Ghana Studies: Reflections on the Association

The Ghana Studies Association has undergone many transformations since its inception thirty years ago: from a small council to a large association; from an ethnic focus to a global breadth; from history-dominated to interdisciplinary; from print to digital. The organization has sustained itself through the hard work, dedication, and enthusiasm of a diverse group of scholars, most never holding an "official" position, who share a passion for studying and promoting the history and cultures of the nation of Ghana.

Younger members may be surprised to learn that we began as the Akan Studies Council/Conseil des Études Akan, an organization meant to bring together Akan specialists working on either side of the Ghana–Côte d'Ivoire border. One of our founding members and first cochairs, Raymond Silverman, wrote an informative, vital account of the organization's early years for the 2011 newsletter (issue 24) to commemorate our twenty-fifth anniversary. He explains that the council's formation in 1988 was inspired by the Mande Studies Association, established two years earlier, which connected scholars working over a large area of West Africa. The Akan Studies Council's first business meeting was held in November 1988 at the thirty-first annual meeting of the African Studies Association (ASA) in Chicago. The council began a newsletter, published biannually until 1991 and bilingually (English and French) until 1993, that reported on the organization's activities, presented research reports, and listed member publications. The first council-sponsored panel was convened at the ASA conference in Baltimore in 1990. After a few years, Silverman explains, the challenges of maintaining a bilingual organization, as well as concerns about its ethnocentrism, resulted in the 1993 decision to convert the Akan Studies Council into the Ghana Studies Council (GSC).

It was around this time that I began attending meetings of the GSC, then led by Jean Allman, current president of the ASA. As a graduate student new to the organization, I had the impression that nearly everyone had a connection to Northwestern University (I was at UCLA); worked on Akan history (I was focusing on the Volta Region); and already knew one another (except me). It is true that many of the leading members were historians who had studied with Ivor Wilks, the great historian of the Asante, at Northwestern, but in retrospect I realize I was actually part of the changes taking place as the council transformed itself from Akan to Ghana Studies. Moreover, I certainly felt welcomed in the GSC, enjoyed attending the animated and enlightening meetings, and formed many friendships that I maintain to this day. A fond memory of those years is when I spotted two senior GSC members in the audience at one of my first conference presentations—a simultaneously terrifying and flattering experience for any graduate student. They made a point of coming up to me once the panel ended to offer their congratulations and advice.

About a decade later, in 2007, I was elected chair of the GSC, at a time when membership had been in gradual decline and the council's scholarly journal, Ghana Studies, was behind schedule. I recruited a number of colleagues to implement a series of initiatives to revitalize and expand the organization. Akosua Adomako and Stephan Miescher agreed to serve as the coeditors of Ghana Studies, constituted a new editorial board, and, simultaneously and miraculously, published two issues to bring the journal up-to-date. The newsletter was enhanced to feature longer reflective essays and project articles, carefully edited by Carina Ray. In order to ensure transparency and continuity, Benjamin Talton developed the bylaws for our organization, I appointed an advisory board that comprised several former chairs of the GSC, and Naaborko Sackeyfio was elected our first treasurer. We acquired our third and current name, the Ghana Studies Association (GSA), and designated our leader "president" instead of "chair" to reflect prevailing practices among other ASA coordinate organizations. We resurrected and enlarged our research grant program to support Ghana-based faculty, researchers, and graduate students and published their research reports in the newsletter. We began sponsoring panels outside the ASA conference, namely the European...