Maritime Culture and Everyday Life in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Coastal Ghana

Maritime Culture and Everyday Life in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Coastal Ghana
Author: Kwaku Nti
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 310
Release: 2024-01-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 0253067944

The communities along the coastline of Ghana boast a long and vibrant maritime culture. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the region experienced creeping British imperialism and incorporation into the British Gold Coast colony. Drawing on a wealth of Ghanian archival sources, historian Kwaku Nti shows how many aspects of traditional maritime daily life—customary ritual performances, fishing, and concepts of ownership, and land—served as a means of resistance and allowed residents to contest and influence the socio-political transformations of the era. Nti explored how the Ebusua (female) and Asafo (male) local social groups, especially in Cape Coast, became bastions of indigenous identity and traditions during British colonial rule, while at the same time functioning as focal points for demanding a share of emerging economic opportunities. A convincing demonstration of the power of the indigenous everyday life to complicate the reach of empire, Maritime Culture and Everyday Life in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Coastal Ghana reveals a fuller history of West African coastal communities.

Murder and Politics in Colonial Ghana

Murder and Politics in Colonial Ghana
Author: Richard Rathbone
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 232
Release: 1993-01-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780300055047

In 1943, ritual murder was committed in a large African kingdom in the south of Ghana, then a colony of Great Britain. Palace officials and close kin of a recently deceased king had reputedly killed one of his chiefs in order to smooth the king's passage into the afterlife. This riveting study tells the story of the murder, the trials and appeals of those accused of the crime, and the effect of the case on politics in Ghana and Great Britain. In recounting this fascinating case, the book also provides important insights into law and politics in the colonial Gold Coast, the clash between traditional and modern values, and the nature of African monarchy in the colonial period. Drawing on newly available oral and written evidence from Ghana and Britain, Richard Rathbone builds a detailed picture of the leading characters in the case, as well as of the thirty-year rule of Nana Ofori Atta, the king. He shows how the death of the king destroyed the economic, social, and moral fabric of the kingdom, and how this destruction was further exacerbated by legal proceedings resulting from the murder. The case set the indigenous royal family against the colonial government, challenging the authority of each. Close kinsmen of the accused, hitherto in the vanguard of moderate nationalism, were radicalized by their extended confrontation with the colonial justice system. It was their political initiatives that accelerated the formation of the Gold Coast's first national political party in the late 1940s, and which led in turn to the struggle for self-government and to the achievement of Ghanian independence in 1957.

Land, Labour and the Family in Southern Ghana

Land, Labour and the Family in Southern Ghana
Author: Kojo Amanor
Publisher: Nordic Africa Institute
Total Pages: 138
Release: 2001
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9789171064684

This report is based on field work carried out in the Akyem Abuakwa area of the forest region of Ghana, a section of the country rich in agricultural land, gold, and diamonds. Through the field work which was undertaken and the empirical material generated, the author attempts to chart the processes and patterns of differentiation connected to land and land use in contemporary Ghana.

A Survey of Southern African Manuscripts in the United Kingdom

A Survey of Southern African Manuscripts in the United Kingdom
Author: Robert W. Baldock
Publisher: BASLER AFRIKA BIBLIOGRAPHIEN
Total Pages: 46
Release: 1976
Genre: Africa, Southern
ISBN:

Over the past ten years the attention given in British universities to the study of southern Africa has grown rapidly. In 1969 a symposium held under the auspices of the African Studies Association of the United Kingdom (ASAUK) to review the state of current work on southern Africa in Britain and in Africa itself revealed the diversity of research in progress, as well as practical and political problems involved in such research.

Historical Dictionary of Ghana

Historical Dictionary of Ghana
Author: Edmund Abaka
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 619
Release: 2024-02-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 1538145251

Ghana, the former British West African colony of the Gold Coast, is known for its rich agricultural, mineral, and petroleum resources. Ghana has made tremendous strides in all areas of life and has become the gateway to West Africa, if not all of Africa. Observers now cite the country’s achievement of economic recovery, political stability, and democratized governance as an example worthy of emulation by other African countries. Historical Dictionary of Ghana, Fifth Edition contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has more than 900 cross-referenced entries on important personalities as well as aspects of the country’s politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Ghana.

Historical Dictionary of Ghana

Historical Dictionary of Ghana
Author: David Owusu-Ansah
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 515
Release: 2014-02-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 0810875004

Ghana, the former British colony of the Gold Coast, is historically known for being the first country to the south of the Sahara to attain political independence from colonial rule. It is known for its exports of cocoa and a variety of minerals, especially gold, and it is now an oil exporting country. But Ghana’s importance to the African continent is not only seen in its natural resources or its potential to expand its agricultural output. Rather the nation’s political history of nationalism, the history of military engagement in politics, record of economic depression and the ability to rise from the ashes of political and economic decay is the most unique character of the country. This fourth edition of Historical Dictionary of Ghana covers its history through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 900 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Ghana.