Project MUSE®: Ghana Studies - Latest Articles
https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/641
Project MUSE®: Latest articles in Ghana Studies.daily12026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00text/htmlen-USVol. 1 (1998) through current issueLatest Articles: Ghana StudiesTWOProject MUSE®Ghana Studies2333-71681536-5514Latest articles in Ghana Studies. Feed provided by Project MUSE®A Note from the Editors
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988023
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In our role as editors, this 28th volume of Ghana Studies continues to fulfill our desire to make the triennial conferences held in Ghana meaningful. Thus, the first section of this volume is a special forum on northern Ghana, a result of the 2022 GSA conference at Tamale. A special thank you to our guest editors Alice Wiemers, Eliasu Mumuni, and Felix Longi for being the frontline managers for the special forum. As intimated, this special forum is a paean to a place that is not just a geographic location but also a confluence of time, history, and world-making. The festival of knowledge on northern Ghana is followed by three research articles inspired by a reflection on Ephraim Amu's 1944 composition "Asem yi di
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/641/image/coversmallA Note from the Editors2026-04-18text/htmlen-USA Note from the Editors2026-04-182026TWOProject MUSE®50012026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-18Introduction: New Directions in Northern Ghana Studies
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988024
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Northern Ghana has long stood at the intersection of historical legacies, ecological transformations, cultural vitality, and contemporary policy struggles. This view and state of identity have rarely been given adequate and deliberate amplification. This special forum of Ghana Studies showcases emerging scholarship that critically repositions Northern Ghana not as a periphery but as a dynamic site of inquiry and intervention, foregrounding the region's people, landscapes, and histories in fresh and provocative ways.From the contested politics of land and gender justice (Ignatova et al.) to the transatlantic genealogical reconnections of the Kassena diaspora (David et al.), the contributions in this volume challenge
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/641/image/coversmallIntroduction: New Directions in Northern Ghana Studies2026-04-18text/htmlen-USIntroduction: New Directions in Northern Ghana Studies2026-04-182026TWOProject MUSE®96962026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-18The Contested Politics of Intergenerational Land and Gender Justice in Northern Ghana
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988025
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To what extent do recent policy efforts to reform land administration and agricultural systems in Ghana consider intergenerational and gender equity and justice? Since the late 1990s, the World Bank and the Ghanaian government have been focused on the harmonization of customary and statutory land systems and the modernization of agriculture in Ghana with the stated twin goals of poverty alleviation and improving women's access to land. However, we argue that such policy reform, rather than addressing these inequities, may reproduce them by creating new avenues for the exploitation of land that disadvantages both women and future generations. It furthermore falls short of addressing the problem of "land grabbing
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/641/image/coversmallThe Contested Politics of Intergenerational Land and Gender Justice in Northern Ghana2026-04-18text/htmlen-USThe Contested Politics of Intergenerational Land and Gender Justice in Northern Ghana2026-04-182026TWOProject MUSE®1325542026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-18Genetic Genealogy Inference among Kassena Ghanaians and Their Diaspora Multiple Generations after the Transatlantic Slave Trade
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988026
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Genetic genealogy holds immense promise for families and communities affected by large-scale displacement. Residents of the Nania village in Paga, Ghana, recount historical narratives about local and international slavery, though these narratives lack specifics after the captives were trafficked from Ghana's shores. For members of the historic African diaspora in the U.S., details about African family histories during or before the transatlantic slave trade remain largely elusive due to the disruptive nature of slavery. Phase 1 of our project, which is detailed in this article, estimates genetic relatedness among northern Ghana residents to prepare for future research connecting these genetic trees with their
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/641/image/coversmallGenetic Genealogy Inference among Kassena Ghanaians and Their Diaspora Multiple Generations after the Transatlantic Slave Trade2026-04-18text/htmlen-USGenetic Genealogy Inference among Kassena Ghanaians and Their Diaspora Multiple Generations after the Transatlantic Slave Trade2026-04-182026TWOProject MUSE®939692026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-18The Intersection of the Media and the Emerging Cultural Renaissance of Dagbon in Ghana
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988027
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This study explores how media narratives and content significantly influence societal norms, traditions, and cultural sustainability in Dagbon. The research draws on theoretical frameworks such as Cultural Norms Theory and Agenda-Setting Theory to highlight how the media shapes societal values and reinforces collective identity. In Ghana's diverse cultural landscape, the media's ability to preserve and promote heritage has implications for both regional and national development (Allen, 2023; Liechty, 2022; Bouvier & Machin, 2020; Neville et al., 2021).The article examines how media practices contribute to an emerging cultural renaissance in Dagbon, a historically rich region in Northern Ghana. Using qualitative
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/641/image/coversmallThe Intersection of the Media and the Emerging Cultural Renaissance of Dagbon in Ghana2026-04-18text/htmlen-USThe Intersection of the Media and the Emerging Cultural Renaissance of Dagbon in Ghana2026-04-182026TWOProject MUSE®789892026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-18Lasting Legacies of German, French, and British Colonial Presence in Anuforland-North East Ghana and the North-West of Togo
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988028
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Colonialism is a well-researched subject, a path traversed by many historians. This perhaps underscores colonialism's importance in shaping world history. Sources on colonial history remain equally diverse, with colonial archives offering a rich source of imperial history. According to Stoler (2002), post-colonial studies are increasingly adopting an historical perspective and using archives, yet these archives, despite their relevance and ability to reshape history, are underutilised (Namhila, 2016; Ntewusu, 2017).In the case of northern Ghana, its colonial history is interwoven with the rest of the country as the colonial administrations' initial impact and presence was more felt on the coast and Ashante
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/641/image/coversmallLasting Legacies of German, French, and British Colonial Presence in Anuforland-North East Ghana and the North-West of Togo2026-04-18text/htmlen-USLasting Legacies of German, French, and British Colonial Presence in Anuforland-North East Ghana and the North-West of Togo2026-04-182026TWOProject MUSE®795492026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-18Environmentalism of the North and Environmentalism of the South: Understanding Factors Driving Differing Environmentalisms in Ghana
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988029
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Environmentalism as a political identity and movement manifests itself in many ways globally. A well-documented approach to categorizing these myriad manifestations relies on social class to define categories. There are two environmentalisms, this literature suggests, an environmentalism of the Global North and an environmentalism of the Global South. Scholars of post-materialism initially framed the first of these categories (Inglehart, 1977). Environmentalism was deemed a "rich-people problem" (Inglehart, 1997). Maslow's (1954) hierarchy of needs suggests that those with fewer material resources have other, more pressing concerns. Once an individual reaches a certain level of contentedness in their socioeconomic
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/641/image/coversmallEnvironmentalism of the North and Environmentalism of the South: Understanding Factors Driving Differing Environmentalisms in Ghana2026-04-18text/htmlen-USEnvironmentalism of the North and Environmentalism of the South: Understanding Factors Driving Differing Environmentalisms in Ghana2026-04-182026TWOProject MUSE®866952026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-18"A Good, Careful Woman": Gender, Food Storage, and Social Resilience in Northern Ghana
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988030
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Scholars in anthropology and archaeology have been concerned with surplus accumulation and food storage strategies, especially at the macro level (Barton, 2014; Hirth, 1996; Margomenou, 2008:196). However, a group of scholars (Ingold, 1983; Kuto, 2020; Logan, 2020; Robin, 2013), whom I describe as social anthropological archaeologists, have been interested in understanding food security and storage at smaller scales, such as households, through the study of everyday practices. The household is a veritable site for understanding people's daily interactions. Robin (2013), for instance, intimates that studying daily interactions and experiences can offer a means to understanding the conditions that foment change and
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/641/image/coversmall"A Good, Careful Woman": Gender, Food Storage, and Social Resilience in Northern Ghana2026-04-18text/htmlen-US"A Good, Careful Woman": Gender, Food Storage, and Social Resilience in Northern Ghana2026-04-182026TWOProject MUSE®727972026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-18Shea of the Savanna Parkland of Northern Ghana: Uses, Impacts, and Emerging Sustainability Outcomes
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988031
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The Shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa) is a tropical wild species of wooded savannah vegetation. It is an indigenous non-timber forest product (NTFP) generally widespread in the semi-arid Sudano-Sahelian ecosystem of sub-Sahara Africa (Jasaw, Saito & Takeuchi, 2015), particularly West Africa and some parts of Central and East Africa. It covers around 5,000km across 18 to 21 countries from Senegal in West Africa through parts of Cameroun and Democratic Republic of Congo to Ethiopia and Uganda in East Africa (FAO, 1988; Yidana, 2004; Masters, Yidana & Lovett, 2004; Quainoo, 2019). The plant bears nuts from which shea butter is extracted. The shea plant, its fruits together and the butter extracted from it, provide a
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/641/image/coversmallShea of the Savanna Parkland of Northern Ghana: Uses, Impacts, and Emerging Sustainability Outcomes2026-04-18text/htmlen-USShea of the Savanna Parkland of Northern Ghana: Uses, Impacts, and Emerging Sustainability Outcomes2026-04-182026TWOProject MUSE®1077552026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-18Symposium on Carola Lentz & Isidore Lobnibe's Imagining Futures: Memory and Belonging in an African Family (2022)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988032
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Over the course of the past decades, family relations and ideas about family and kinship have undergone substantial changes. In Africa, as elsewhere, urbanites and villagers, men and women, older and younger generations have developed different visions of a desirable future for themselves and their kin. In Imagining Futures, we have looked at one extended family from Northern Ghana (and Burkina Faso) whose current over five hundred members find themselves living increasingly farther apart and working in diverse occupations, ranging from farming and handicrafts to religious clergy and civil service.We argue that it is the quest for belonging, expressed in and strengthened by shared memories, rather than material
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/641/image/coversmallSymposium on Carola Lentz & Isidore Lobnibe's Imagining Futures: Memory and Belonging in an African Family (2022)2026-04-18text/htmlen-USSymposium on Carola Lentz & Isidore Lobnibe's Imagining Futures: Memory and Belonging in an African Family (2022)2026-04-182026TWOProject MUSE®725592026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-18Fictional Representation and Factual Reality in European Exhibitions of Asante People, 1870s–1920s: A Preliminary Account
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988033
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The autobiography of Carl Hagenbeck (1844–1913) was first published in Berlin in 1909. It was a notable commercial success and was reprinted eleven times before a similarly bestselling edition in English appeared in 1912.1 Born in the great German port of Hamburg, Hagenbeck is widely credited with being the pioneering inventor of the animal zoo in the form in which it exists today. He and his agents imported animals from all over the globe and displayed them before the European public in naturalistic settings that sought to reflect, as far as was possible, their lives in the wild. This was his lifetime passion and occupation, and in his later years he and the American P. T. Barnum shared in the creation and
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/641/image/coversmallFictional Representation and Factual Reality in European Exhibitions of Asante People, 1870s–1920s: A Preliminary Account2026-04-18text/htmlen-USFictional Representation and Factual Reality in European Exhibitions of Asante People, 1870s–1920s: A Preliminary Account2026-04-182026TWOProject MUSE®693272026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-18Out of Place? Mixed-Race Identities in Ghana
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988034
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Cudjo's father was the chief of a prominent Fante village. He was Abeeku Badu's biggest competitor, and he had begun meeting with James Collins to discuss increasing trade when the governor asked him if he might bring his eldest son to one of their meetings."Quey, this is Cudjo," James said, giving Quey a small push toward the boy. "You two play while we talk."Quey and Cudjo watched their fathers walk off to a different side of the Castle. Once they could hardly make them out anymore, Cudjo turned his attention to Quey."Are you white?" Cudjo had asked him, touching his hair.Quey recoiled at Cudjo's touch, though many others had done the same thing, asked him the same question. "I'm not white," he said softly."What?
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/641/image/coversmallOut of Place? Mixed-Race Identities in Ghana2026-04-18text/htmlen-USOut of Place? Mixed-Race Identities in Ghana2026-04-182026TWOProject MUSE®1059412026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-18Rawlings on the Campus of the University of Ghana, June 4, 1979
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988035
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In an article in Ghana Studies (Vol. 27, 2024), Jesse Weaver Shipley offered a narrative of the coup d'etat of June 4, 1979 that brought Jerry John Rawlings to power in Ghana.1 Based largely on the recollections of Rawlings and a number of the coup makers interviewed by Shipley, the article makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of the seesaw events of the day. The article notes that in the afternoon of June 4, Rawlings was dropped off from a helicopter in the "forest" near the University of Ghana (UG) by the pilot who was conveying him around Accra to rally military and civilian support for the coup. Due to the explosive growth of Accra since 1979 the forest area located west and north of Legon Hill
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/641/image/coversmallRawlings on the Campus of the University of Ghana, June 4, 19792026-04-18text/htmlen-USRawlings on the Campus of the University of Ghana, June 4, 19792026-04-182026TWOProject MUSE®468882026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-18Scholars of Ghana: Richard Rathbone
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988036
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Richard Rathbone, Professor Emeritus of African History at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, died on 11 November 2024 at the age of 81. I first met Richard soon after joining SOAS as an undergraduate in 1988, the occasion being a guest lecture he gave on an introductory course on African history convened by his colleague Andrew D. Roberts. The topic was "Feeding Africa today: precolonial and colonial legacies"—the typewritten course outline in front of me as I write underlines just how long ago it was—and I remember Richard ranging widely over that theme with his customary erudition and empathy. Strikingly, his suggested reading list included three great novels from the golden age of
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/641/image/coversmallScholars of Ghana: Richard Rathbone2026-04-18text/htmlen-USScholars of Ghana: Richard Rathbone2026-04-182026TWOProject MUSE®109512026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-18