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African Studies

University of Richmond

Political Science Faculty Publications

Articles 1 - 15 of 15

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Intergenerational Land Conflict In Northern Uganda: Children, Customary Law And Return Migration, Sandra F. Joireman Jan 2018

Intergenerational Land Conflict In Northern Uganda: Children, Customary Law And Return Migration, Sandra F. Joireman

Political Science Faculty Publications

Northern Uganda is in transition after the conflict that ended in 2006. While its cities are thriving and economic opportunities abound, the social institutions governing land access are contested, the land administration system is changing, and the mechanisms available to address conflicts over resources have themselves become a venue for authority claims. This article examines the intergenerational nature of land conflicts in northern Uganda, focusing on the interplay of customary law, return migration and the development of a market in land. There are three contributions to existing literature: (1) a discussion of children's property rights under customary and statute law …

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Women, Land & Justice In Tanzania (Book Review), Sandra F. Joireman Jan 2015

Women, Land & Justice In Tanzania (Book Review), Sandra F. Joireman

Political Science Faculty Publications

Among the many debates surrounding land in Africa, one that has endured through both colonization and independence is the argument over the merits of preserving customary land law. Human rights based approaches to property rights in Sub-Saharan Africa note women’s secondary or derivative rights to land under customary law, correctly identifying inequalities in rules and practice. Communitarian approaches, on the other hand, address the adaptability and accessibility of land regimes defined by customary law. This book contributes to the debates on women, land and law and, while it will be frustrating to some as it does not take a side …

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Entrapment Or Freedom: Enforcing Customary Property Rights Regimes In Common-Law Africa, Sandra F. Joireman Jan 2011

Entrapment Or Freedom: Enforcing Customary Property Rights Regimes In Common-Law Africa, Sandra F. Joireman

Political Science Faculty Publications

This chapter examines customary property rights and the role of customary leaders in enforcing those property rights from an institutionalist perspective. The issue of societal benefit is at the forefront of this chapter, which proceeds in three parts. Subchapter 13.2 discusses the pervasiveness of customary tenure and customary authority structures throughout Sub-Saharan Africa and their genesis in the colonial era. Subchapter 13.3 notes the lack of consistency between statutory law and customary law, which leads to a pluralistic legal setting. This part also identifies the winners and losers within customary legal systems. Subchapter 13.4 discusses how we can evaluate customary …

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An Abundance Of Violence And Scarcity Of Words (Book Review), Sandra F. Joireman Jan 2010

An Abundance Of Violence And Scarcity Of Words (Book Review), Sandra F. Joireman

Political Science Faculty Publications

It is hard to avoid knowing something about the conflict in Darfur. There are divestment movements, student campaigns, actors raising awareness and the ‘genocide olympics’ to remind us of the ongoing conflict. There is also an increasingly ugly exchange in which two sides are talking and neither is listening. This exchange is not between the combatants, as one might expect, but among activists and scholars who disagree on the best way to portray the conflict. While it is difficult to avoid knowing something about the violence in Darfur, finding a deeper analysis that goes beyond the attempts to gain attention …

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Still Hungry (Book Review), Sandra F. Joireman Jan 2009

Still Hungry (Book Review), Sandra F. Joireman

Political Science Faculty Publications

While I was conducting a research project on property rights in southern Ethiopia in 1994, I watched truck after truck roll into the community to distribute food aid. I asked a local farmer if the harvest had been bad. He assured me of his abundant harvest of tomatoes and onions—cash crops that he normally couldn't plant because he had to focus on feeding his family. However, he explained, with all the food aid they were now getting, he did not have to worry about feeding his family, so he could use his land to make some extra cash—and his family …

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Killing Zone: What Can Be Done In Darfur?, Sandra F. Joireman Jan 2006

Killing Zone: What Can Be Done In Darfur?, Sandra F. Joireman

Political Science Faculty Publications

Christians from all traditions and from across the political spectrum have been pressing President Bush to try to get more United Nations peacekeeping troops on the ground in Darfur to stop the unrelenting violence there. The National Council of Churches endorsed the UN resolution in August that called for sending UN troops. In October, Evangelicals for Darfur, a coalition of Christian leaders—including Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention and Jim Wallis of Sojourners—took out full-page ads in newspapers calling for President Bush to do more to address the crisis.

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Overcoming Apartheid: Can Truth Reconcile A Divided Nation? (Book Review), Sandra F. Joireman Jan 2006

Overcoming Apartheid: Can Truth Reconcile A Divided Nation? (Book Review), Sandra F. Joireman

Political Science Faculty Publications

Anyone engaged in conflict resolution, whether interpersonal or international, would agree that the process must begin with truth telling. But can truth telling be more than a beginning? Can it create a political environment hospitable to both perpetrator and victim?

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Retributive Justice: The Gacaca Process In Rwanda, Sandra F. Joireman, Allison Corey Jan 2004

Retributive Justice: The Gacaca Process In Rwanda, Sandra F. Joireman, Allison Corey

Political Science Faculty Publications

After decades of cycling violence between Hutu and Tutsi groups in Rwanda and Burundi, violence peaked in 1994 with a genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda, during which the Hutu majority slaughtered 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutus, leaving the country with 120,000 accused génocidaires awaiting trial. Rwanda's gacaca courts were established as a response to the backlog of untried genocide cases. These courts disturbingly distinguish between genocide and war crimes committed during the same era, trying only those accused of genocide. This article argues that the gacaca process will contribute to the insecurity of all Rwandan citizens in the future, since …

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Justice For A Genocide?, Sandra F. Joireman Jan 2003

Justice For A Genocide?, Sandra F. Joireman

Political Science Faculty Publications

In Rwanda today it is considered poor manners to cry at funerals. Public grieving for the death of a single person is thought to minimize the grief people felt after the genocide when many people lost entire families. That genocide was eight years ago and to date little has been done to bring the perpetrators to justice. The newly established gacaca courts are meant to rectify this situation and assess the guilt or innocence of some of the tens of thousands of people now held in Rwandan jails.

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Inherited Legal Systems And Effective Rule Of Law: Africa And The Colonial Legacy, Sandra F. Joireman Jan 2001

Inherited Legal Systems And Effective Rule Of Law: Africa And The Colonial Legacy, Sandra F. Joireman

Political Science Faculty Publications

The question of whether particular types of legal institutions influence the effectiveness of the rule of law has long been answered with conjecture. Common law lawyers and judges tend to believe that the common law system is superior. This opinion is based on the idea that the common law system inherited from the British is more able to protect the rights of the individual than civil law judicial systems. Quite the opposite point of view can be found in lawyers from civil law countries, who may view the common law system as capricious and disorganised. This paper compares the effectiveness …

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Property Rights And The Role Of The State: Evidence From The Horn Of Africa, Sandra F. Joireman Jan 2001

Property Rights And The Role Of The State: Evidence From The Horn Of Africa, Sandra F. Joireman

Political Science Faculty Publications

This study applies extant theories of property rights change to three land tenure systems in Imperial Ethiopia. Two of the areas underwent changes in property rights after experiencing changes in the value of land; one did not. A data set of litigation over land rights is used in conjunction with case studies to understand the mechanisms motivating or impeding property rights change. Amendments to the role of the state are suggested and two conclusions are reached: (1) that movement towards greater specificity of land rights did not always occur; and (2) the changes in property rights that occurred were imposed …

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Good Fences Make Good Neighbors, Sandra F. Joireman Jan 2000

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors, Sandra F. Joireman

Political Science Faculty Publications

A ceasefire in the border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea is only the beginning of the process of conflict resolution that must occur for peace to take hold. The border war is the result of long standing distrust and animosity between these two countries. Therefore the possibility of the conflict erupting into violence again is high unless serious internal and international effort is put into the demarcation of the border and the acceptance of that demarcated border as fair.

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Ethiopia And Eritrea: Border War, Sandra F. Joireman Jan 2000

Ethiopia And Eritrea: Border War, Sandra F. Joireman

Political Science Faculty Publications

The war between Ethiopia and Eritrea—two of the poorest countries in the world—began in 1998. Eritrea was once part of the Ethiopian empire, but it was colonized by Italy from 1869 to 1941. Following Italy's defeat in World War II, the United Nations determined that Eritrea would become part of Ethiopia, though Eritrea would maintain a great deal of autonomy. In 1961 Ethiopia removed Eritrea's independence, and Eritrea became just another Ethiopian province. In 1991 following a revolution in Ethiopia, Eritrea gained its independence. However, the borders between Ethiopia and Eritrea had never been clearly marked. Following arguments and skirmishes, …

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Land Contracts And Traditional Tenure, Sandra F. Joireman Jan 1994

Land Contracts And Traditional Tenure, Sandra F. Joireman

Political Science Faculty Publications

The goal of this project is to identify the current day policy implications of a traditional tenure system, rist or risti, with particular reference to the types of contractual agreements that existed under that system. In order to achieve this, the paper will begin with a reference to the importance of understanding the traditional systems of land tenure. Then, a brief description of the data set and available information will be given, followed by the preliminary results of the data and a description of the kinds of contractual arrangements found under the traditional system. This will be followed by …

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Jean Ensminger. Making A Market: The Institutional Transformation Of An African Society (Book Review), Sandra F. Joireman Jan 1993

Jean Ensminger. Making A Market: The Institutional Transformation Of An African Society (Book Review), Sandra F. Joireman

Political Science Faculty Publications

The publication of Making a Market marks yet another excellent contribution to the field from the Cambridge Series on Political Economy. Similar to the other volumes in the series, it emphasizes the interaction of political structures and institutions with economic change. Yet whereas most of the previous volumes in the series have been written by political scientists or economists, this book stands out as unique in that it is written from an anthropological perspective. Unusual as this is, the book gives an extremely sophisticated and readable application of the new institutional economics to the developing world.

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