Shaping Tradition: civil society, community and development in colonial northern Ghana, 1899–1957 (review)

The vast majority of the literature available on colonial northern Ghana, that area referred to as the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast, presents ethnographic information about the various ethnic groups that occupied this vast basin of the Volta rivers, and analyses how the political landscape was changed during the nearly sixty years of British colonial rule in that region. Only a few studies examine the economic situation (mainly land issues, agriculture and labour migration), and social conditions (health and education) of the inhabitants of the Northern Territories. This book provides an insight into the main reason for the over-concentration of the literature on anthropological and political issues. The reason is quite simple. The colonial government did not have much to show with respect to social and economic development programmes in that part of the Gold Coast north of Ashanti. Besides attempts to eradicate the tsetse fly, which had rendered vast stretches of land in the Northern Territories uninhabitable, the only economic programmes worth mentioning include the feeble introduction of mixed faming and bullock traction technology in the few agricultural stations set up in northern Ghana as well as the ill-fated attempt to introduce groundnut production using mechanized farming methods in the Damongo area during the late period of colonial rule. This book, by and large, confirms earlier studies critiquing the officially sanctioned colonial policy of neglecting to develop the human and material resources of this vast region or to provide any substantial social and economic infrastructure in the Northern Territories throughout the period of colonial rule. Economically, the Northern Territories were to remain underdeveloped to prevent the rise of cash cropping, land alienation, environmental degradation and capitalist agriculture, as witnessed in the South. The belief was that the coastal elite had 'absorbed the worst of civilization through early contact with exploitative and ruthless European traders' (p. 55).

This book is one of the few that analyses the political changes as well as the economic development efforts of the colonial government in northern Ghana. The experiences are largely drawn from the descent-based, segmentary and so-called acephalous groups inhabiting the extreme north-western (especially the Dagara, Lobi and Sisala) and north-eastern (Talensi, Frafra) parts of the Territories. After the annexation of the Northern Territories the immediate task of the colonial administration was to pacify a vast and impenetrable area that had suffered terribly from frequent raids by its neighbours for slaves, women and war booty. Despite isolated resistance from groups such as the Talensi, the mission of pacification was largely accomplished by 1915.

The decision to adopt the policy of indirect rule, by governing through government-appointed chiefs, even amongst peoples without a secular and territorial leader, resulted in the transformation of the basis of political and social power in northern Ghana. The effects of this policy (including clan rivalries, internecine conflicts and succession disputes) are still being felt amongst these groups today. Besides imposing chiefs on hitherto clan-based groups, the colonial authorities also imposed a hierarchy amongst the various chiefs within a particular geographical area. However, towards the end of the 1940s, faced with the inability of the chiefs to bring about the transformation necessary to improve the lives of the people, the colonial administration began to lose faith in the ability of the chieftaincy institution to promote social and economic development. Unable to prevent the growth of civil society groups and the radicalization of the educated elite in the South, the colonial administration attempted to block the participation of the general population, especially those who were educated, in the administration of the Territories.

The author demonstrates clearly that the non-development of the Northern Territories was due to the colonial authorities' fear of not being able to control the population any more successfully than had been the case in the south: politically, chiefs were preferred as rulers so that the status quo in...