ABSTRACT
Many of the studies of the Darfur confl ict are based on the premise that it is mainly a land tenure/use, or property rights, problem. In the survey conducted for this study most of the households and focus groups argued that land tenure is the main proximate cause of the confl ict. There is no doubt that there is a land tenure/use, or as is commonly called a “hawakir,” problem. The thesis developed in this book, however, is an attempt to show that the hawakir confl ict is not the root cause of the problem. Rather, it is a political tool that has been used by politicians to gain the support of qabilahs that did not own land against those who owned land. In fact, the land tenure/use (property rights) problem is essentially a direct consequence of the broader problem of institutional failure.
