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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Carola Lentz
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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

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