The Development of a Land Market? Insights from Côte d'Ivoire

Document begins: The Development of a Land Market? Insights from Côte d'Ivoire Jean-Philippe Colin (IRD) Westminster, November 8-9, 2004-10-25 I will discuss the issue of land markets from the perspective of land sales in CI, first from a general picture regarding Southern CI, then by focusing on a specific area where I have been doing research. 1. The issue of land sales in Southern CI A review of the literature dealing with land transfers in the forested Southern CI allows to highlights the following key-points: First: the development of land transactions, when it occurred, operated between natives and migrants (Ivorian or foreigners), but not between natives. In fact, the native-migrant dichotomy structures the land issue in Southern CI . Second, the "sale" is framed within the traditional "tutorat" relation, a patron-client-type relationship established between customary "landowners" and migrants to whom the autochthonous "tuteurs" transferred land rights. The payment of some money does not erase the social relation stemming from the "gratefulness" that the migrant (or his heirs) owes to his tuteur (or to the latter's heirs). In other words, the payment of a certain amount of money does not conclude the transaction, does not end the relationship, it perpetuates or ...