The Ghana Reader : History, Culture, Politics

499 Pages·2016·8.32 MB·English

by  Kwasi Konadu

THE WORLD READERS
Series edited by Robin Kirk and Orin Starn
THE ALASKA NATIVE READER
Edited by Maria Shaa Tláa Williams
THE BANGLADESH READER
Edited by Meghna Guhathakurta and Willem van Schendel
THE CZECH READER
Edited by Jan Bažant, Nina Bažantová, and Frances Starn
THE GHANA READER
Edited by Kwasi Konadu and Clifford C. Campbell
THE INDONESIA READER
Edited by Tineke Hellwig and Eric Tagliacozzo
THE RUSSIA READER
Edited by Adele Barker and Bruce Grant
THE SOUTH AFRICA READER
Edited by Clifton Crais and Thomas V. McClendon
THE SRI LANKA READER
Edited by John Clifford Holt
THE LATIN AMERICA READERS
Series edited by Robin Kirk and Orin Starn
THE ARGENTINA READER
Edited by Gabriela Nouzeilles and Graciela Montaldo
THE BRAZIL READER
Edited by Robert M. Levine and John J. Crocitti
THE CHILE READER
Edited by Elizabeth Quay Hutchison, Thomas Miller Klubock,
Nara B. Milanich, and Peter Winn
THE COSTA RICA READER
Edited by Steven Palmer and Iván Molina
THE CUBA READER
Edited by Aviva Chomsky, Barry Carr, and Pamela Maria Smorkaloff
THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC READER
Edited by Eric Paul Roorda, Lauren Derby, and Raymundo González
THE ECUADOR READER
Edited by Carlos de la Torre and Steve Striffler
THE GUATEMALA READER
Edited by Greg Grandin, Deborah T. Levenson, and Elizabeth Oglesby
THE MEXICO READER
Edited by Gilbert M. Joseph and Timothy J. Henderson
THE PARAGUAY READER
Edited by Peter Lambert and Andrew Nickson
THE PERU READER, 2ND EDITION
Edited by Orin Starn, Iván Degregori, and Robin Kirk
THE RIO DE JANEIRO READER
Edited by Daryle Williams, Amy Chazkel, and Paulo Knauss
The Ghana Reader

T H E
G H A N A
R E A D E R
HISTORY, CULTURE, POLITICS
Kwasi Konadu and Clifford C. Campbell, editors
DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS Durham and London 2016
© 2016 Duke University Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper ∞
Typeset in Monotype Dante by BW&A Books, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in- Publication Data
The Ghana reader : history, culture, politics /
Kwasi Konadu and Clifford C. Campbell, eds.
pages cm—(World readers)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8223-5984-5 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-8223-5992-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-8223-7496-1 (e-book)
1. Ghana—History. 2. Ghana—Civilization.
3. Ghana—Politics and government.
I. Konadu, Kwasi, editor. II. Campbell, Clifford C., editor.
III. Series: World readers.
DT510.G47 2016
966.7—dc23
2015030360
Cover art: Adzewa, a Fante women’s group. Photograph by
Clifford Campbell, Accra, September 2009.
produced with a grant from
Figure Foundation
publication of the global nation

Contents
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 1
I One Nation, Many Histories 17
Ancestral Faces, Kwesi Brew 19
The Holocene Archaeology of Ghana, Ann Brower Stahl 21
Quest for the River, Creation of the Path, Kwasi Konadu 30
A Creation Story and a “Beautiful Prayer” to Tano, R. S. Rattray 39
Folk Songs of Ghana, J. H. Kwabena Nketia 42
Bono- Takyiman Oral Traditions, Dennis Warren and Owusu Brempong 46
Oral Traditions of Adanse and Denkyira, Kwame Y. Daaku 51
An Account of Early Asante, Agyeman Prempeh I 60
Fante Oral Traditions: Kwamankɛse and Komenda, John K. Fynn 63
Archaeological Reflections on Ghanaian Traditions of Origin,
Kwaku Effah- Gyamfi 69
Prelude to the Atlantic Slave Trade, Gérard L. Chouin and
Christopher R. DeCorse 76
II Between the Sea and the Savanna, 1500–1700 81
Encounter with Europe, Kwesi Brew 83
The Voyage of Eustache de la Fosse, Eustache de la Fosse 87
A View of the Gold Coast from the Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis,
Duarte Pacheco Pereira 90
Letter from Mina Governor to the Queen [Catarina],
Afonso Gonçalves Botafogo 94
A Report on Mina, Anonymous 97
The Gold Kingdom of Guinea, Pieter de Marees 100
Letter 17, Jean Barbot 106
Treaties between Gold Coast Polities and the King of Denmark
and the Danish Africa Company, Ole Justesen 109