Formation and stratification of the peasantry in colonial Ghana

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Abstract
The peasantry in colonial Ghana formed as a result of the response of indigenous cultivators to integration into the world capitalist economy. Changing relationships to land, to kin and to markets characterised the move from tribesmen to peasantry. Retention of ‘traditional’ land tenure, consequent partly upon political activity by educated Ghanaians, both ensured that Ghana would become a peasant, not a plantation, economy; and provided the major mechanism for stratification of the peasantry, namely debt. A small class of capitalist farmers formed a weak indigenous financial/commercial sector, competing with the metropolitan mercantile bourgeoisie.