Ethnicity in Ghana : The Limits of Invention

Paul Nugent

ISBN 10: 0312224052 / ISBN 13: 9780312224059

Edité par Springer Nature B.V. Aug 2000, 2000

A propos de cet article

Neuware - 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.

N° de réf. du vendeur 9780312224059

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Ethnicity in Ghana : The Limits of Invention
• Éditeur: Springer Nature B.V. Aug 2000
• Date de parution: 2000
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 0312224052
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9780312224059
• Reliure: Buch
• État de l'article: Neu
• Dimensions: 224 L x 144 H x 21 P (en millimètres) 224 millimètres de largeur par 144 millimètres de hauteur par 21 millimètres de profondeur
• Poids: 454 grammes

A propos de ce titre

Synopsis

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.

À propos de l'auteur

Carola Lentz is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Frankfurt, Germany.

Paul Nugent is Senior Lecturer in African history at the University of Edinburgh.