Rethinking the making and breaking of traditional and statutory institutions in post-Nkrumah Ghana

TY - JOUR

T1 - Rethinking the making and breaking of traditional and statutory institutions in post-Nkrumah Ghana

AU - Stacey, Paul Austin

PY - 2016/9/1

Y1 - 2016/9/1

N2 - This article examines a complex dispute over the jurisdictions of traditional and statutory institutions that traversed shifts in forms of government in Ghana for nearly a decade following the ousting of Kwame Nkrumah in February 1966. The analysis emphasizes underlying processes of continuity and seeks to add nuance to familiar conceptualizations that view this period in terms of state weakness, crisis, and rupture. The article explores, in particular, a powerful categoryof chieftaincy defined in opposition to state logics that have escaped empirical investigation. It therefore invites a rethinking of the notion that the post-Nkrumah era heralded a state-initiated revival of traditional institutions.

AB - This article examines a complex dispute over the jurisdictions of traditional and statutory institutions that traversed shifts in forms of government in Ghana for nearly a decade following the ousting of Kwame Nkrumah in February 1966. The analysis emphasizes underlying processes of continuity and seeks to add nuance to familiar conceptualizations that view this period in terms of state weakness, crisis, and rupture. The article explores, in particular, a powerful categoryof chieftaincy defined in opposition to state logics that have escaped empirical investigation. It therefore invites a rethinking of the notion that the post-Nkrumah era heralded a state-initiated revival of traditional institutions.

U2 - 10.1017/asr.2016.29

DO - 10.1017/asr.2016.29

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0002-0206

VL - 59

SP - 209

EP - 230

JO - African Studies Review

JF - African Studies Review

IS - 2

ER -