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The introduction situates Ghana within a global context, emphasizing its regional and international place in world history and politics, in culture and sports, and in the ongoing process of national development and its meanings for the country’s citizens and foreigners. Today Ghana is the world’s second largest producer of cocoa and enjoys the status of a newly minted oil-producing nation that invokes promise and the potential loss of hope, especially for the rural poor. The introduction also provides contextual guideposts to the six chronologically arranged sections that emphasize perspectives from across Ghana’s socioeconomic and political spectrum, while explaining the historical and political processes through which the place called Ghana and its peoples came to be. Placing the geography and cultural and sociopolitical particularities of Ghana in perspective, the introduction also sets the stage for the multidisciplinary selections to appear in the six parts that follow.

cocoa, international relations, gold, Gold Coast colony, history

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Suggestions for Further Reading

Part I. One Nation, Many Histories

Amenumey

,

D. E. K.

Ghana: A Concise History from Pre-Colonial Times to the 20th Century

.

Accra

:

Woeli

,

2008

.

DeCorse

,

Christopher R.

An Archaeology of Elmina: Africans and Europeans on the Gold Coast

.

Washington

:

Smithsonian Institution Press

,

2001

.

Dickson

,

Kwamina B.

A Historical Geography of Ghana

.

Cambridge

:

Cambridge University Press

,

1969

.

Farrar

,

Tarikhu

.

Building Technology and Settlement Planning in a West African Civilization: Precolonial Akan Cities and Towns

.

Lewiston, NY

:

Edwin Mellen

,

1996

.

Konadu

,

Kwasi

.

The Akan Diaspora in the Americas

.

New York

:

Oxford University Press

,

2010

.

Nketia

,

J. H. Kwabena

.

Folk Songs of Ghana

.

Accra

:

University of Ghana

,

1963

.

Owusu-Ansah

,

David

, and

McFarland

Daniel Miles

.

Historical Dictionary of Ghana

.

Lanham, MD

:

Scarecrow

,

2005

.

Schaumloeffel

,

Marco Aurelio

.

Tabom: The Afro-Brazilian Community in Ghana

.

Barbados

:

Lulu.com

,

2008

.

Wilks

,

Ivor

.

One Nation, Many Histories: Ghana Past and Present

.

Accra

:

Anansesem

,

1996

.

Wolfson

,

Freda

.

Pageant of Ghana

.

New York

:

Oxford University Press

,

1965

.

Part II. Between the Sea and the Savanna, 1500–1700

Claridge

,

Walton W.

A History of the Gold Coast and Ashanti: From the Earliest Times to the Commencement of the Twentieth Century

.

London

:

Frank Cass

,

1964

.

Doortmont

,

Michel René,

and

Smit

Jinna

, eds.

Sources for the Mutual History of Ghana and the Netherlands: An Annotated Guide to the Dutch Archives Relating to Ghana and West Africa in the Nationaal Archief, 1593–1960s

.

Leiden

:

Brill

,

2007

.

Garrard

,

Timothy

.

Akan Goldweights and the Gold Trade

.

London

:

Longman

,

1980

.

Justesen

,

Ole

, ed.

Danish Sources for the History of Ghana, 1657–1754

.

2

vols.

Copenhagen

:

Kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab

,

2005

.

Kea

,

Ray A.

Settlements, Trade, and Polities in the Seventeenth Century Gold Coast

.

Baltimore

:

Johns Hopkins University Press

,

1982

.

Law

,

Robin

, ed.

The English in West Africa, 1611–1699: The Local Correspondence of the Royal African Company of England, 1681–1699

.

3

vols.

New York

:

Oxford University Press for the British Academy

,

1996–2006

.

MacGaffey

,

Wyatt

.

Chiefs, Priests, and Praise-Singers: History, Politics, and Land Ownership in Northern Ghana

.

Charlottesville

:

University of Virginia Press

,

2013

.

van Dantzig

,

Albert

.

The Dutch and the Guinea Coast, 1674–1742: A Collection of Documents from the General State Archive at the Hague

.

Accra

:

GAAS

,

1978

.

Vogt

,

John

.

Portuguese Rule on the Gold Coast, 1469–1682

.

Athens

:

University of Georgia Press

,

1979

.

Wilks

,

Ivor

.

Forests of Gold: Essays on the Akan and the Kingdom of Asante

.

Athens

:

Ohio University Press

,

1993

.

Part III. Commerce and the Scrambles for Africa, 1700–1900

Allman

,

Jean

, and

Tashjian

Victoria B.

.

I Will Not Eat Stone: A Women’s History of Colonial Asante

.

Oxford

:

James Currey

,

2000

.

Austin

,

Gareth

.

Labour, Land and Capital in Ghana: From Slavery to Free Labour in Asante, 1807–1956

.

Rochester, NY

:

University of Rochester Press

,

2009

.

Boahen

,

A. Adu

,

Akyeampong

E.

,

Lawler

N.

,

McCaskie

T. C.

, and

Wilks

I.

, eds.

“The History of Ashanti Kings and the Whole Country Itself” and Other Writings, by Otumfuo, Nana Agyeman Prempeh I

.

New York

:

Oxford University Press for the British Academy

,

2006

.

Debrunner

,

Hans W.

A History of Christianity in Ghana

.

Accra

:

Waterville

,

1967

.

Der

,

Benedict G.

The Slave Trade in Northern Ghana

.

Accra

:

Woeli

,

1998

.

Konadu

,

Kwasi

.

Transatlantic Africa, 1440s–1888

.

New York

:

Oxford University Press

,

2014

.

McCaskie

,

T. C.

State and Society in Precolonial Asante

.

Cambridge

:

Cambridge University Press

,

1995

.

Sill

,

Ulrike

.

Encounters in Quest of Christian Womanhood: The Basel Mission in Pre- and Early Colonial Ghana

.

Leiden

:

Brill

,

2010

.

Smallwood

,

Stephanie

.

Saltwater Slavery

.

Cambridge, MA

:

Harvard University Press

,

2007

.

Sparks

,

Randy J.

Where the Negroes Are Masters: An African Port in the Era of the Slave Trade

.

Cambridge, MA

:

Harvard University Press

,

2014

.

Part IV. Colonial Rule and Political Independence, 1900–1957

Agbodeka

,

Francis

.

Ghana in the Twentieth Century

.

Accra

:

Ghana Universities Press

,

1972

.

Arhin

,

Kwame

, ed.

The Life and Work of Kwame Nkrumah

.

Accra

:

Sedco

,

1991

.

Austin

,

Dennis

.

Politics in Ghana 1948–1960

.

New York

:

Oxford University Press

,

1964

.

Greene

,

Sandra E.

West African Narratives of Slavery: Texts from Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Ghana

.

Bloomington

:

Indiana University Press

,

2011

.

Hawkins

,

Sean

.

Writing and Colonialism in Northern Ghana: The Encounter between the LoDagaa and “the World on Paper,” 1892–1991

.

Toronto

:

University of Toronto Press

,

2002

.

Howard

,

Allen Marvin

.

The National Congress of British West Africa: An Economic and Political Study of Gold Coast Society

.

Madison

:

University of Wisconsin Press

,

1963

.

Kimble

,

David

.

A Political History of Ghana: The Rise of Gold Coast Nationalism, 1850–1928

.

Oxford

:

Clarendon

,

1963

.

Newell

,

Stephanie

.

Literary Culture in Colonial Ghana: How to Play the Game of Life

.

Bloomington

:

Indiana University Press

,

2002

.

Rathbone

,

Richard

.

Nkrumah and the Chiefs: The Politics of Chieftaincy in Ghana, 1951–60

.

Athens

:

Ohio University Press

,

2000

.

Part V. Independence, Coups, and the Republic, 1957–Present

Adjei

,

Mike

.

Death and Pain in Rawlings’ Ghana: The Inside Story

.

London

:

Black Line

,

1994

.

Allman

,

Jean Marie

.

Quills of the Porcupine: Asante Nationalism in an Emergent Ghana

.

Madison

:

University of Wisconsin Press

,

1993

.

Asante

,

Clement E.

The Press in Ghana

.

Lanham, MD

:

University Press of America

,

1996

.

Herbst

,

Jeffrey Ira

.

The Politics of Reform in Ghana, 1982–1991

.

Berkeley

:

University of California Press

,

1993

.

Lentz

,

Carola

.

Ethnicity and the Making of History in Northern Ghana

.

Edinburgh

:

Edinburgh University Press

,

2006

.

Lentz

,

Carola

, and

Nugent

Paul

, eds.

Ethnicity in Ghana: The Limits of Invention

.

New York

:

Palgrave Macmillan

,

2000

.

Thompson

,

Scott

.

Ghana’s Foreign Policy 1957–1966: Diplomacy, Ideology and the New State

.

Princeton, NJ

:

Princeton University Press

,

1969

.

Wright

,

Richard

.

Black Power: A Record of Reactions in a Land of Pathos

.

New York

:

Harper

,

1954

.

Part VI. The Exigencies of a Postcolony

Angelou

,

Maya

.

All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes

.

New York

:

Random House

,

1986

.

Busia

,

Abena P. A.

Testimonies of Exile

.

Trenton, NJ

:

Africa World Press

,

1990

.

Clark

,

Gracia

.

African Market Women: Seven Life Stories from Ghana

.

Bloomington

:

Indiana University Press

,

2010

.

Gaines

,

Kevin Kelly

.

American Africans in Ghana: Black Expatriates and the Civil Rights Era

.

Chapel Hill

:

University of North Carolina Press

,

2006

.

IMAHKÜS

,

Seestah

.

Returning Home Ain’t Easy but It Sure Is a Blessing

.

Bloomington

:

Trafford

,

2009

.

Plageman

,

Nathan

.

Highlife Saturday Night! Popular Music and Social Change in Urban Ghana

.

Bloomington

:

Indiana University Press

,

2012

.

Rawlings

,

Jerry J.

Selected Speeches of Flt. Lt. J. J. Rawlings: A Revolutionary Journey

.

Accra

:

Information Services Department

,

1983

.

Talton

,

Benjamin

.

Politics of Social Change in Ghana: The Konkomba Struggle for Political Equality

.

New York

:

Palgrave Macmillan

,

2010

.

Yankah

,

Kwesi

.

Woes of a Kwatriot: Reflections on the Ghanaian Situation

.

Accra

:

Woeli

,

1990

.

Figures & Tables

The Ghana Reader: History, Culture, Politics

The World Readers

The Ghana Reader: History, Culture, Politics

Edited by

Duke University Press

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822374961

Copyright:

This content is made freely available by the publisher. It may not be redistributed or altered. All rights reserved.

ISBN electronic:

978-0-8223-7496-1

Publication date:

2016

Suggestions for Further Reading

Part I. One Nation, Many Histories

Amenumey

,

D. E. K.

Ghana: A Concise History from Pre-Colonial Times to the 20th Century

.

Accra

:

Woeli

,

2008

.

DeCorse

,

Christopher R.

An Archaeology of Elmina: Africans and Europeans on the Gold Coast

.

Washington

:

Smithsonian Institution Press

,

2001

.

Dickson

,

Kwamina B.

A Historical Geography of Ghana

.

Cambridge

:

Cambridge University Press

,

1969

.

Farrar

,

Tarikhu

.

Building Technology and Settlement Planning in a West African Civilization: Precolonial Akan Cities and Towns

.

Lewiston, NY

:

Edwin Mellen

,

1996

.

Konadu

,

Kwasi

.

The Akan Diaspora in the Americas

.

New York

:

Oxford University Press

,

2010

.

Nketia

,

J. H. Kwabena

.

Folk Songs of Ghana

.

Accra

:

University of Ghana

,

1963

.

Owusu-Ansah

,

David

, and

McFarland

Daniel Miles

.

Historical Dictionary of Ghana

.

Lanham, MD

:

Scarecrow

,

2005

.

Schaumloeffel

,

Marco Aurelio

.

Tabom: The Afro-Brazilian Community in Ghana

.

Barbados

:

Lulu.com

,

2008

.

Wilks

,

Ivor

.

One Nation, Many Histories: Ghana Past and Present

.

Accra

:

Anansesem

,

1996

.

Wolfson

,

Freda

.

Pageant of Ghana

.

New York

:

Oxford University Press

,

1965

.

Part II. Between the Sea and the Savanna, 1500–1700

Claridge

,

Walton W.

A History of the Gold Coast and Ashanti: From the Earliest Times to the Commencement of the Twentieth Century

.

London

:

Frank Cass

,

1964

.

Doortmont

,

Michel René,

and

Smit

Jinna

, eds.

Sources for the Mutual History of Ghana and the Netherlands: An Annotated Guide to the Dutch Archives Relating to Ghana and West Africa in the Nationaal Archief, 1593–1960s

.

Leiden

:

Brill

,

2007

.

Garrard

,

Timothy

.

Akan Goldweights and the Gold Trade

.

London

:

Longman

,

1980

.

Justesen

,

Ole

, ed.

Danish Sources for the History of Ghana, 1657–1754

.

2

vols.

Copenhagen

:

Kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab

,

2005

.

Kea

,

Ray A.

Settlements, Trade, and Polities in the Seventeenth Century Gold Coast

.

Baltimore

:

Johns Hopkins University Press

,

1982

.

Law

,

Robin

, ed.

The English in West Africa, 1611–1699: The Local Correspondence of the Royal African Company of England, 1681–1699

.

3

vols.

New York

:

Oxford University Press for the British Academy

,

1996–2006

.

MacGaffey

,

Wyatt

.

Chiefs, Priests, and Praise-Singers: History, Politics, and Land Ownership in Northern Ghana

.

Charlottesville

:

University of Virginia Press

,

2013

.

van Dantzig

,

Albert

.

The Dutch and the Guinea Coast, 1674–1742: A Collection of Documents from the General State Archive at the Hague

.

Accra

:

GAAS

,

1978

.

Vogt

,

John

.

Portuguese Rule on the Gold Coast, 1469–1682

.

Athens

:

University of Georgia Press

,

1979

.

Wilks

,

Ivor

.

Forests of Gold: Essays on the Akan and the Kingdom of Asante

.

Athens

:

Ohio University Press

,

1993

.

Part III. Commerce and the Scrambles for Africa, 1700–1900

Allman

,

Jean

, and

Tashjian

Victoria B.

.

I Will Not Eat Stone: A Women’s History of Colonial Asante

.

Oxford

:

James Currey

,

2000

.

Austin

,

Gareth

.

Labour, Land and Capital in Ghana: From Slavery to Free Labour in Asante, 1807–1956

.

Rochester, NY

:

University of Rochester Press

,

2009

.

Boahen

,

A. Adu

,

Akyeampong

E.

,

Lawler

N.

,

McCaskie

T. C.

, and

Wilks

I.

, eds.

“The History of Ashanti Kings and the Whole Country Itself” and Other Writings, by Otumfuo, Nana Agyeman Prempeh I

.

New York

:

Oxford University Press for the British Academy

,

2006

.

Debrunner

,

Hans W.

A History of Christianity in Ghana

.

Accra

:

Waterville

,

1967

.

Der

,

Benedict G.

The Slave Trade in Northern Ghana

.

Accra

:

Woeli

,

1998

.

Konadu

,

Kwasi

.

Transatlantic Africa, 1440s–1888

.

New York

:

Oxford University Press

,

2014

.

McCaskie

,

T. C.

State and Society in Precolonial Asante

.

Cambridge

:

Cambridge University Press

,

1995

.

Sill

,

Ulrike

.

Encounters in Quest of Christian Womanhood: The Basel Mission in Pre- and Early Colonial Ghana

.

Leiden

:

Brill

,

2010

.

Smallwood

,

Stephanie

.

Saltwater Slavery

.

Cambridge, MA

:

Harvard University Press

,

2007

.

Sparks

,

Randy J.

Where the Negroes Are Masters: An African Port in the Era of the Slave Trade

.

Cambridge, MA

:

Harvard University Press

,

2014

.

Part IV. Colonial Rule and Political Independence, 1900–1957

Agbodeka

,

Francis

.

Ghana in the Twentieth Century

.

Accra

:

Ghana Universities Press

,

1972

.

Arhin

,

Kwame

, ed.

The Life and Work of Kwame Nkrumah

.

Accra

:

Sedco

,

1991

.

Austin

,

Dennis

.

Politics in Ghana 1948–1960

.

New York

:

Oxford University Press

,

1964

.

Greene

,

Sandra E.

West African Narratives of Slavery: Texts from Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Ghana

.

Bloomington

:

Indiana University Press

,

2011

.

Hawkins

,

Sean

.

Writing and Colonialism in Northern Ghana: The Encounter between the LoDagaa and “the World on Paper,” 1892–1991

.

Toronto

:

University of Toronto Press

,

2002

.

Howard

,

Allen Marvin

.

The National Congress of British West Africa: An Economic and Political Study of Gold Coast Society

.

Madison

:

University of Wisconsin Press

,

1963

.

Kimble

,

David

.

A Political History of Ghana: The Rise of Gold Coast Nationalism, 1850–1928

.

Oxford

:

Clarendon

,

1963

.

Newell

,

Stephanie

.

Literary Culture in Colonial Ghana: How to Play the Game of Life

.

Bloomington

:

Indiana University Press

,

2002

.

Rathbone

,

Richard

.

Nkrumah and the Chiefs: The Politics of Chieftaincy in Ghana, 1951–60

.

Athens

:

Ohio University Press

,

2000

.

Part V. Independence, Coups, and the Republic, 1957–Present

Adjei

,

Mike

.

Death and Pain in Rawlings’ Ghana: The Inside Story

.

London

:

Black Line

,

1994

.

Allman

,

Jean Marie

.

Quills of the Porcupine: Asante Nationalism in an Emergent Ghana

.

Madison

:

University of Wisconsin Press

,

1993

.

Asante

,

Clement E.

The Press in Ghana

.

Lanham, MD

:

University Press of America

,

1996

.

Herbst

,

Jeffrey Ira

.

The Politics of Reform in Ghana, 1982–1991

.

Berkeley

:

University of California Press

,

1993

.

Lentz

,

Carola

.

Ethnicity and the Making of History in Northern Ghana

.

Edinburgh

:

Edinburgh University Press

,

2006

.

Lentz

,

Carola

, and

Nugent

Paul

, eds.

Ethnicity in Ghana: The Limits of Invention

.

New York

:

Palgrave Macmillan

,

2000

.

Thompson

,

Scott

.

Ghana’s Foreign Policy 1957–1966: Diplomacy, Ideology and the New State

.

Princeton, NJ

:

Princeton University Press

,

1969

.

Wright

,

Richard

.

Black Power: A Record of Reactions in a Land of Pathos

.

New York

:

Harper

,

1954

.

Part VI. The Exigencies of a Postcolony

Angelou

,

Maya

.

All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes

.

New York

:

Random House

,

1986

.

Busia

,

Abena P. A.

Testimonies of Exile

.

Trenton, NJ

:

Africa World Press

,

1990

.

Clark

,

Gracia

.

African Market Women: Seven Life Stories from Ghana

.

Bloomington

:

Indiana University Press

,

2010

.

Gaines

,

Kevin Kelly

.

American Africans in Ghana: Black Expatriates and the Civil Rights Era

.

Chapel Hill

:

University of North Carolina Press

,

2006

.

IMAHKÜS

,

Seestah

.

Returning Home Ain’t Easy but It Sure Is a Blessing

.

Bloomington

:

Trafford

,

2009

.

Plageman

,

Nathan

.

Highlife Saturday Night! Popular Music and Social Change in Urban Ghana

.

Bloomington

:

Indiana University Press

,

2012

.

Rawlings

,

Jerry J.

Selected Speeches of Flt. Lt. J. J. Rawlings: A Revolutionary Journey

.

Accra

:

Information Services Department

,

1983

.

Talton

,

Benjamin

.

Politics of Social Change in Ghana: The Konkomba Struggle for Political Equality

.

New York

:

Palgrave Macmillan

,

2010

.

Yankah

,

Kwesi

.

Woes of a Kwatriot: Reflections on the Ghanaian Situation

.

Accra

:

Woeli

,

1990

.