Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Writing and Colonialism in Northern Ghana: The Encounter Between the Lodagaa and 'The World on Paper'

Writing and Colonialism in Northern Ghana: The Encounter Between the Lodagaa and 'The World on Paper'

Hawkins, Sean

Paperback

Series: Anthropological Horizons

African HistoryAnthropology

ISBN10: 1442657685
ISBN13: 9781442657687
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Published: Dec 15 2002
Pages: 488
Weight: 1.56
Height: 1.09 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English

This book presents a new perspective on colonialism in Africa. Drawing on work from a variety of subjects and disciplines - from the ancient Mediterranean to colonial Spain, and from anthropology to psychology - the author argues that colonialism in Africa needs to be understood through the medium of writing and the particular world it belonged to. Focusing on the LoDagaa of northern Ghana and their relationship with British colonialism, Hawkins describes colonialism as an encounter between a world of experience - a world of knowledge, practice, and speech - and the world on paper - a world of writing, rules, and a linear concept of history. The various ways in which the world on paper affected the LoDagaa are examined thematically. The first four chapters explore how writing imposed a form of historical consciousness on different aspects of LoDagaa culture - identity, politics, and religion - that was alien to them. The second half of the book examines how both the British colonial state and its postcolonial successor, the Ghanian state, attempted to regulate indigenous forms of knowledge, gender relations, and social reckoning through courts. This ambitious and richly detailed book will appeal to scholars and general readers interested in African history, British colonialism, and cultural and postcolonial studies.

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