article

Debts and trespasses: land, mortgages, and the ancestors in western Kenya

Africa62 (3)Published In 1992 • Pages: 357-388

By: Shipton, Parker MacDonald.

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This article discusses the experiences of smallholder farmers in Luoland, western Kenya, with government provided farm credit schemes. It shows that farm credit schemes wrongly assume that 'to adopt new crops and inputs, small-scale farmers need financial loans, and that private land titles help them to borrow by providing a form of collateral for mortgages.' It argues that Luo land tenure system, which emphasized the sacredness and inalienability of lineage land rights, prove the inappropriateness of this theory.
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Credit
Borrowing and lending
Real property
Research and development
Real property
External relations
Cultural identity and pride
Ethics
Labor supply and employment
Pastoral activities
Tillage
Classes
Acculturation and culture contact
cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Luo
HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
2010
RegionThe area the document pertains to
Africa
Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
Eastern Africa
Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
article
Evaluation
Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Anthropologist
Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
5: Excellent Primary Data
AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
Teferi Abate Adem; 2009
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
1980-1991
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
1950-1992
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
Luoland, Kenya
NotesAdditional notes
Parker Shipton
Includes bibliographical references ( p. 384-386)
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
29010790
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Luo (Kenyan and Tanzanian people)