Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T00:25:24.087Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Local Culture in the National Arena: The Politics of Cultural Festivals in Ghana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Carola Lentz
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

In Ghana, regional and local cultural festivals that recently have been created or “modernized” provide an interface between local communities and the state. At these festivals, local political elites formulate demands on the government, and conversely, the government attempts to popularize its policies. At the same time, cultural festivals function as public arenas where local cultural identities are articulated within a framework negotiated by the state and the media. The staging of local culture thus always has a national dimension, even when the material is of local origin. Public self-representation at cultural festivals can also be an important factor in internal integration of local societies. The article examines these themes with reference to cultural festivals in northwestern Ghana which the author has observed and whose organizers and participants she has interviewed since 1989.

Type
Articles
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 44 , Issue 3 , December 2001 , pp. 47 - 72
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agovi, Kofi Ermeleh. 1980. “Of Actors, Performers and Audience in Traditional African Drama.” Presence africaine 116: 141–58.Google Scholar
Agovi, Kofi Ermeleh 1990. “Words, Music, Dance and Parody in Confusion: The Performance of Nzema ‘Avudwene’ Songs.” Research Review/Institute of African Studies (Accra), n.s. (6): 1–7.Google Scholar
Ansah, Timothy. 1999. Kundum: Festival of the Nzemas and Ahantas. Accra: Onyase Press.Google Scholar
Apter, Andrew. 1996. “The Pan-African Nation: Oil-Money and the Spectacle of Culture in Nigeria.” Public Culture 8: 441–66.Google Scholar
Apter, Andrew. 1997. “Festivals, Carnivals, and Rituals of Rebellion.” In Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara, ed. Middleton, John, vol. 2, 127–31. New York: Scribners.Google Scholar
Arhin, Kwame. 1985. Traditional Rule in Ghana: Past and Present. Accra: Sedco.Google Scholar
van Binsbergen, Wim M.J.. 1994. “The Kazanga Festival: Ethnicity as Cultural Mediation and Transformation in Central Western Zambia.” African Studies 53: 92–125.Google Scholar
Clarke-Ekong, Sheilah. 1995. “Ghana's Festivals: Celebrations of Life and Loyalty.” Ufahumu 23: 16–33.Google Scholar
Clarke-Ekong, Sheilah. 1997. “Traditional Festivals in the Political Economy: The Case of Contemporary Ghana.” Journal of Social Development in Africa 12: 49–60.Google Scholar
Cohn, Bernard S. 1983. “Representing Authority in Victorian India.” In The Invention of Tradition, ed. Hobsbawm, Eric and Ranger, Terence, 165–209. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gilbert, Michelle. 1994. “Aesthetic Strategies: The Politics of a Royal Ritual.” Africa 64: 99–125.Google Scholar
Goerg, Odile, ed. 1999. Fêtes urbaines en Afrique. Espaces, identités et pouvoirs. Paris: Karthala.Google Scholar
Kondor, Daniel. 1993. Ghanaian Culture in Perspective. Accra: Presbyterian Press.Google Scholar
Ladouceur, Paul A. 1979. Chiefs and Politicians: The Politics of Regionalism in Northern Ghana. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Lentz, Carola. 1994. “Staatlich verordneter ‘Self-help Spirit’ versus lokale ‘Self Reliance’: regionale Kulturfestivals in Ghana als politische Arenen.” In Überlebensstrategien in Afrika, ed. Bollig, Michael and Klees, Frank, 293–316. Koln: Heinrich-Barth-Institut.Google Scholar
Lentz, Carola. 1995. “‘Unity for Development’: Youth Associations in Northwestern Ghana.” Africa 65: 395–429.Google Scholar
Lentz, Carola. 1998a. Die Konstruktion von Ethnizität. Eine politische Geschichte Nord-West Ghanas, 1870–1990. Köln: Köppe.Google Scholar
Lentz, Carola. 1998b. “The Chief, the Mine Captain and the Politician: Legitimating Power in Northern Ghana.” Africa 68: 46–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lentz, Carola. 2000a. “Colonial Constructions and African Initiatives: The History of Ethnicity in Northwestern Ghana.” Ethnos 65: 107–36.Google Scholar
Lentz, Carola. 2000b. “‘Chieftaincy Has Come to Stay’: La chefferie dans les sociétés acéphales du Nord-Ouest Ghana.” Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines 159: 593–613.Google Scholar
Lentz, Carola, and Nugent, Paul. 2000. “Ethnicity in Ghana: A Comparative Perspective.” In Ethnicity in Ghana: The Limits of Invention, ed. Lentz, Carola and Nugent, Paul, 1–28. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
McCaskie, T. C. 1995. State and Society in Pre-Colonial Asante. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
National Commission on Culture (N.C.C.). 1989. The Cultural Policy of Ghana. Accra: N.C.C.Google Scholar
Opoku, A. A. 1970. Festivals of Ghana. Accra: Ghana Publishing Corporation.Google Scholar
Ranger, Terence. 1983. “The Invention of Tradition in Colonial Africa.” In The Invention of Tradition, ed. Hobsbawm, Eric and Ranger, Terence, 211–62. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Riehl, Volker. 1993. Natur und Gemeinschaft. Sozialanthropologische Untersuchungen zur Gleichheit bei den Tallensi in Nord-Ghana. Frankfurt-on-Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Scott, James C. 1990. Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Valsecchi, Pierluigi. 1999. “Calendar and the Annual Festival in Nzema: Notes on Time and History.” Africa (Instituto per l'Africa e l'Oriente) 54: 489–513.Google Scholar
Wiggins, Trevor. 1996. “Globalisation. L'Afrique occidentale dans le monde ou le monde en Afrique occidentale.” Cahiers de Musiques Traditionelles 9: 189–200.Google Scholar