Chieftaincy, diaspora, and development: The institution of Nk⊃suohene in Ghana

African Affairs

Volumn 108, Issue 433, 2009, Pages 541-558

  Bob Milliar, George M ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF GHANA   (Ghana)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

AFRICAN AMERICAN; CULTURAL IDENTITY; CULTURAL INFLUENCE; DIASPORA; INDIGENOUS POPULATION; INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK; SLAVERY;

AFRICA; GHANA; NORTH AMERICA; SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA; UNITED STATES; WEST AFRICA;

EID: 70349542605     PISSN: 00019909     EISSN: 14682621     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/afraf/adp045     Document Type: Article

References (81)

1. Used here to refer to all descendants of African slaves.
2. See Bayo Holsey, Routes of Remembrance: Refashioning the slave trade in Ghana (Chicago University Press, Chicago, IL, 2008)
3. and Saidiya Hartman, Lose Your Mother: A journey along the Atlantic slave route (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, New York, NY, 2007).
4. All interviewees are members of either the African-American Association of Ghana (AAAG), citizens of the United States, or the Ghana Caribbean Association (GCA), whose membership includes all Caribbean nationals and persons of Caribbean descent in Ghana, including those of British, Spanish, French and Dutch heritage.
5. Technically it is correct to refer to all blacks of slave origin on the continents of North and South America, including the Caribbean, as African Americans. The term originated, however, in the US. See Jennifer V. Jackson and Mary E. Cothran, 'Black versus black: The relationships among African, African American, and African Caribbean persons', Journal of Black Studies 33, 5 (2003), pp. 576-604.
6. Arhin Brempong and Mariano Pavanello, Chiefs in Development in Ghana: Interviews with four paramount chiefs in Ghana (Institute of African Studies/University of Ghana, Legon, 2006), p. 6.
7. Brempong and Pavanello, Chiefs in Development in Ghana.
8. Barfuo Abayie Boaten, Kotokohene Otumfuo Opoku Ware II (Kwagyanso Publications, Accra, 1999), p. 9.
9. T. C. McCaskie, 'The life and after life of Yaa Asantewaa', Africa 77, 2 (2007), pp. 151-79.
10. Ibid., p. 176, emphasis mine.
11. T. C. McCaskie, 'African American psychologists, the Atlantic slave trade and Ghana: A history of the present' in B. Rossi (ed.), Reconfiguring Slavery: West African trajectories (Liverpool University Press, Liverpool, 2009), pp. 45-62.
12. See African Spectrum, (6 July 2007).
13. See also Isaac Hayes biography, (8 August 2008).
14. Emmanuel Akyeampong and Pashington Obeng, 'Spirituality, gender, and power in Asante history', International Journal of African Historical Studies 28, 3 (1995), pp. 489-90.
15. Quoted in T. C. McCaskie, 'Denkyira in the making of Asante c. 1660-1720', Journal of African History 48, 1 (2007), pp. 23-4.
16. Sabrina L. Miller, 'African-Americans assume development responsibilities in the motherland, strengthening ties throughout the diaspora', (16 July 2008).
17. Emmanuel Akyeampong, 'Africans in the diaspora: The diaspora and Africa', African Affairs 99, 395 (2000), pp. 183-215.
18. Personal communication, Emmanuel Akyeampong, Techiman, Brong Ahafo Region, 14 July 2008.
19. Kofi Agyekum, 'Ntam "reminiscential oath" taboo in Akan', Language in Society 33, 3 (2004), pp. 317-42,
20. and Pashington Obeng, 'Re-membering through oath: Installation of African kings and queens', Journal of Black Studies 28, 3 (1998), pp. 334-56.
21. See R. S. Rattray, Ashanti (Oxford University Press, London, 1923)
22. Eva L. Meyerowitz, The Sacred State of the Akan (Faber and Faber, London, 1951)
23. K. A. Busia, The Position of the Chief in the Modern Political System of Ashanti: A study of the influence of contemporary social changes on Ashanti political institutions (International African Institute and Oxford University Press, London, New York, NY, and Toronto, 1951)
24. Agnes A. Aidoo, 'Asante queen mothers in government and politics in the nineteenth century' in Filomena Chioma Steady (ed.), The Black Woman Cross-Culturally (Schenkman Publication Co., Cambridge, MA, 1981), pp. 65-77
25. Kwame Arhin, 'The political and military roles of Akan women' in Christine Oppong (ed.), Female and Male in West Africa (George Allen and Unwin, London, 1983), pp. 91-8
26. Takyiwaa Manuh, 'The Asantehemaa's court and its jurisdiction over women: A study in legal pluralism', Research Review (NS) 4, 2 (1988), pp. 150-66
27. and Kwame Arhin, The Political Systems of Ghana: Background to transformations in traditional authority in the colonial and post-colonial periods (Historical Society of Ghana, Legon, 2002).
28. Arhin, The Political Systems of Ghana (2002), pp. 89-90.
29. Ibid.
30. See Ivor Wilks, Wa and the Wala: Islam and polity in northwestern Ghana (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1989)
31. Ivor Wilks, Akwamu 1640-1750: A study of the rise and fall of a West African empire (Department of History, Trondheim NTNU, 2001)
32. Akosua Adoma Perbi, A History of Indigenous Slavery in Ghana from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century (Sub-Saharan Publishers, Legon, 2006)
33. Benedict G. Der, The Slave Trade in Northern Ghana (Woeli Publishing Services, Accra, 1998)
34. William St Clair, The Door of No Return: The history of Cape Coast Castle and the Atlantic slave trade (BlueBridge, New York, NY, 2007)
35. Anne C. Bailey, African Voices of the Atlantic Slave Trade: Beyond the silence and the shame (Beacon Press, Boston, MA, 2004).
36. The literature on the Afro-Brazilian return to Africa is very wide, but for specific history readers can refer to the most recent scholarship: Marco Aurelio Schaumloeffel, Tabom: The Afro-Brazilian community in Ghana (Lulu.Com, Barbados, 2008)
37. Akione M. Amos and Ebenezer Ayesu, '"I am Brazilian": History of the Tabon, Afro-Brazilians in Accra, Ghana', Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana (New Series) 6 (2002), pp. 35-58.
38. Richard D. Ralston, 'The return of Brazilian freedmen to West Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries', Canadian Journal of African Studies 3, 3 (1969), p. 578.
39. Ibid.
40. Cited in Ralston, ibid., p. 579.
41. Amos and Ayesu, '"I am Brazilian"', p. 35.
42. Schaumloeffel, Tabom, p. 17.
43. Ibid.
44. The Ga traditional state has seven divisions or quarters, of which Otublohum is one.
45. Mary Esther Kropp Dakubu, Korle Meets the Sea: A sociolinguistic history of Accra (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1997), p. 149.
46. See James Addy, 'Stools, skins purified', Ghanaian Times [Accra], 10 December 1994, p. 12.
47. Ibid.
48. Labelle Prussin, 'Traditional Asante architecture', African Arts 13, 2 (1980), p. 61.
49. See Herb Boyd, 'Noted Pan-Africanist, Kwadwo Oluwale Akpan, makes his transition', The Black World Today, (1 July 2008).
50. See also Godfrey Mwakikagile, Relations between Africans and African Americans: Misconceptions, myths and realities (National Academic Press, Grand Rapids, MI, 2005), p. 344.
51. For further elaboration, see R. S. Rattray, Religion and Art in Ashanti (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1927)
52. K. A. Busia, The Position of the Chief in the Modern Political System of Ashanti: A study of the influence of contemporary social changes on Ashanti political institutions (Cass, London, 1968)
53. and Kwame Arhin, The Political Systems of Ghana: Background to transformations in traditional authority in the colonial and post-colonial periods (Historical Society of Ghana, Legon, 2002).
54. I thank Kwame Shabazz Zulu of Harvard University for many discussions on and around the matters related to the Fihankra community discussed in this section.
55. Paul Lee, 'The photographic and political legacy of Nana Kwadwo O. Akpan,' The Michigan Citizen, (8 August 2008).
56. Lands for development in the area where Fihankra is situated are very expensive; the problem is basically one of ownership. Even J. J. Rawlings, three times head of state of the Republic, could not escape the hazards and vagaries of the landlord-tenant relationship. Former President Rawlings negotiated and paid for six plots of land at the cost of 36 million from Kronti Adontehene, Akwamufie on 30 March 2002.
57. Less than a year later, his landlord Nana Ansah Prem III, chief of Kyease Akosombo, served him notice forbidding him from entering the land. See The Chronicle, 24 and 28 November 2003, and 5 and 11 December 2003.
58. Interview, Kwame Shabazz Zulu, Legon, University of Ghana, 5 August 2008.
59. See Chris Nunoo, 'Asanteman to check abuse of Nkosuohene', (20 June 2007)
60. and Ghana News Agency, 'Confusion, as another foreigner is enstooled ... Chiefs advised against indiscriminate enstoolment of foreigners', (8 May 2005).
61. The Sun online, (10 March 2007).
62. See Caroline Davies, 'Africans still waiting for "chief" Geldof's help', Telegraph, (10 March 2007).
63. See Nathalie Rothschild, 'Give us some focking answers, Bob', Spiked (20 March 2007), also available on DVD, co-produced by Chew and WORLDwrite's and Partners, 'Academy of Screen Arts of Ghana and Afrika World Syndications', January 2007. Available at YouTube ('A Letter to Geldof'), (26 June 2009).
64. Ibid.
65. See 'Confusion, as another foreigner is enstooled ... Chiefs advised against indiscriminate enstoolment of foreigners,' Ghana News Agency, 8 May 2005.
66. Ibid.
67. Interview, Nana Addo Mensah II, chief of Konkonuru, Konkonuru, Eastern Region, 13 August 2008.
68. Interview, Opanin Kwaku Adae, Nana Osei Kwame, Akua Bompata, Joseph Boateng, Konkonuru, Eastern Region, 13 August 2008.
69. Interview, Nana Addo Mensah II, Opanin Kojo Mensah, Konkonuru, Eastern Region, 13 August 2008.
70. Rita Marley, No Woman, No Cry: My life with Bob Marley (Sidgwick and Jackson, London, 2004), p. 197, emphasis mine.
71. Ibid.
72. Ibid.
73. The Nkosuohene of Konkonuru is a Ghanaian Lebanese businessman.
74. Interview, Osae Bredu, Assemblyman, Konkonuru, Eastern Region, 13 August 2008.
75. Interview, Nene Abram Kabu Akuaku III, paramount chief of Ada Traditional Area, Greater Accra Region, 12 August 2008.
76. Interview, Isaac Tetteh, Ada NEKO TECH centre, 12 August 2008.
77. Ibid.
78. NEKO TECH is an abbreviation of the stool name of Isaac Hayes, NE (Nene/ chief), K (Katey), O (Ocansey) and TECH for technology.
79. Mwakikagile, Relations between Africans and African Americans, p. 353.
80. Ghana News Agency, 2 December 2006.
81. Ibid.