Market Encounters: Consumer Cultures in Twentieth-Century Ghana

249 Pages·2017·9.774 MB·English

by  Bianca Murillo

n e w a f r i c a n h i s t o r i e s
MARKET
ENCOUNTERS
Consumer Cultures in Twentieth-Century Ghana
Bianca Murillo
Market Encounters
new african histories
SERIES EDITORS: JEAN ALLMAN, ALLEN ISAACMAN,
AND DEREK R. PETERSON
David William Cohen and E. S. Atieno Matthew M. Heaton, Black Skin,
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Gary Kynoch, We Are Fighting Paolo Israel, In Step with the Times
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Allen F. Isaacman and Barbara S.
Bianca Murillo, Market Encounters
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Stephanie Newell, The Power to Name Thomas F. McDow, Buying Time
Gibril R. Cole, The Krio of West Africa Jon Soske, Internal Frontiers
Market Encounters
Consumer Cultures in Twentieth- Century Ghana

Bianca Murillo
ohio university press athens

Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio 45701
ohioswallow . com
© 2017 by Ohio University Press
All rights reserved
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27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 5 4 3 2 1
A version of chapter three is based on Bianca Murillo,
“ ‘The Modern Shopping Experience’: Kingsway Department Store
and Consumer Politics in Ghana,” Africa: Journal of the International
African Institute 82, no. 3 (2012): 368–92, © 2012 by Cambridge University Press.
Reprinted with permission from Cambridge University Press.
Cover Image. Miss Ghana, Monica Amekoafia, visits
Kingsway Department Store, Accra, April 1957.
Reproduced with kind permission of Unilever from the original
at the Unilever Archives, UAC/2/10/B1/8/1/15.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Murillo, Bianca, author.
Title: Market encounters : consumer cultures in twentieth- century Ghana /
Bianca Murillo.
Other titles: New African histories series.
Description: Athens, Ohio : Ohio University Press, 2017. | Series: New
African histories | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017027990| ISBN 9780821422885 (hc : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9780821422892 (pb : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780821446133 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Consumption (Economics)— Ghana— History—20th century. |
Consumption (Economics)— Political aspects— Ghana. |
Consumers— Ghana— History—20th century. | Ghana— Commerce—
History—20th century.
Classification: LCC HC1060.Z9 C64 2017 | DDC 381.309667— dc23
LC rec ord available at https:// lccn.loc . gov / 2017027990
To Teresa Rubie

Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowl edgments xi
List of Abbreviations xv
Introduction Consuming Histories and Creating Economies 1
Chapter 1 A Door “Wide Open” 28
Imagining Gold Coast Markets
Chapter 2 “We Cannot Afford to Be Fooled” 60
African Intermediaries on Shifting
Commercial Terrain
Chapter 3 “In Time for In de pen dence” 86
Kingsway Department Store, Modernity,
and the New Nation
Chapter 4 “Shop Win dow on the World” 115
Ghana’s First International Trade Fair
and the Politics of Wealth and Accumulation
Chapter 5 “Power to the People” 137
Militarization of the Market and the War
against Profiteers
Afterword From Structural Adjustment to Shopping Malls 157
Notes 165
Bibliography 205
Index 221
vii

Illustrations
Figures
1.1 Exterior of provision store, Sekondi, ca. 1910 32
1.2 Interior of provision store, Accra, May 1907 39
1.3 Interior of provision store, Sekondi, ca. 1912 49
2.1 Isaac Ogoe celebrates his eightieth birthday,
Sekondi, ca. 1970 69
2.2 UAC passbook belonging to Madam Amba Otwiwa,
ca. 1950–60 75
2.3 UAC passbook belonging to Mrs. Annah Manful,
ca. 1950–60 76
2.4 Esther Mensah at UAC Swanmill, Accra, August 3, 1950 78
3.1 Exterior of Kingsway Department Store, Accra, ca. 1957 88
3.2 Post office counter, Kingsway Department Store,
Accra, ca. 1960 97
3.3 Hat sale, February features, Kingsway Department Store,
Accra, February 1960 98
3.4 Cosmetics counter, Kingsway Department Store,
Accra, ca. 1960 98
3.5 Salesmen preparing a display, Kingsway
Department Store, Accra, ca. 1960 102
3.6 “Your Way,” advertisement, ca. 1955 107
3.7 “What We Like about Kingsway,” advertisement, ca. 1957 108
ix