Occult Rumors and Politics in Ghana PDF Download

Author: Comfort Max-Wirth
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031598075
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Author: Comfort Max-Wirth
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Occultism
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
Religion plays an integral role in all aspects of Ghanaian life, including politics. In recent years, many scholars have commented upon the spectacular rise of Pentecostal Christianity in Ghana since the 1970s, noting its particular influence in politics and in shaping the Ghanaian public sphere more generally. Curiously, though less often noted, rumors about "the occult" and occult influence have also flourished during this same period. Despite Pentecostal hostility to the occult and Pentecostal influence in public life, such rumors have become prevalent to the point that they represent a distinctive feature of Ghanaian politics. This thesis addresses the phenomenon of rumors about the occult in contemporary Ghanaian politics. It argues that the flourishing of political-occult rumors and the strength of Pentecostalism are related. Focusing on the period between the late 1970s and present, and drawing on data from fieldwork interviews and newspaper reports, the thesis examines the force of occult rumors in modern Ghanaian politics. It demonstrates some of the ways in which Ghanaian political elites deploy occult rumors for political advantage and some popular attitudes of the Ghanaian electorate to the rumors. The project proposes that the occult, far from being a phenomenon existing on the margins of modern Ghanaian society, is powerful, public and mainstream.

Author: Charles Prempeh
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 9956553905
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 472

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In March 2017, the president of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa-Akufu announced his intention to build a national cathedral to the people of Ghana. The announcement elicited watertight counter arguments that morphed into two a priori re-litigated assumptions: First, Ghana is a secular country and second, religion and state formation are incompatible. Informed by a frustrating paradox of an overwhelming religious presence and concurrent pervasive corruption in the country, public conversation reached a cul-de-sac of “conviction without compromising.” In The Political Economy of Heaven and Earth in Ghana, Charles Prempeh deploys the national cathedral as an entry point to provide both interdisciplinary and autoethnographic understanding of religion and politics. The book shows the capacity of religion, when properly cultivated and curated as a worldview to answer the why questions of life, will foster personal, moral, collective and ontological responsibility. All this is needed to stem the tide against corruption, commodity fetishism, environmental degradation (illegal mining—galamsey), heritage destruction and religious exploitation. Prempeh recuperates a historical fact about the mutual inclusivity between religion and politics—politics helping to manage differences, while religion provides a transcendental reason for unity to be forged for human flourishing. Separating the two is, therefore, ahistorical and an obvious threat to the intangible virtues that answers, “why and how” questions for public governance.

Author: Yin, Elijah Tukwariba
Publisher: IGI Global
ISBN: 1799878996
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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The civil justice system is characterized by a distinct dispute resolution and law enforcement functions, although these functions are not always explicit and their relationship can be vague. People normally turn to this legal system to address an “unjust" situation they encounter. This makes civil justice both socially and economically important, as it may be driven by efficiency or access to justice concerns. The literature suggests that law reform has an uninspiring record in this field. This is because it has, largely, not been considered with a detailed, empirically informed evaluation of proposed solutions. This legal system is complex, and research in this field is correspondingly challenging, interesting, and important. Advancing Civil Justice Reform and Conflict Resolution in Africa and Asia: Comparative Analyses and Case Studies provides significant empirical research findings as well as theoretical reviews and frameworks on a wide array of issues within civil justice and the legal system. This includes topic areas such as access to justice and legal representation, the challenges to developing civil justice, courts and procedures, and civil justice reform. This book is valuable for lawyers, human rights lawyers, court officials, psychologists, social workers, sociologists, consultants, professionals, academicians, students, and researchers working in the field of law, socio-legal studies, sociology, anthropology, political science, social work, social policy, economics, and criminal justice, along with anyone seeking updated information on the current reforms and challenges within the civil justice and legal systems.

Author: Paul Nugent
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107020689
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 637

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Book Description
By examining three centuries of history, this book shows how vital border regions have been in shaping states and social contracts.

Author: Nalo Hopkinson
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1668005123
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
The magical island of Chynchin is facing conquerors from abroad and something sinister from within in this entrancing fantasy from the Grand Master Award–winning author Nalo Hopkinson. Veycosi, in training as a griot (an historian and musician), hopes to sail off to examine the rare Alamat Book of Light and thus secure a spot for himself on Chynchin’s Colloquium of scholars. However, unexpected events prevent that from happening. Fifteen Ymisen galleons arrive in the harbor to force a trade agreement on Chynchin. Veycosi tries to help, hoping to prove himself with a bold move, but quickly finds himself in way over his head. Bad turns to worse when malign forces start stirring. Pickens (children) are disappearing and an ancient invading army, long frozen into piche (tar) statues by island witches is stirring to life—led by the fearsome demon known as the Blackheart Man. Veycosi has problems in his polyamorous personal life, too. How much trouble can a poor student take? Or cause all by himself as the line between myth and history blends in this delightfully sly tale by one of greatest novelists.

Author: Henrietta L. Moore
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134575572
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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'Magical Interpretations, Material Realities brings together many of today's best scholars of contemporary Africa. The theme of "witchcraft" has long been associated with exoticizing portraits of a "traditional" Africa, but this volume takes the question of occult as a point of entry into the moral politics of some very modern African realities.' - James Ferguson, University of California, USA 'These essays bear eloquent testimony to the ongoing presence and power of the occult imaginary, and of the intimate connection between global capitalism and local cosmology, in postcolonial Africa. A major contribution to scholarship that aims to rework the divide between modernity and tradition.' - Charles Piot, Duke University, USA This volume sets out recent thinking on witchcraft in Africa, paying particular attention to variations in meanings and practices. It examines the way different people in different contexts are making sense of what 'witchcraft' is and what it might mean. Using recent ethnographic materials from across the continent, the volume explores how witchcraft articulates with particular modern settings for example: the State in Cameroon; Pentecostalism in Malawi; the university system in Nigeria and the IMF in Ghana, Sierra Leone and Tanzania. The editors provide a timely overview and reconsideration of long-standing anthropological debates about 'African witchcraft', while simultaneously raising broader concerns about the theories of the western social sciences.

Author: Timo Kallinen
Publisher: BoD - Books on Demand
ISBN: 9522226823
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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In present-day Africa chiefs interact fluently with modern states, international organizations, and business corporations, and traditional chieftaincy is perceived essentially as a secular institution. Consequently, social scientists have started paying serious attention to the role of traditional authorities in contemporary political landscapes. Yet it was only a few decades ago that classic ethnographers were characterizing chiefs as priests, magicians, diviners, rainmakers, and the like. What happened to the divinity of African chiefs and kings? Drawing on his research on the Asante people of Ghana, West Africa, Timo Kallinen explores how the colonial and postcolonial states have attempted to secularize the sacred institutions of chiefship and kingship, a process which is by no means complete. Furthermore, it has frequently proved a problematic undertaking with regards to a number of burning issues in contemporary Ghanaian society, such as Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity, nationalism, international development aid, civil society participation, coup d'états, and witchcraft.

Author: Julien Bonhomme
Publisher: Hau
ISBN: 9780986132582
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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While working in Africa, anthropologist Julien Bonhomme encountered an astonishing phenomenon: people being accused of stealing or shrinking the genitals of strangers on the simple occasion of a handshake on the street. As he soon discovered, these accusations can have dramatic outcomes: the "sex thieves" are often targeted by large crowds and publicly lynched. Moreover, such rumors are an extremely widespread practice, having affected almost half of the African continent since the 1970s. In this book, Bonhomme examines the story of the "penis snatcher," asking larger questions about how to account for such a phenomenon--unique in its spatial and temporal scale--without falling prey to the cliché of Africa as an exotic other. Bonhomme argues that the public belief in sex thieves cannot be considered a superstition or form of mass hysteria. Rather, he brings to light multiple factors that explain the rumor's success and shows how the cultural dynamic can operate on a vast scale. Analyzing the rumor on both transnational and local levels, he demonstrates how it arises from the ambiguities and dangers of anonymity, and thus that it reveals an occult flipside to everyday social interaction. Altogether, this book provides both richly ethnographic and theoretical understandings of urban sociality and the dynamics of human communication in contemporary Africa and beyond.

Author: Lhamsuren Munkh-Erdene
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004468870
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 567

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Book Description
Provides a radically new interpretation of the political makeup of the Qing Empire, grounded on extensive examination of the Mongolian and Manchu sources.