Corruption and the Body Politic in Post-Colonial Ghana: A Re-reading of Amu Djoleto’s Money Galore in the era of ‘Zero tolerance for Corruption’ in Ghana
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Date
2009
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Publisher
Legon Journal of the Humanities, University of Ghana
Abstract
Corruption has been an important subject of analysis by social
scientists for many years (Bayley 1966; Huntington 1968, 1990;
Gould 1980, 1989; Ali 1985; Crowder 1987; Kimenyi 1987;
Alam 1989; Mbaku 1991; Couch et. al. 1992 etc.). In the 1960s,
however, two major events rekindled interest in the study of
corruption, especially in developing countries. First, Samuel
Huntington and others developed theories of modernisation and
political development. Second, the economies and markets of the
newly developed countries of Africa and Asia were overwhelmed
by corruption, bureaucratic inefficiency and incompetence.
Apart from social scientists, creative writers have also exposed
and dramatised the massive spectre of corruption in Africa.
Like other urban political novels, Amu Djoleto’s Money Galore
(1975) vividly captures the manifestations, scope, function,
psychology, power and cultural imperatives of corruption in
post-independence Ghana.