| Islands of Slaves Contributor(s): Hansen, Thorkild (Author), Dako, Kari (Translator), Lund, Birte (Illustrator) |
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ISBN: 9988550626 ISBN-13: 9789988550622 Publisher: Sub-Saharan Publishers OUR PRICE: $65.84 Product Type: Paperback Published: December 2005 Annotation: An estimated 15 percent of Ghana's population lives outside the country, and remittances from Ghanaians living overseas contribute at least a quarter of the country's income: the single most important source. However, while organizations such as the World Bank and United Nations believe that effectively managed international migration can contribute to growth and prosperity, Ghana has virtually no coordinated migration/development policies. In Europe, meanwhile, concerns about high levels of immigration from the global South are mounting, and range from the impact of the brain drain from the south on international development, through the impact of migration on the European social state and social cohesiveness, to concerns about illegal migration and terrorism in the post 9/11 world. Yet only the most progressive countries link policies on international migration and development at the government level. Debates about the relationship between migration and development are longstanding, politically sensitive and remain crucial to northern and southern countries. While the phenomena are much discussed, there is a need for better data and more research. Emanating from an international conference on migration and development convened by the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana, Legon, the UNDP and the Royal Netherlands Embassy, this collection considers topics such as: patterns of migration in West Africa; the Dutch perspective on contemporary migration; the macroeconomic impact of remittances; the impact of the brain drain on the health and higher education sectors in Ghana; the religious dimension of migration; and the role of diaspora-based organizations insocio-economic development. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Americas (north Central South West Indies) - History | Africa - General |
| LCCN: 2008349030 |
| Physical Information: 1.39" H x 6.24" W x 9.06" (1.79 lbs) 476 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - African |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: This is third title in Thorkild Hansen's classic trilogy on the Atlantic slave trade, originally published in Danish in 1967; and the first major translation and publication of the work in English. In Europe and North America, few are aware that the beautiful and now wealthy Virgin Islands of St Thomas, St Croix and St Jan were once Danish settlements and outposts of the slave trade. Moreover that the question of the independence of the islands was never seriously considered by the Danes, who instead sold them to the US in 1917 for 25 million dollars, several decades after the official end of slavery. This was against the will of the majority of the islanders, who were opposed to rule by the Americans, wary of their iniquitous treatment of blacks. In Denmark meanwhile, the popular view of national history presides that Denmark was the first of the imperial powers to abolish the slave trade. Thorkild Hansen's work breaks with these miss- representations of Denmark's role in the Atlantic slave trade. The third and biggest volume in the trilogy covers the period from the introduction of African slaves to the Danish islands, their official emancipation in 1848, subsequent sale to the Americans in the twentieth century, and reactions and resistance to these processes. Scrutinizing Denmark's moral obligation towards the islanders, the author draws extensively on primary sources, dramatizing and depicting real life characters into a moving and descriptive narrative. The introduction is provided by the historian A.V. Adams who states that ' Hansen's trilogy and Dako's scholarly initiative and competence in translating it contributes not only to Danes' re-reading of their own history, but also to West Indians' understanding of theirs... Hansen and Darko's contribution reaches beyond the Caribbean into the larger history of African-diaspora slave resistance... And inasmuch as the islands under consideration of the United States of America, this book through its translation becomes a text of US historiography...' |
Contributor Bio(s): Hansen, Thorkild: - Thorkild Hansen was a Danish foreign correspondent, novelist, travel writer and book reviewer, who wrote extensively on archaeological expeditions, travelogues, and on the Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun. He is known for his Slave Trilogy, for which he received the Nordic Council Prize.Dako, Kari: - Kari Dako is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Ghana. She has written extensively on socio-linguistics and Ghanaian English. She has also translated Thorkild Hansen's classic trilogy on the Atlantic slave trade from Danish. |