Challenges to British Policy of Direct Taxation among the Northern Ewes of Ghana

Abstract

Taxation is important in analysing the colonial economy and the functions of the colonial state. Historians often imagine a highly oppressive state forcing people to pay tax. But in the Ewedome region, the colonial administrators appeared weak. They were reluctant to push direct taxation too hard because they wanted to keep the peace and avoid protests or violent responses. This article extends the discussion of local influence on colonial policy to the little examined topic of taxation. It identifies what is special about Ewedome and describes how direct taxation was introduced, the concerns of administrators and reactions of the local people, and argues that this enables us to draw some important conclusions about the gendered and generational nature of responses to taxation and the surprising weakness of the colonial state.