State Policies, Local Prejudices and Cattle Rustling Along the Ghana-Burkina Faso Border

This article briefly discusses the various factors that gave rise to tension in northern Ghana between Fulbe pastoralists coming in from Burkina Faso and the local Kassena farmers (who have livestock of their own). The Ghanaian government's decision in 1988–89 to expel the Fulbe resulted in more problems, not least the dilemma of how to patrol effectively the permeable borderland and the gradual introduction there of modern firearms. In consequence some argue that it is not the policies of conservation that are being called into question but the government's sovereignty.