SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This thesis is on the law relating to the family, property and succession among the Northern Ewe-speaking people of Ghana. The first Chapter offers a general description of the Ewe in both Ghana and Togo and proceeds to identify the section referred to as the Northern Ewe-speaking people of Ghana. In the second Chapter the political structure is described, showing the area as a congeries of small autonomous chiefdoms, each with its own system of law. In Chapter III the nature of the Ewe family, which is patrilineal, is examined as the unit for purposes of citizenship, succession to hereditary offices, entitlement to ancestral property and assumption of certain obligations. The position of the head of family is considered in Chapter IV where it is submitted that succession to the office is automatic and the holder of the office is accountable but generally irremovable. Chapters V and VI concern interests in land. It is shown that as a rule the respective families hold the paramount title to land, with the dependent interest in the members of the family, and that stool lands as generally understood in Ghana are practically non-existent among the Northern Ewe. In Chapter VII it is explained that, apart from the ancestral family lands, family property is rare among the Northern Ewe. Alienation of interests in property by sale, gift, pledging and tenancy is discussed in Chapters VIII - XII, stating the formalities and the effect of each type of alienation. The law of succession to interests in property is discussed in Chapter XIII. It is shown that succession is not by the family but by individuals as of right and that the interest of a successor is generally that of a purchaser, so that the interest is both alienable and inheritable.