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  1. Home
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  3. The Fruits of Freedom in British Togoland
  • Cited by 23
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
July 2015
Print publication year:
2015
Online ISBN:
9781139870573
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139870573
Subjects:
Area Studies, African Studies, History, African History
Series:
African Studies (132)
Information

Book description

The end of World War I saw the former German protectorate of Togoland split into British- and French-administered territories. By the 1950s a political movement led by the Ewe ethnic group called for the unification of British and French Togoland into an independent multiethnic state. Despite the efforts of the Ewe, the United Nations trust territory of British Togoland was ultimately merged with the Gold Coast to become Ghana, the first independent nation in sub-Saharan Africa; French Togoland later declared independence as the nation of Togo. Based on interviews with former political activists and their families, access to private papers, and a collection of oral and written propaganda, this book examines the history and politics behind the failed project of Togoland unification. Kate Skinner challenges the marginalization of the Togoland question from popular and academic analyses of postcolonial politics and explores present-day ramifications of the contingencies of decolonization.

Reviews

‘Kate Skinner has written an outstanding book. It is an elegant, powerful study of an unrealised vision of the future that gripped Togoland during the tumult of decolonisation and its lasting significance.’

Daniel Branch - University of Warwick

‘Beautifully written and engagingly argued, The Fruits of Freedom in British Togoland is a brilliant, articulate new model for political history bridging the colonial/post-colonial divide. Kate Skinner provides an original, innovative and creative solution to many of the perils associated with post-colonial history, particularly in countries fraught with violence and political upheaval.’

Benjamin N. Lawrance - The Hon. Barber B. Conable, Jr Endowed Chair in International Studies, Rochester Institute of Technology, New York

‘A meticulous and deeply researched study which sheds important new light on the complex relations between regional, ethnic and national identities in Africa, and the role of local intellectuals in shaping them.’

J. D. Y. Peel - Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, University of London

‘For this illuminating and cogent book, Skinner conducted research at archives and libraries in Ghana and Britain, complemented by an impressive collection of oral interviews in those countries as well as in Togo. The fruit of her labor is a model political history that reaches beyond the nation-state to include political activists, teachers, and missionaries on the margins of Ghana's political scene to define liberation, independence, and sovereignty.’

Benjamin Talton Source: African Studies Review

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Contents

Contents
  • 1 - Ablɔɖe
    pp 1-32
  • African Political History, from Below and from Within
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