Prophetess Laura Adorkor Kofi And The Back To Africa Mission: A Ghanaian Perspective

Abstract

This diesis is a contribution to the discourse on Laura Adorkor Kofi and her hack-to-Africa vision, The thesis engages in textual analysis of studies that have been done on Laura Kuti and explores grey areas covering her identity and Ghanaian citizenship. It engages in a comparative analysis of the various methodologies adopted by scholars who have studied Laura Kofi, and makes a case for the importance of oral narratives in accessing information about Laura Adorkor Kofi’s Ghanaian ancestry. The thesis is in two parts: The first part studies Laura Kofi from die United States of America perspective, while die second part studies Laura Kofi from the Ghanaian perspective. The first part analyses studies that have been done focusing on Kofi’s association with the Universal Negro Improvement Association (henceforth UNIA), her expulsion from the UNIA, her formation of the African Universal Church {henceforth AUG), her Patt-African and religious engagements and events leading to her demise. This part also discusses the difficulties she encountered and the successes she achieved within the period. The second part of the study* which focuses on her Ghanaian ancestry, analyses issues relating to her origin and attempts to solve the mystery surrounding her identity. This part explains why she is referred to as a Ghanaian, a princess and a prophetess, and why she bears the name Adorkor Kofi. The study explains the seeming contradictions in some of the existing literature and documents oral accounts from a descendant and other career of handed-down oral narrations of the story of Laura Adorkor Kofi.