College of Humanities
Permanent URI for this community
Browse
Browsing College of Humanities by Title
Now showing 1 - 20 of 4758
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item 10,000 miners, 10,000 votes: Politics and mining in Ghana(Africa, 2018-11) Ntewusu, S.A.In their article‘Governing access to gold in Ghana: in-depth geopolitics onmining concessions’, Luning and Pijpers (2017) discuss important politicalissues around mining in Ghana. Using the companies Keegan and Newmont asunits of analysis, and drawing on insights from geography and anthropology,the authors call for an alternative approach to geopolitical issues in mining.They point out that mining concessions are sites of governance that involve eco-nomic players–that is, mining companies and artisanal miners/galamsey–andpolitical authorities positioned at national as well as local scales (ibid.: 761). Ofgreater interest, the authors argue, is the kind of relationship that has developedbetween established exploration or mining companies andgalamseyoperators.The authors point out that the maintenance of such a relationship, thoughuneasy, is necessary in ensuring continuous mining in the areas where thesemining companies are located.This commentary focuses on an aspect of the article that deals with the issue ofgalamsey. Drawing on historical events, I discuss some key characteristics of arti-sanal mining and miners and the issue of hybrid governance, involving traditionaland modern authorities in mining in Ghana.Item 10,000 year history of plant use at Bosumpra Cave, Ghana(Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, 2015-01) Oas, S.E.; D’Andrea, A.C.; Watson, D.J.Investigations of hunter-gatherer subsistence, early food production, and the development of agroforestry systems during the Later Stone Age (LSA) of West Africa have proven challenging because of limited recovery and analysis of archaeological evidence relating directly to subsistence. This paper examines changes in the use of plant resources over a 10,000 year period at Bosumpra Cave, southern Ghana. Large quantities of recovered Canarium schweinfurthii (incense tree) and Elaeis guineensis (oil palm) endocarp preserved at the site allow for the assessment of previous observations about changes in the relative importance of tree fruit resources over time. Results point to the possibility that C. schweinfurthii was a managed resource and may be useful as a marker of forager subsistence in tropical forest regions. The exploitation of C. schweinfurthii persisted in the early and middle Holocene, but was eventually overshadowed in the late Holocene by Kintampo food-producing economies based on Pennisetum glaucum (pearl millet), Vigna unguiculata (cowpea) and E. guineensis. The Bosumpra deposits also yielded domesticated pearl millet and cowpea, allowing for the comparison of LSA hunter-gatherer and early food producer subsistence practices and cultural interactions in southern Ghana.Item The 2000 general elections and presidential run-off in Ghana: An overview(Democratization, 2010-09) Ayee, J.The December 2000 general elections and presidential run-off in Ghana were arguably the most important since independence in 1957 and constituted a significant landmark in Ghana's democratic development. This article explains the reasons why, and offers a detailed account of the election campaign, an assessment of the quality of the electoral process and an analysis of the results. The opposition victory is explained in terms of several key factors, before concluding with regard to the positive implications for the consolidation of democracy in Ghana in the future.Item The 2007 Kenyan Elections: Lessons for the Rest of Africa(University of Ghana, 2008) Debrah, E.Item The 2008 Political Parties’ Code of Conduct in Ghana: A Toothless Bulldog?(African Journal of Political Science and International Relations, 2008) Gyampo, R.E.The idea of drafting a Code of Conduct for political parties in the run up to the December 2008 General Elections by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA-Ghana) under the auspices of the Ghana Political Parties’ Programme (GPPP), was hailed by many Ghanaians and political analysts as a step in the right direction. Indeed, the establishment and inauguration of enforcement bodies under the Code was seen as a useful initiative by The IEA to give the Code “teeth to bite”. This study however reveals that the establishment and inauguration of the enforcement bodies under the Code did not make it unique after all. In more practical terms, the study revealed that the 2008 Political Parties’ Code of Conduct is not in anyway different from the ones drafted in 2000 and 2004. It is just as ineffective as a toothless bull dog that can only bark but cannot bite. The whole process of drafting the Code can therefore be described as one of the numerous Ghanaian efforts at looking for solutions to problems through workshops, retreats and symposia whose outcomes and resolutions are never implemented but left on shelves to gather dustItem The 2020 Maize Production Failure in Ghana: A Case Study of Ejura-Sekyedumase Municipality(Sustainability, 2022) Obour, P.B.; Arthur, I.K.; Owusu, K.This paper examines the causes of widespread maize production failure in Ghana during the 2020 minor growing season. A mixed-methods approach was used to study smallholder maize farmers in the Ejura-Sekyedumase Municipality to provide a holistic understanding of the factors behind the maize production failure and to inform policy interventions. The results show that the decline in maize grain yield was caused by the failure of the minor season rains and, more importantly, the destruction of maize plants by fall armyworms. Other factors include poor soils and inadequate farm inputs contributed minimally to the observed maize failures. The agronomic practices adopted by the farmers to mitigate crop failures were undermined by their inability to master the onset and cessation of rainfall, the ineffectiveness of pesticides to control the fall armyworms and financial challenges. It is recommended that the government promote and support rainwater harvesting to address the impacts of drought and pests on food crop production. Furthermore, to ensure sustainable For food production, a combination of indigenous knowledge and scientific farm practices are crucial. accurately forecast the weather and control the fall armyworms.Item 400 Years? Ancestors Disappear! Historical Misorientation and Disorientation in the Year of Return and the 400 Years Narrative(Journal of African American Studies, 2023) Kambon, O.; Songsore, L.; Aketema, J.1619 CE was selected as the starting point in reference to enslaved Afrikans supposedly arriving at the British colony of Jamestown, Virginia as referenced on numerous Government of Ghana websites for 2019’s Year of Return. In this article, we will use various primary and scholarly sources to interrogate “white” epistemologies and anglocentric frames of reference of using 1619 CE as a starting point for anti-Black enslavement while challenging biblical parallels and references to 400 years (Brauchle in Virginia changing marker denoting where first Africans arrived in 1619, Web: dailypress.com, 2015). Using an Afrikan-centered analysis, we argue that the arbitrary selection of the anglocentric date of 1619 CE cannot be at the center of any narrative told from the perspective of Afrikan = Black people lest we erase the memory of hundreds of thousands of Afrikan ancestors enslaved prior to that time in what would eventually become the continental USA and elsewhere.Item ‘9th May 2017 is OUR DAY’: The Homeland Study Group Foundation and contested national imaginaries in postindependence Ghana(Nations and Nationalism, 2022) Adotey, E.Ghana has been held up as an oasis of stability in a highly volatile region of Africa due to its peaceful decolonization process, absence of serious civil conflict and successful change of governments. However, in Ghana, as in parts of post-independence Africa, there are lingering secessionist movements that are a legacy of colonialism. The latest comes from the Homeland Study Group Foundation (HSGF) which declared the former British Togoland, a former United Nations trust territory administered by the United Kingdom, as an independent state called Western Togoland. Through the prism of competing or alternative national imaginaries rather than the weak and dysfunctional state paradigm, this article seeks to explain the roots of a form of Togoland nationalism in Ghana in 1956 that remains relevant today. The paper argues that an Apparently, successful integration can stimulate/give support to alternative nationalist imaginaries.Item Abortion experience and self-efficacy: exploring socioeconomic profiles of GHANAIAN women(BMC Reproductive health, 2019-07-10) Lambon-Quayefio, M.P.; Owoo, N.S.; Onuoha, N.Background: Unsafe abortions remain a major global public health concern and despite its prevalence, unsafe abortions remain one of the most neglected global health challenges. The proportion of women in Ghana who have experienced unsafe abortions has increased from 45% in 2007 to 62% in 2017. Given the noted consequences of (unsafe) abortions on women health, it is important to explore factors correlated with women’s abortion decisions and why they opt for safe or unsafe methods. The study also examines determinants of over 6,000 Ghanaian women’s selfefficacy in abortion decision-making, given that this is likely to affect the likelihood of future abortions. Methods: Using cluster-level Geographic Information System data from the 2017 Ghana Maternal Health Survey, the study provides a hot spot analysis of the incidence of abortion in the country. The study also makes use of Probit multivariate analyses also show the correlates of abortion with socio-economic factors. Results: Results suggest that abortion among women is positively correlated with the absence of partners, low education levels, higher household wealth, lower parity and family size, polygyny and Christian religious background. Conclusion: It is observed that the groups of women with higher abortion self-efficacy are the same groups of women who are more likely to opt for safer abortion methods, indicating some correlation, albeit indirect, between abortion self-efficacy and women’s abortion behaviors in Ghana. Relevant policy applications are adduced from these research findings.Item Abortions in Ghana: experiences of University students(2014) Appiah-Agyekum, N. N.Background: Students in Ghana and other developing countries remain the major vulnerable group most likely to have abortions and suffer abortion stigma. However there is a dearth of empirical information on the experiences of Higher Education students on abortion needed for evidence based policies and interventions. Aim: The aim of the present study was to explore some of the key experiences of University students on abortion in Ghana so as to provide information for evidence based interventions. Methods: Data was collected from 142 students of the University of Ghana through 18 focus group discussions [FGDs]. Questions asked during the FGDs were based on a modified version of the Knoxville Center for Reproductive Health’s abortion questionnaire and focused primarily on first-hand experiences of students. The results were recorded, transcribed and analysed qualitatively using the thematic analysis approach. Results: 66.9% of students had personally undergone abortion procedures with more than 50% having done so more than once. Further, majority of the abortions were self-induced and done in the first trimester of the pregnancy. Only 9.8% of students used safe abortion services despite being aware and having access to them. Quack abortion services were popular and patronised by a relatively significant number (26.1%) of students. Conclusions: Abortions, mostly unsafe, are common experiences among students. Immediate sensitization and education on the alternatives to abortions; unsafe abortions; contraception; and counselling and family planning services is necessary among students. Male partners play a significant role in the decision to abort, choice of method and also provide support during the abortion procedures; and must be actively involved in all abortion interventions among students. Particular attention and the necessary research by both state and non-state stakeholders on abortion must focus on the activities of quack abortion providers, self-induced abortions among students as well as reasons for the low utilization of safe abortion services among students in spite of their knowledge of and access to these servicesItem 'Abroad’ and Semantically Related Terms in Some European Languages and Akan. In: Languages and Cultures in Contrast and Comparison, edited by Maria de los Angeles Gomez-Gonzalez, Lachlan Mackenzie and Elsa Gonzalez-Alvarez(Amsterdam : John Benjamins, pp. 173-191, 2008) Amfo, N.A.A.; Fretheim, T.Item Academic Challenges of Students with Hearing Impairment (SHIs) in Ghana. Disability(VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT AMSTERDAM, 2017) Agyire-Tettey, E.E.; Cobbina, M.; Hamenoo, E.S.Purpose: Several researches have showed that the average academic performances of students with hearing impairment (SHIs) are below that of hearing students. This research sought to elucidate challenges that prevent SHIs from high academic achievements, using the case of students in Tetteh Ocloo State School for the Deaf in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. Method: A qualitative research design was used for data collection through in-depth interviews, analysis and the interpretation of the responses of thirty participants (12 Students with hearing impairments, 11 parents and 7 special educators). Results: Findings showed that challenges which hinder SHIs academic performance emanate from different systems and actors including SHIs themselves, their parents and other institutional barriers that exist in deaf education. The findings also indicated that parents influenced the academic performance of their children with hearing impairment (CHI) through their responsibilities, expectations and the learning assistance they gave to their wards at home. Results also established that institutional barriers such as effective instructional procedures adopted in deaf education, availability of facilities, teaching, reading learning materials, and curricular contents posed challenges to the academic performance of students with hearing impairment. Conclusion: The identified challenges which prevent SHIs from higher academic performance are from different systems of SHIs’ environment and the interplay between them. The study recommends that interventions must be directed at the different systems within their environment.Item Academic Freedom and Its Protection in the Law of European States(BRILL NIJHOFF, 2016) Appiagyei-Atua, K.; Beiter, K.D.; Karran, T.Focusing on those countries that are members of the European Union, it may be noted that these countries are bound under international human rights agreements, such as the International Covenants on Civil and Political, and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights or the European Convention on Human Rights, to safeguard academic freedom under provisions providing for the right to freedom of expression, the right to education, and respect for ‘the freedom indispensable for scientific research.’ unesco’s Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel, a ‘soft-law’ document of 1997, concretises international human rights requirements to be complied with to make the protection of the right to academic freedom effective. Relying on a set of human rights indicators, the present article assesses the extent to which the constitutions, laws on higher education, and other relevant legislation of eu states implement the Recommendation’s criteria. The situation of academic freedom in practice will not be assessed here. The results for the various countries have been quantified and countries ranked in accordance with ‘their performance.’ The assessment demonstrates that, overall, the state of the protection of the right to academic freedom in the law of European states is one of ‘ill-health.’ Institutional autonomy is being misconstrued as exhausting the concept of academic freedom, self-governance in higher education institutions sacrificed for ‘executive-style’ management, and employment security abrogated to cater for ‘changing employment needs’ in higher education.Item Academic Freedom in Africa: Linking the Past to the Present and Future in University Values(2009) Appiagyei-Atua, K.The right to academic freedom derives from other rights and freedoms such as freedoms of thought, conscience, religion, expression, assembly, association and movement; and rights to life, liberty, education and culture. It is therefore a freedom that cannot enjoy a separate existence or be enjoyed in isolation. It needs other freedoms to flourish and its enjoyment promotes or facilitates the enjoyment of other rights and freedoms. On that basis, it can be concluded that the struggle for academic freedom is an integral part of the general struggle for human rights. Like judicial freedom, the enjoyment of academic freedom is not necessarily to promote the interest of the individual academic but as a tool to promote academic excellence, generally. To talk about academic freedom in the African context, it is important to situate the discussion in its past in order to better relate it to the present and future.Item Academic Mentoring in a Public Research Institution: Experiences of New Academics(2014) Abugre, J.B.; Nyuur, R.B.Item Academic promotion policies and equity in global health collaborations(The Lancet, 2018-11) Hedt-Gauthier, B.; Airhihenbuwa, C.O.; Bawah, A.A.; Burke, K.S.; Cherian, T.; Connelly, M.T.; Hibberd, P.L.; Ivers, L.C.; Jerome, J.G.; Kateera, F.et.al.When global health researchers in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) collaborate with academics in high-income countries (HICs), these partnerships often result in disproportionate benefits for the HIC researchers who gain more opportunities for authorship, more prominent authorship positions, more opportunities to present at conferences, and more funding for administrative and student support for LMIC colleagues. This inequity gap persists despite existing guidelines for good collaborative practice and repeated calls to improve global health research partnerships.1 Models for equitable collaborations differ from country to country and team to team, depending on the experience and empowerment of the LMIC researchers and training institutes, research infrastructure, the length of collaborations, and the amount of funding available for research and training. However, the absence of an optimal model should not be an excuse for poor collaborative dynamics.Item Academics among farmers: Linking intervention to research(Geoforum, 2009-03) Brookfield, H.; Gyasi, E.A.Geographers and other academics whose reputations and advancement depend on their work among developing country farmers have an obligation to assist the farmers in tangible ways. A project of the United Nations University which did this in 1993-2002 (PLEC)is described, with particular reference to Ghana, together with a follow-up project in the same country. Best methods of resource management were sought among the farmers themselves, and expert farmers were encouraged to instruct others in their methods. Moreover, in a project concerned with the conservation of biodiversity on farm, the farmers were also assisted in enterprises creating added value from biodiversity. Getting behind the farmers in their own enterprises can enrich academic research. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Item Acceptability of COVID-19 Vaccination among Health Care Workers in Ghana(Hindawi, 2021) Agyekum, M.W.; Afrifa-Anane, G.F.; Kyei-Arthur, F.; Addo, B.Because health care workers are a reliable source of health information, their acceptance or rejection of COVID-19 vaccines can influence the general population’s uptake of COVID-19 vaccines. In this study, we sought to determine the acceptability of COVID-19 vaccines among health care workers in Ghana. Using a cross-sectional design, we collected data from 234 health care workers through a self-administered online survey from 16 January to 15 February 2021. Descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate analyses were performed using STATA version 15. ,The findings revealed that 39.3% (n = 92) of health care workers intended to receive the COVID-19 vaccines. Factors such as sex (AOR = 0.451; CI 95% 0.240–0.845; p = 0.013), category of health care workers (AOR = 2.851; 95 CI%: 1.097–7.405; p =0.031), relative being diagnosed with COVID-19 (AOR = 0.369; CI 95% 0.145–0.941; p =0.037), and trust in the accuracy of the measures taken by the government in the fight against COVID-19 (AOR = 2.768; CI 95%: 1.365–5.616; p = 0.005) proved to be significant predictors of the acceptability of the COVID-19 vaccine. Concerns about the safety of vaccines (n =93, 65.5%) and the adverse side effects of the vaccines (n = 23, 14.8%) were identified as the main reasons why health care workers would decline uptake of COVID-19 vaccines in Ghana. ,e self-reported low intention of health care workers in Ghana to accept COVID-19 vaccines necessitates an urgent call from the Government of Ghana and other stakeholders to address health care workers’ concerns about the safety and adverse side effects of COVID-19 vaccines, as this would increase vaccine uptake. Interventions must also take into consideration sex and the category of health care workers to achieve the desired results.Item Acceptability of PrEP for HIV prevention among women at high risk for HIV(Journal of Women's Health, 2010-04) Guest, G.; Shattuck, D.; Johnson, L.; Akumatey, B.; Clarke, E.E.K.; Chen, P.L.; MacQueen, K.M.Objective: To assess the acceptability of a daily pill for prevention of HIV acquisition among 400 Ghanaian women in the oral tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) clinical trial. Methods: Structured questionnaires were conducted with women enrolled in the trial at enrollment and at each of the 12 monthly follow-up visits. Growth curve analysis was used to examine adherence patterns over time. Qualitative interviews were carried out with a subsample of the clinical trial population, and thematic analysis was applied to these data. Results: Overall, acceptability of the pill was good. Adherence remained >82% throughout the 12-month trial. Consistent access to the pill and study assignment were both associated with adherence. Most reported problems diminished over time as women became accustomed to the pill and developed strategies to incorporate pill taking into their daily routines. Conclusions: If daily preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV is found to be efficacious and has as few physical side effects as TDF, acceptability of this method among women in the study population may not be problematic. However, future studies must develop better acceptability measures, in order to more fully address the relationship among adherence, safety, and effectiveness. © 2010 Copyright Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.