusua merely because<br />
they are also Nsona. On the contrary, if they are not related in some way<br />
(through the father, by marriage), they can lay no claim to any ofthese lands.<br />
The question as to how those belonging to non-landholding families<br />
acquire access to farming land will be considered in the following chapter.<br />
Table 2:<br />
Localized Lineages per Generalized Lineage (Clan) Holding<br />
or Not Holding Family Land at Abura-Dunkwa<br />
Generalized Clans<br />
I. Twidan<br />
2. Adwenadze<br />
3. Kona<br />
4. Nsona<br />
5. Aboradze<br />
6. Atwea<br />
7. Amoana<br />
8. Dehyena<br />
9.0domna<br />
10. Anona<br />
Total<br />
Localized Lineages<br />
Holding Not Holding Total Localized<br />
Family Land Family Land Lineages<br />
5 I 6<br />
6 2 8<br />
3 12 15<br />
7 7 14<br />
2 6 8<br />
I<br />
I<br />
I 5 6<br />
2 I 3<br />
I 3 4<br />
8 8<br />
28(38%) 45(62%) 73 (100Ofo)<br />
55
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