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From Atlantic Creoles to African Nationalists: Reflections on the Historiography of Nineteenth-Century Fanteland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 October 2014

Rebecca Shumway
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Abstract

This essay argues that the history of southern Ghana exhibits far more continuity from the era of the slave trade to the time of British colonization in the late-nineteenth century than one can find in the existing historiography. Emphases on the expansion of the Asante kingdom and on the increased activity of European missionaries, capitalists, and bureaucrats have obscured the steady growth of indigenous cultural, political and social institutions which culminated in the formation of the Fante Confederation of 1868.

Résumé

Contrairement à ce que soutient l'historiographie actuelle, il existe une grande continuité dans l'histoire du Ghana du sud entre l'époque de la traite des esclaves et la colonisation britannique à la fin du XIX-ième siècle. L'importance accordée à l'expansion du royaume Ashanti et aux missionnaires, capitalistes et bureaucrates européens cache la croissance régulière des institutions culturelles, politiques et sociales locales qui culminèrent avec la formation de la Confédération des Fanti en 1868.

Type
Critical Historiography
Information
History in Africa , Volume 42 , June 2015 , pp. 139 - 164
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2014 

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