New Book By Mensah Adinkrah

Witchcraft violence is a feature of many contemporary African societies. In Ghana, belief in witchcraft and the malignant activities of putative witches is prevalent; purported witches are blamed for all manner of adversities including inexplicable illnesses and untimely deaths. As in other historical periods and other societies, in contemporary Ghana, alleged witches are typically female,…

Ivor G.H. Wilks (1928 to 2014)

By Jean Allman On October 7th, 2014, Northwestern University Professor Emeritus Ivor G.H. Wilks passed away at the home he shared with his wife, Nancy Lawler, in the west of his beloved Wales.  A prolific author, meticulous researcher, and a teacher of boundless generosity, Professor Wilks is best known for his foundational texts on the…

The Politics of Chieftaincy

Naaborko Sackeyfio-Lenoch’s new book, The Politics of Chieftaincy examines debates over authority and property in Accra, Ghana, during the peak decades of British colonial rule. Between 1920 and 1950, imperial policies marginalized educated elites, local authorities, and landowners in favor of Ga chiefs, whom the British authorities viewed as more loyal to the empire. Conflicts erupted throughout…

GSA Grantee Research Report, 2013

2013 Research Grant Report, by Joseph Darko (2013 Grantee) I can still remember my face beaming with smiles when I read through the email notifying me of the grant I had been given by the Ghana Studies Association.  In the 2011/2012 academic year, I enrolled on an MPhil Programme in Statistics at the University of…