Institute of African Studies

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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.
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.
‘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.
Accumulation by dispossession: The timber ‘salvage’ project on Ghana’s Volta Lake
(The Extractive Industries and Society, 2022) Lawer, E.T.; Ablo, A.D.
In this paper, we analyse how processes of accumulation by dispossession take place and are exacerbated on Ghana’s Volta Lake, the largest artificial lake in the world. Drawing on the case of an underwater timber ‘salvage’ project on the lake, we argue that contrary to dominant discourses in policy circles that the project would boost the local economy, enhance safer lake transport, and help to mitigate climate change, the project led to the commodification of the lake thereby negatively affecting fishers’ livelihoods. Following David Harvey, we argue that the underwater timber ‘salvage’ project on the Volta Lake is just another vehicle of ‘accumulation by dispossession’. The study shows that the state and extractive company accumulate profit at the expense of fishers whose livelihoods have been curtailed following restrictions in access to the lake and landowners who are challenging ownership of the timber being extracted from the lake. Global connections are made, and the inequalities and injustice enacted through the execution of the project are amplified.
Action Nominalization in Lɛtɛ (Leteh)
(2012) Akrofi Ansah, M.
The primary aim of this paper is to describe the process of action nominalization as it operates in Lɛtɛ. It will furteh explore morphosyntactic properties that the action noun shares with a prototypical Lɛtɛ noun phrase. ‘An action nominalization refers to an action, usually in the abstract expressed by the verb root’ (Payne 1997: 224). Generally, the phenomenon can be formulated as: V→NACTION designated by V (Payne 1997: 224). Languages of the world employ one or more mechanisms for deriving action nouns from action verbs ‘meaning the act of that verb (Comrie and Thompson 2007: 335). Leteh uses two strategies in deriving action nouns from action verbs. One mechanism involves a tonal change; usually, underlying high tones become low, and underlying low tones become high. It has been established that the underlying tonal pattern of the Leteh verb root is that of the imperative form (Akrofi Ansah 2009). Secondly, an action noun may be formed from a verb phrase consisting of an action verb and its object by reversing the order of the verb and the object. Transitive and intransitive verbs may undergo action nominalization. The derived noun possesses some morphosyntactic properties of a prototypical noun phrase. For example, it can be focused and also function as object NP in a transitive clause. The paper makes a contribution to our knowledge of some nominalization strategies that related languages like Akan (Appah 2005) and Leteh share.
Africa's land rush : rural livelihoods and agrarian change
(James Currey Ltd, 2015) Tsikata, D.; Scoones, I.; Hall, R.
The case studies in this book explore the processes through which land deals are being made; the implications for agrarian structure, rural livelihoods and food security; and the historical context of changing land uses, revealing that these land grabs may resonate with, even resurrect, forms of large-scale production associated with the colonial and early independence eras. The book depicts the striking diversity of deals and dealers: white Zimbabwean farmers in northern Nigeria, Dutch and American joint ventures in Ghana, an Indian agricultural company in Ethiopia's hinterland, European investors in Kenya's drylands and a Canadian biofuel company on its coast, South African sugar agribusiness in Tanzania's southern growth corridor, in Malawi's "Greenbelt" and in southern Mozambique, and white South African farmers venturing onto former state farms in the Congo.
Africa, the global order and the politics of aid
(Taylor & Francis Group, 2022) Mba, C.C.
A strong, but under-explored linkage exists between the current global order, world poverty and the politics of aid. Exploring this linkage, which is the key concern of this article, is crucial for a fuller understanding of the symbiotic injustice of the global order and the politics of aid. Using a conceptual thought experiment that portrays the framework of post-war global order as an intrinsically unjust “Global Games Arena”, I attempt a “vivisection” of the problematic relationship between the global order and the politics of aid. In the real world, I follow decolonial scholars like Adom Getachew and Olúfẹmi O. Táíwò to argue that the modern and current global order and its social, economic and political structures are founded on the unfair gains of trans-Atlantic slavery and colonialism. The empirical and analytical consequence of this situation, the article shows, is that to make aid effective or altogether end its penurious impact in Africa in particular, would require, at first, a jettisoning or remaking of the current international order. In other words, I argue that aid would not be necessary in the absence of a world order that in fact requires aid to maintain a system of global injustice and inequality.
African Independent Churches: Their Relation to Missionary Christianity and African Traditional Religion
(Mission 1(XVI): 123-136, 2009) Owoahene-Acheampong, S.
African studies: Evolution, challenges, and prospects
(Changing Perspectives on the Social Sciences in Ghana, 2014-05) Sackey, B.M.
The establishment of African Studies at the Institute of African Studies in the University of Ghana, Legon, could be rationalised as a two-fold initiative: to portray the independence of African people in terms of a paradigm shift in academic curricula, and to be a channel in leading the processes of decolonising the minds of a people just liberated from foreign domination. However, Africa Studies is constantly challenged on its relevance and comparability with other disciplines in both western and African scholarship. This chapter examines the scope of this ideology in contemporary times, and the extent to which African Studies has lived up to the mandate for its establishment. This chapter examines African Studies from its short-lived evolution at the School of African Studies from 1949 to 1950 to its current niche in the Institute of African Studies, established in 1961 and inaugurated in 1963. It examines some of its challenges and prospects and discusses the lingering question on the relevance of African Studies in modern scholarship, drawing on published material available to me as well as my own interviews with past and present students of African Studies, faculty, and some members of the public. The chapter also compares the structure of African Studies at the University of Ghana, Legon and University of Cape Coast, Ghana, which are different, yet complementary. The study affirmed that regardless of its challenges and continued denigration, African Studies, enables students to know and understand their roots, inherited past traditions, norms and lore, and above all, to redefine and uphold African consciousness in all aspects of life. As any multi-disciplinary field, African Studies should be open for controversies and divergences as such ambivalences could be desirable for its sustenance.
African Studies: Knowledge Production and Beyond
(2015) Owoahene-Acheampong, S.; Gordon, J.U.
The field of African Studies has emerged in recent years (1960s and 1970s) from obscurity to global recognition as an intellectual area of inquiry. It offers academic and career opportunities in advanced studies, ranging from certificates and diplomas to the bachelors, masters, doctorate degrees and post-doctorate work. Like other disciplines, African Studies as a multi- disciplinary area is engaged in research/knowledge production, teaching and public service. Yet a review of related literature in the field suggests that many critical challenges remain. It is hypothesized in this paper that until African Studies extends beyond knowledge production the field is unlikely to make significant and meaningful impact on African sustainable development.
Africa’s NEPAD Vision: Ambiguities, Contradictions and the Crisis of Internalizing External Models of Development
(South Asia Publishers, 2009) Kpessa, M.W.
This chapter examined the NEPAD development document adopted by African leaders in the early 2000s against the background of dominant development theories, and argued that notwithstanding the good intentions, the NEPAD vision is not only an attempt to internalize and legitimate western epistemological versions of what constitutes development, but fraught with series of gaps that questions the commitment of the framework to inclusive governance
Afro-Ghanaian influences in Ghanaian paintings
(2013-12) Labi, K.A.
This paper investigates the culturally-inclusive philosophy of teaching modern art in Achimota School established in Accra, Ghana, in 1924, as a co-educational institution by James Emmanuel Kwegyir Aggrey (b. 1875 – d. 1927) one of the first members of staff and Vice-Principal (1924-1927), together with Rev. Alexander Gordon Fraser (b. 1873 - d. 1962), the first principal (1924–1935) and Sir Gordon Guggisberg (b. 1869 - d. 1930), Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Gold Coast (1919–1928). This paper discusses some of the histories and receptions of modern and contemporary Ghanaian and African art by non-Euro-American voices. These including non-African voices are used to critique the origins of Ghanaian easel painting based on the Achimota School philosophy and its legacy in the colonial and immediate independence era to more recent paintings. This is addressed through the works that marked two different historical periods of Ghanaian painting - modern (both colonial and postcolonial from the 1940s–1970s) and contemporary (from the 1970s to the present) - rather than a detailed portrait of individual painters and their works. Early Ghanaian paintings are difficult to find and evidence of early exhibitions and their critical receptions are poorly documented at galleries and museums with the result that there is a paucity of meaningful engagement with art in the texts by Ghanaian scholars on the subject. The few collections with easel paintings made before the 1970s include those that were at the Centre for National Culture Art Gallery,1 others currently in the storage room at the Artists Alliance Gallery, and photographic reproductions in the catalogue for Pioneers of Contemporary Ghanaian Art, a 2009 exhibition of paintings made largely between the 1940s and 1970s. It will be argued that what occurred in the development of modern and contemporary Ghanaian painting is similar to what the Cuban anthropologist Fernando Ortiz calls transculturation. According to this theory, transculturation occurs when two different cultures come into contact and in the process the colonized learns, borrows, modifies and reinvents from the colonizer. While Gold Coast students in the nineteenth and opening decades of the twentieth century could not control what the colonizers and their teachers transmitted to them through education, they were given the opportunity to study traditional art, and determine its place in the future of modern art in Ghana. Thus, this paper sets out to demonstrate the importance of art in the local cultures and practise of artistic assimilation prior to colonization, and efforts to encourage art students to also learn from their cultural heritage, and to incorporate these insights into novel Western modes of art making, such as easel paintings. This resulted in the production, between the 1940s and 1970s, of landscapes and portraits largely based on nostalgia for traditional cultural practices. This has developed since the 1970s into an art practice that reflects Ghana’s traditions, modernity and postcolonial contemporary culture. It will be argued that out of these complex threads contemporary Ghanaian painters consciously draw upon and adapt traditional values, symbols and concerns as springboards for a new genre of paintings, with some remarkable achievements.
Afrocentricity, the adae festival of the Akan, African American festivals, and intergenerational communication
(Journal of Black Studies, 2005-07) Owusu-Frempong, Y.
African American communities celebrate different kinds of festivals each year, but little has been published on this subject. This article is intended to fill part of the vacuum, demonstrating the importance and functions of African festivals and their relationship with contemporary African American festivals. African festivals are a tool of community gathering and unity and place us at the center of our culture and social environment. They are also a medium of cultural education and intergenerational communication and play an important role in the preservation of our cultural heritage, transmitting knowledge and our experiences as a people to future generations. The celebration of festivals in the African American communities must not be seen merely as an annual congregation of street and food vendors, marching bands, and musicians but also as a tool of cultural reconstruction and transmission of knowledge to the younger generation. © 2005 Sage Publications.
Agricultural and land commercialization – feminist and rights perspectives
(Taylor & Francis Group, 2021) Prügl, E.; Reysoo, F.; Tsikata, D.
The article introduces the Forum on Commercializing Agriculture/ Reorganizing Gender, which reports findings from DEMETER project, a collaboration of scholars from Cambodia, Ghana and Switzerland. The project examines how agriculture and food security policies have advanced or hindered gender equality and the right to food; analyzes the role of human rights-based accountability mechanisms in this; and maps gendered changes in livelihoods in situated contexts. We offer a literature review on governance of the international food system from a gender and rights perspective, and on the gendered political economy of agrarian change. We relate the contributions of the Forum to existing literature and preview their findings
Agricultural markets in West Africa: Frontiers, agribusiness and social differentiation
(IDS Bulletin, 2005-06) Amanor, K.S.
Agricultural development policies and analyses have sought to reduce direct state intervention in order to promote free markets, yet rarely investigate the nature of African agribusiness and commodity markets. West African history shows a pattern of forest rents, frontier colonisation, boom and bust cycles and limited scope for diversifying production. Food markets present some opportunities, but are also characterised by unequal power in production and exchange State decline has left farmers to obtain technical inputs from private agribusinesses, but often on poor terms that heighten inequality and insecurity. © Institute of Development Studies.
Agroforestry systems can mitigate the severity of cocoa swollen shoot virus disease
(Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 2018-01) Andres, C.; Blaser, W.J.; Dzahini-Obiatey, H.K.; Ameyaw, G.A.; Domfeh, O.K.; Awiagah, M.A.; Gattinger, A.; Schneider, M.; Offei, S.K.; Six, J.
Currently, the only effective treatment for cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) infected with the cocoa swollen shoot virus disease (CSSVD) is to cut and replant infected trees. Hence, the development of preventive control measures and strategies to mitigate the severity of the disease are of utmost importance. While past research has mainly focused on resistance breeding, mild strain cross protection and vector control, diversification measures such as agroforestry have received relatively less attention, despite their potential to mitigate CSSVD severity. Therefore, we studied the effects of shade on CSSVD symptom severity, capsid damage and cocoa yield along a gradient of increasing shade tree abundance in smallholder cocoa farms in Ghana. Furthermore, we measured photosynthetic active radiation and assessed soil fertility in order to elaborate on potential causal factors for possible shade effects on CSSVD symptom severity. Both CSSVD symptom severity and cocoa yields followed quadratic curves, and were found to be lowest and highest in plots with 54% and 39% shade, respectively. The simulated optimal shade levels for CSSVD symptom severity and cocoa yield overlapped between 45%–53%, indicating that agroforestry systems with around 50% shade cover may be an optimal coping strategy to balance CSSVD symptom severity versus reduced cocoa yield until diseased cocoa is replaced with more resistant varieties. Furthermore, our results suggest that rather than soil fertility, high-light and possibly also soil moisture stress may have been responsible for the shade effects on CSSVD symptom severity.
AIDS-related knowledge and behavior among married Kenyan men: A behavioral paradox?
(Journal of Health and Human Services Administration, 2001-08) Dodoo, F.N.-A.; Ampofo, A.A.
The heterosexual character of HIV/AIDS transmission in sub-Saharan Africa, a context where men are dominant in sexual and reproductive matters, underscores the importance of assessing male behavior in sexual and related health arenas. Despite condom use being the recommended and expected behavioral response to knowledge about the fatal outcome of HIV/AIDS infection, use continues to be extremely low in sub-Saharan Africa. This article explores the relationship between various facets of knowledge about HIV/AIDS and condom use among married Kenyan men. The main finding is one of a significant interaction effect of the recognition that it is impossible to visually identify infected parties and one's perception of self-risk. Although neither is in itself significant, simultaneously recognizing that healthy-looking persons may be infected and perceiving that one is himself not at risk significantly reduces condom use among men. This finding - of an interaction effect - plausibly explains why a perception of self-risk, on its own, does not necessarily translate into safe behavior. After all, those who believe they can identify infected persons may think they are at low risk because they avoid contact with the infected and, in selecting partners they deem free of infection, they may be less inclined to use condoms. This finding has implications for how specific aspects of AIDS-related knowledge are imparted to communities and individuals as well as for our understanding of other health-related behaviors.
Akan Ananse Stories, Yorùbá Ìjàpá Tales, and the Dikenga Theory: Worldview and Structure
(2017) Kambon, Q.
s it possible to use endogenous African cosmological, philosophical, theoretical, and conceptual frameworks to analyze indigenous African phenomena? Why should one even try? In this article, it is argued that such analyses are not only possible and plausible, but they are imperative. It is further argued that just such frameworks can add insight to our understanding of the structure of Akan Ananse and Yorùbá Ìjàpá stories and the shared African worldview from which they arise. According to Fu-Kiau, "nothing exists that does not follow the steps of the cyclical Kongo cosmogram " (Fu-Kiau 1994: 26). This bold hypothesis is tested in this study by applying Dikènga, the cosmogram of the Bakôngo, to an oral (and/or written) literary analysis of the structure of Akan and Yorùbá stories. This application is what we term the "Dikènga theory of literary analysis." We find that this theoretical framework can help us shift away from concepts of "storylines" and "timelines" to reveal the patterned and cyclical nature of material and immaterial phenomena and to deepen our understanding of these stories as manifestations of a shared African worldview.
Akanization of the Hill Guan arts.
(2002) Labi, K.A.
The original inhabitants of the Akuapern Hills were predominantly Guan. From the mid-eighteenth century, they experienced fundamental political changes which marked a transition from the rule of priest-chiefs to secular chiefs. This new political order introduced new art forms and regalia. The cultural contact which took place in Akuapem did not result in an even diffusion of elements of Akan art and culture, but has been one of uneven and unbalanced adoption, modification and even rejection of some new art and religious forms. This article discusses the process of introducing an Akan type political system and its accompanying art in a group of Guan communities on the Akuapem Hills. Art and regalia in Akuapem portray the acceptance of new art forms, yet preserving some Guan traditional art forms amidst major artistic adoptions from the Akan. it therefore analyses whether the Akanization process was partial or complete.
Ambiguities of Colonial Law: The Case of Muhammadu Aminu, Former Political Agent and Chief Alkali of Kano
(2009) Afeadie, P.A.
Colonial law in Africa involved European moral and legal codes representing some rules of western law, as well as elements of African customary law. In Muslim polities such as Kano in northern Nigeria, customary conventions included Islamic law. The colonial situation embodying political and economic domination, however, negated the ideal practice of the rule of law. Enforcing colonial law was neither clearcut and straightforward in British Africa, as reflected in the career of Chief Alkali Aminu, formerly a political agent in the British colonial administration of northern Nigeria. In 1920 Chief Alkali Aminu adjudicated a ransom for a “slave” girl, based on pre-existing Hausa custom and Islamic law, as well as British legislation. Aminu’s decision, however, provoked deliberations by senior colonial officials and acknowledgement of ambiguities in colonial law. Details of the deliberations, included in the paper, provide sources on African history including insights on policy making in British colonial administration.

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