From Taovia to Trustee: Urbanisation, Land Disputes and Social Differentiation in Kakabona

Land in the vicinity of Honiara is amongst the most contested in Solomon Islands, and peri-urban areas were a focal point for much of the fighting during the 1998-2003 civil conflict. This paper focuses on the historical development of Kakabona, a series of hamlets to the immediate west of Honiara. In order to understand the conditions that preceded the Tension better, I draw on ethnographic fieldwork, archival research and an analysis of court records to examine some of the shifts in land tenure arrangements occurring from the 1950s onwards. While land disputes are often approached as contests over economic resources, I suggest that the arguments mobilised before the courts reveal the profoundly epistemological or ontological challenges that urbanisation raises. Understanding these challenges throws new light on the ways in which urbanisation has worked, firstly, to deepen social fragmentation and inequality and, secondly, to concentrate control over land transactions and disputes in the hands of a relatively small number of men.