Entwined values: protecting and subdividing land in Buganda
Valeurs enchevêtrées: protéger et subdiviser la terre au Buganda
Résumé
In Buganda, the monetary value of land and other values associated with land are intricately woven together. We shed light on entwined values of land from family and clan to kingdom and national levels by looking at the case of a historical site located in the periphery of Kampala. We document the general trend of land fragmentation, and the growth of an urban land market. Then we turn to land inheritance, individual effort to claim land and the ideology of protection of clan land, all of which contribute to redefine family and women’s rights. Finally, we deal with land as heritage. We argue against the idea of commoditization as a linear process, showing how value relates to interlocking scales of power. Strategies to consolidate clan land and privatization are occurring simultaneously. Those who believe in exclusive property construe the value of land in absolute terms, just as those who view land as heritage do. In contrast, we explore the relative value of land, analysing territory at different scales and looking at contradictory efforts to define and control land rights and uses, pondering over the hegemony of the Museveni regime.