Ethnicity in Ghana: The Limits of Invention

Review
In sum, the case studies in this collection, by exploring the limits as well as the varieties of political and cultural creativity in Ghana, illuminate the ways in which ethnic expression relates to older idioms of collective identity. Students of ethnic assertiveness elsewhere in Africa would indeed profit from reading these explorations. International Journal of African Historical Studies



Book Description
These essays address the neglected theme of ethnicity in Ghanaian history, society, and politics. The essays qualify the notion that ethnicity was purely a colonial "invention" by demonstrating the ways in which the boundaries of "we-groups" have mutated from pre-colonial times onwards. The collection also considers the particular manner in which the national question is posed today in terms of language policy and conflicts over land and chieftaincy.



About the Author
Carola Lentz is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Frankfurt, Germany.

Paul Nugent is Senior Lecturer in African history at the University of Edinburgh.



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Ten studies selected from a special workshop at a May 1995 conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, apply findings from the many studies of ethnicity in southern and central Africa to Ghana. Historians and social scientists contend that ethnicity was not purely a colonial invention, that the boundaries of We-groups have constantly mutated from pre-colonial times, while European categorization owned much to indigenous ways of seeing. They also examine national questions today over language policy and conflicts over land and chieftaincy. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR


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