Reflections
Course Background Readings
Pan-Africanism, Nkrumahism, and the Imagining of the Nation
Sept. 19, 2016: Jeffrey Ahlman Readings
Questions: What was the relationship between Pan-Africanism and nationalism in Nkrumah’s Ghana? What did political participation mean in Ghana? Who decided?
Local Culture and Global Politics
Sept. 26, 2016: Bianca Murillo Readings
Questions: What does “local” mean? What does “global” mean? In what ways did average Ghanaians participate in local and global politics? In what ways is consumerism political?
City Life
Oct. 3, 2016: Oxford Street Accra
Questions: Why is the “nation” or “nationalism” important? What are the limits of the “nation” or “nationalism” as an analytical framework? What is transnationalism? What makes the city unique as a political space? What kinds of politics do we see happening in the city?
Popular Politics
Oct. 10, 2016: Highlife Saturday Night
Questions: What kinds of change did independence bring? What kinds of things stayed the same? Why was leisure important? In what ways is leisure political?
Performing the Nation: Nationalism after Independence?
Oct. 17, 2016: Staging Ghana
Questions: What does democracy mean in everyday life? How and to what degree do people interact with the state on a daily basis? What does Nationalism mean after independence? What does nationalism mean in the lives of individual citizens? How do people use the state?
Informal Economies and the Politics of Survival and Accumulation
Nov. 14, 2016: Onions Are My Husband
Questions: What is the “informal economy”? Why is it so important in contemporary Ghana? Who participates and why?
Journalism and Democratic Cultures
Nov. 21, 2016: Press and Political Culture in Ghana
Questions: How does information circulate in Ghana? What role do journalists play in creating democratic culture? How is that similar to and different from the US? How is that changing since Hasty wrote her book? What difference does it make?
