Bukom and the social history of boxing in Accra: Warfare and citizenship in precolonial Ga society

International Journal of African Historical Studies

Volumn 35, Issue 1, 2002, Pages 39-60

  Akyeampong, Emmanuel ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 66149128011     PISSN: 03617882     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3097365     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (64)

1. Importantly, the beach was the site for both sports. The Nigerian community in Accra was very prominent in wrestling, and organized contests were held on the beach and on the sandy playground behind the Roman Catholic cathedral in the first half of the twentieth century. Wrestling was also a Ga sport and the wrestling tradition is widespread in sub-Saharan Africa. Interview with Paul Thompson, Accra, June 23, 2002. On wrestling in Africa, see Sigrid Paul, "The Wrestling Tradition and its Social Functions," in William J. Baker and James A. Mangan, eds., Sport in Africa: Essays in Social History (New York, 1987), 23-46
2. Samuel S. Quarcoopome, "The Impact of Urbanization on the Socio-Political History of the Ga Mashie of Accra: 1877-1957" (Ph.D. thesis, Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, 1993), Ch. 1
3. Marion Kilson, African Urban Kinsmen: The Ga of Central Accra (London, 1974), 7
4. John Parker, "Ga State and Society in Early Colonial Accra, 1860s-1920s" (Ph.D. thesis. University of London, 1995)
5. See, especially, Peter Haenger, Slaves and Slave Holders in the Gold Coast: Towards an Understanding of Social Bondage in West Africa (Basel, 2000)
6. th Century" (Ph.D. thesis, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2000), 100
7. Richard Holt, "Sport and History: The State of the Subject in Britain," Twentieth Century British History 7, 2 (1996), 239
8. Colonialism brought the destruction of the warrior experience in Africa, which was then channeled variously into sports, migrant labor, and the colonial military. For some illuminative works, see Myron Echenberg, Colonial Conscripts: The Tirailleurs Senegalais in French West Africa, 1857-1960 (Portsmouth, N.H., 1990)
9. Timothy Parsons, The African Rank-and-File: Social Implications of Colonial Military Service in the King's African Rifles, 1902-1964 (Portsmouth, N.H., 1999)
10. and Patrick Harries, Work, Culture, and Identity: Migrant Laborers in Mozambique and South Africa, c.1860-1910 (Portsmouth, N.H., 1994)
11. Kilson, African Urban Kinsmen
12. Claire Robertson, Sharing the Same Bowl: A Socioeconomic History of Women and Class in Accra, Ghana (Bloomington, 1984)
13. and S. S. Quarcoopome, "A History of Urban Development of Accra: 1877-1957," Research Review (NS) 9, 1-2 (1993), 20-32
14. Quarcoopome, "History of the Ga Mashie," 64-70
15. Gold Coast Colony, Census of the Population, 1911. Public Records and Archives Administration Department (PRAAD), Accra, ADM 5/2/3
16. and The Gold Coast, Census of Population 1948: Report and Tables (Accra, 1950)
17. Parker, "Ga State and Society," provides an excellent examination of these issues
18. Osei Tutu, "Asafoi in the History and Politics of Accra," Ch. 6
19. Dominic Fortescue, "The Accra Crowd, the Asafo and the Opposition to the Municipal Corporations Ordinance, 1924-25," Canadian Journal of African Studies 24:3 (1990), 348-75
20. Jeffrey T. Sammons, "'Race' and Sport: A Critical, Historical Examination," Journal of Sport History 21:3 (1994), 203-278
21. Though white slave masters forced black slaves to box for their amusement in makeshift rings, black slaves obviously acquired pugilistic skills that they turned to their social advantage with the abolition of slavery. See, Benjamin Quarles, ed., Narrative of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave Written by Himself (Cambridge, Mass., 1996), 106-108
22. and Ali A. Mazrui, The Africans: A Triple Heritage (Boston, 1986), 132
23. That this symbolic importance of boxing is not limited to blacks is seen in Dai Smith's discussion of Welsh boxers in the 1930s. Dai Smith, "Focal Heroes: A Welsh Fighting Class," in Richard Holt, ed., Sport and the Working Class in Modern Britain (Manchester, 1990), 198-217
24. Sammons, "Race and Sport," 212
25. and Gerald Early, The Culture of Bruising (Hopewell, N.J., 1994)
26. Christopher E. Wolfe, "The Color of a Champion: Changing Press Depictions of Black Boxers during the Early Twentieth Century" (B. A. thesis, History Department, Harvard University, 2001)
27. Sammons, "Race and Sport," 220
28. Philip Vasili, "The Right Kind of Fellows: Nigerian Football Tourists as Agents of Europeanization," The International Journal of the History of Sport 11, 2 (1994), 209
29. Vasili, "Nigerian Football Tourists," 210
30. Interview with Paul Thompson, Accra, June 23, 2002
31. th World Boxing Convention, he was described as the greatest boxing champion born in Africa. Ghana Television program on November 25, 2001 with Azumah Nelson and Nii Kofi Ajenkwa III (vice president of the World Boxing Convention)
32. West Africa, 8-17 January 1996, 13-19 May 1996, and 10-16 June 1996
33. See, for examples, The Ghanaian Times, March 16, 2002
34. and The Ghanaian Chronicle, May 20, 2002
35. Fortescue, "The Accra Crowd," 360
36. On inter-asafo rivalry, see for example, Doran H. Ross, "Fighting with Art: Appliqued Flags of the Fante Asafo" (Los Angeles, UCLA Museum of Cultural History Pamphlet Series Vol. 1, No. 5, 1979)
37. and Anshan Li, "Asafo and Destoolment in Colonial Southern Ghana, 1900-1953," International Journal of African Historical Studies, 28, 2 (1995), 327-57
38. Interview with Nii Amarkai II, Accra, August 14, 1997
39. Interview with Herbert Bruce Thompson, Accra, September 28, 2001
40. "Class" is used here more in a Weberian than a Marxian sense. The emphasis is on social class, or more aptly "rank." See Kwame Arhin, "Rank and Class among the Asante and Fante in the Nineteenth Century," Africa 53, 1 (1983), 2-22
41. This is very clear in the novel by Bill Marshall, Bukom (Accra, 1979)
42. Parker, "Ga State and Society," 329
43. Interview with Isola Akay, Ga boxing trainer and manager of "All Stars Gym," London, March 12, 1999
44. Anthony Clayton, "Sport and African Soldiers: The Military Diffusion of Western Sports throughout Sub-Saharan Africa" (Institute of Commonwealth Studies Seminar Paper, London, February 1983)
45. Personal communication from Andrew Roberts, London, March 3, 1999
46. Parker, "Ga State and Society," 341
47. Interview with Isola Akay, London, March 12, 1999
48. On the politics of Kojo Thompson, see S. S. Quarcoopome, "The Politics and Nationalism of A. W. Kojo Thompson: 1924-1944," Research Review (NS) 7, 1-2 (1991), 11-21
49. Interview with Nii Amarkai, Accra, August 14, 1997
50. Parallel developments occurred in Salisbury in 1938-39. Terrence Ranger, "Pugilism and Pathology: African Boxing and the Black Urban Experience in Southern Rhodesia," in Baker and Mangan, eds., Sport in Africa, 196-213
51. Interview with Albert Mawere Poku, Accra, August 29, 1997
52. Interview with Paul Thompson, Accra, June 23, 2002
53. Interview with Isola Akay, London, March 12, 1999. The relative ease of the transition from asafo atwele to boxing also comes out in the author's interview with Kwatelei Quartey, coach of the Bukom Boxing Club, Accra, September 23, 2001. Kwatelei Quartey is from a boxing family that has produced Roy Ankrah, Ike Quartey Senior and Junior ("Bazooka"), and Alfred "Cobra" Quartey
54. Interview with Isola Akay, London, March 12, 1999
55. Interview with Herbert Bruce Thompson, manager of Akotoku Academy (boxing club), Accra, September 28, 2001
56. The African Morning Post, October 5, 1937
57. Interview with Isola Akay, London, March 12, 1999
58. Newspaper cutting posted at the Wato Club, Accra
59. Personal communication from Mrs. Atukwei Okai, Accra, March 1, 2002
60. Interview with Isola Akay, London, March 12, 1999
61. Interview with Paul Thompson, Accra, June 23, 2002
62. Interview with Herbert Bruce Thompson, manager of "Akotoku Academy," Accra, September 28, 2001
63. Interview with Isola Akay, London March 12, 1999
64. Daily Graphic, October 31, 1969