Dissertation for the degree philosophiae doctor (PhD) at the University of Bergen DEDICATION Isn't it a great privilege to be supervised consecutively both MPhil and PhD projects by a skillful researcher who is privy to a student's strengths and weaknesses? The one who has shown keen interest in Ghana and Ghanaian students and subjects her students' manuscripts to what I call 'radical surgery'. Throughout the years I have been under her supervision, I have greatly benefited from her meticulousness and attention to detail. Even our occasional disagreements over choice of concepts and argument formulation have always challenged me to think outside the box immediately after our meetings. The years under her supervision have been very eventful and successful-from e-mail communications, conference presentations, etc. to publications in prestigious journals. Kind words alone cannot express my profound appreciation for your dexterous training; it is a blessing to be under your tutelage! This PhD Thesis is proudly dedicated to Professor Ragnhild Overå, whom I affectionately describe as the 'mother' to Ghanaian Geography students at the University of Bergen. Keep up the good work and continue to be conduit of blessing to Ghanaian Geography students! ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ''For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He holds success in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless''

In the current land deals debate, land dispossession is often attributed to exploitative acts of agricultural investors. However, the role of equally active actors in the making of land deals such as chiefs, who customarily are custodians of land, does not feature prominently in the debate. The paper shows that the recent surge in large-scale land deals in Ghana corresponds with chiefs' pre-existing motivation to re-establish authority over land for two reasons: firstly, to formalise the use of ‘stool land’ to create rural development opportunities; secondly, to formalise boundaries of ‘stool land’ to avert potential future land litigations. Social groups lacking recognition from chiefs therefore often lose land, whereas land areas of those persons recognised by chiefs are protected, sometimes even regardless of their ‘citizenship’ identity in project villages. The author argues that an understanding of how local social institutions and politics mediate investment in land will enrich analyses of processes of land dispossession.

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