ABSTRACT Duein-dibi-a nume (Funeral rites music) in Kalabari culture is a final honour for the dead and a status symbol for the living. It is performed for titled men, elders, members of Ekine cult and other socio-cultural clubs. Although duein-dibi-a nume occupies an important position in Kalabari culture, yet no musicological studies exist in terms of structure, significance and documentation especially as its traditional forms appear to be on the decline. This study, therefore, examined mu...
ABSTRACT This study examines migration aspirations among university students in Ghana. My interest is in undergraduate students, a group that is largely overlooked both in African studies and migration theory. The research was focused on migration aspirations, the first stage of any migration venture, and carried out at University of Ghana, a large public university, and Ashesi University College, a small private liberal arts college. A combination of methods was employed: focus groups, an e-...
ABSTRACT This dissertation explores the symbolisms of sound and silence in a ritual code of silence in the Hɔmɔwɔ festival as commemorated by the Ga people of Teshie. The dissertation further explores the ritual code’s impact on the festival’s traditional musical performance and how together, they renew the social-political and religious lives of the Teshie community. The Ga ritual code of silence, has been (and continues to be) described as ‘ban on drumming and noise-making’, and ...
ABSTRACT This study examines migration aspirations among university students in Ghana. My interest is in undergraduate students, a group that is largely overlooked both in African studies and migration theory. The research was focused on migration aspirations, the first stage of any migration venture, and carried out at University of Ghana, a large public university, and Ashesi University College, a small private liberal arts college. A combination of methods was employed: focus groups, an e-...
ABSTRACT Since the inauguration of the Fourth Republic on 7 January 1993, the NDC and NPP have dominated the electoral space. The thesis seeks to explain the motivational basis of political party activism in the Wa Central and Lawra-Nandom constituencies between 1992 and 2008. The research findings were obtained by the application of mixed methods. The study argues that some Ghanaians signed up for the membership of political parties, and became party activists, because of the selective and m...
ABSTRACT This thesis was a study into the politics of development under the leadership of Agbogbomefia Togbe Afede XIV of Ho-Asogli State. The study adopted the qualitative approach to collect data and interviews were conducted with informants. Secondary sources such as newspaper publications, brochures, books, journals, and articles and speeches were used to support the primary data. The research gave a brief background of the history, politics and the state of development in the Ho-Asogli s...
ABSTRACT The recognition of custom and inevitably the chieftaincy institution in land management has been of great interests, and been indeed advocated for in Africa in recent times. These advocates have opined that within custom lies the ability to achieve equitable goals and most importantly a security of land rights. Drawing on empirical evidence from Juaben in the Ashanti region of Ghana, this study tests the validity of this position. In so doing, it points out the limitations and constr...
ABSTRACT Puberty rites were an essential part of the betrothal type of marriage practiced by the ethnic group of Logba of the Volta Region in the olden days. Ultimately, a girl who experienced her menses for the first time is confined to begin a week-long ritual involving instructions and tests of varied kinds. The climax is usually on a Thursday, when she is adorned and paraded through the village to announce her maturity. With many gifts from parents and well-wishers, she was sent to the hu...
ABSTRACT The ongoing breakdown of the extended family support system and the economic hardships brought about by the Economic Recovery Programmes of the 1980s have contributed to visible expressions of urban poverty. These are manifested in two types of precarious urban settlements which have sprung up throughout many parts of Accra, the slum and the non-slum. This study perceives the latter as homelessness. It analyses its nature, causes and responses from the public towards the phenomenon. ...
ABSTRACT The study examines knowledge construction on female genital cutting (FGC) and notions of womanhood and the resultant discourses by the Maasai community in Kajiado, Kenya. There has been a global upsurge in anti-FGC interventions by the international community, feminist movements, national governments, and NGOs in the last three decades which have described FGC as a barbaric practice that violates the health and human rights of docile and helpless women and girls. Kajiado has been a r...
ABSTRACT Political Parties across the world have in recent time’s integrated social media as part of their campaign strategy to woo voters online. This is because social media has proven to be an effective medium for electoral communication given its several features like photo sharing, status update, tags, post sharing, likes, live videos, video sharing among others. Most importantly, social media facilitates access to political information and its networked structure enables users to crea...
ABSTRACT Literature in general, just as the other art forms, opens a window into the cultural characteristics of a society. A culture of a particular group is established linguistically through narrative exchange that determines the relevance of belief systems which hold the people together (Finnegan 1970). To understand a culture, particularly one in which orality is still a predominant form of recording history and phenomena, one requires some acquaintance with its oral forms (Nwachuku-Agba...
ABSTRACT Osogbo, the capital of Osun State of Nigeria, has become very popular as a centre of art and culture in Yorubaland for many years. Both traditional and contemporary art forms are kept alive in the town but the attention of the outside world has been focused mainly on the latter while the major aspect of the former, the festival of images, has been conspicuously neglected.
ABSTRACT In African societies generally, social commentaries as well as issues regarding etiquettes and societal values are clearly articulated in satirical musical performances. This is one notable way to ensure some measure of social control and foster cohesion among the people. Previous studies on Yàgbà people are scanty. The few available ones have not undertaken ethnomusicological analyses of Ìrègún music, even when the continuity of the genre is greatly threatened. This study, the...
ABSTRACT This study focuses on rice production in two areas, Weta/Afife and Avatime in the Volta region of Ghana. It compares rice production under two distinct farming systems: one using indigenous seeds under rain-fed agriculture (Avatime); and the other improved seeds under modern irrigation system (Weta/Afife). At Avatime farms are not mechanized, farm sizes are small, farmers do not use modern farm inputs and cultivate indigenous glaberrima rice varieties in addition to some moder...