| Ethnicity in Ghana: The Limits of Invention 2000 Edition Contributor(s): Na, Na (Author) |
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ISBN: 0312224052 ISBN-13: 9780312224059 Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan OUR PRICE: $104.49 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: August 2000 Annotation: These essays address the neglected theme of ethnicity in Ghanaian history, society, and politics. The essays qualify the notion that ethnicity was purely a colonial "invention" by demonstrating the ways in which the boundaries of "we-groups" have mutated from pre-colonial times onwards. The collection also considers the particular manner in which the national question is posed today in terms of language policy and conflicts over land and chieftaincy. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Sociology - General - Social Science | Anthropology - Cultural & Social |
| Dewey: 305.800 |
| LCCN: 99023357 |
| Physical Information: 0.81" H x 5.68" W x 8.81" (1.00 lbs) 236 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - West Africa |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Although African ethnicity has become a highly fertile field of enquiry in recent years, most of the research is concentrated on southern and central Africa, and has passed Ghana by. This volume extends many of the distilled insights, but also modifies them in the light of the Ghanaian evidence. The collection is multidisciplinary in scope and spans the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial contexts. A central contention of the volume is that, while there were significant regional variations, ethnicity was not purely a colonial invention'. The boundaries of we-groups' have constantly mutated from pre-colonial times, while European categorization owed much to indigenous ways of seeing. The contributors explore the role of European administrators and recruitment officers as well as African cultural brokers in shaping new identities. The interaction of gender and ethnic consciousness is explicitly addressed. The volume also examines the formulation of the national question in Ghana today - in debates over language policy and conflicts over land and chieftaincy. |