The Politics of Chieftaincy: Authority and Property in Colonial Ghana, 1920-1950 (Rochester Studies in African History and the Diaspora, 61)

__The Politics of Chieftaincy__ examines debates over authority and property in Accra, Ghana, during the peak decades of British colonial rule. Between 1920 and 1950, imperial policies marginalized educated elites, local authorities, and landowners in favor of Ga chiefs, whom the British authorities viewed as more loyal to the empire. Conflicts erupted throughout the city over chieftaincy, succession, and land, producing new political movements and local institutions. Drawing on a broad range of archival records of chieftaincy and litigation cases from this era, Naaborko Sackeyfio-Lenoch demonstrates how these disputes opened new arenas for Accra's residents to engage indialogue about the efficacy of chieftaincy and the meaning of political authority and property. Despite the prominence of chieftaincy in the lives of the people of Accra, they were able, Sackeyfio-Lenoch shows, to critique their political traditions and adapt their institutions to new local, national, and global pressures. The volume thus offers a vital case study of Africans' responses to colonialism, modernity, and globalization, and provides an important lens for understanding urban and political processes in Africa during the first half of the twentieth century. Naaborko Sackeyfio-Lenoch is associate professor of African history at Dartmouth College. Documents the profound societal changes that occurred in Accra, the capital city of the Gold Coast colony (modern Ghana), during the peak decades of British colonial rule, 1920-1950. The Politics of Chieftaincy examines debates over authority and property in Accra, Ghana, during the peak decades of British colonial rule. Between 1920 and 1950, imperial policies marginalized educated elites, local authorities, and landowners in favor of Ga chiefs, whom the British authorities viewed as more loyal to the empire. Conflicts erupted throughout the city over chieftaincy, succession, and land, producing new political movements and local institutions. Drawing on a broad range of archival records of chieftaincy and litigation cases from this era, Naaborko Sackeyfio-Lenoch demonstrates how these disputes opened new arenas for Accra's residents to engage indialogue about the efficacy of chieftaincy and the meaning of political authority and property. Despite the prominence of chieftaincy in the lives of the people of Accra, they were able, Sackeyfio-Lenoch shows, to critique their political traditions and adapt their institutions to new local, national, and global pressures. The volume thus offers a vital case study of Africans' responses to colonialism, modernity, and globalization, and provides an important lens for understanding urban and political processes in Africa during the first half of the twentieth century. Naaborko Sackeyfio-Lenoch is associate professor of African history at Dartmouth College. Established as the commercial and administrative capital of the Gold Coast Colony (now Ghana) in the late nineteenth century, the city of Accra experienced profound societal changes throughout the twentieth century. The Politics of Chieftaincy examines the disputes over authority and property during the peak decades of British colonial rule. Between 1920 and 1950, colonization, commercialization, and urbanization sparked and sharpened a range of controversies. The removal of chiefs from office, succession disputes, and litigation resulting from land alienation and urban development became commonplace. An intriguing dynamic unfolded as colonial rule intersected with grassroots politics: although chieftaincy disputes and litigation were powerful sites of conflict and disruption, they also became spaces for local people to negotiate the sociopolitical and economic changes of the period. Sackeyfio-Lenoch demonstrates how these disputes opened new arenas for Accra's residents to engage in dialogue about the efficacy of chieftaincy and the meaning of property and its alienation during colonial rule. Accra exerted dominance inthe region by virtue of its location and status; its history provides us with an important case study for understanding urban and colonial processes in Africa during the first half of the twentieth century. Naaborko Sackeyfio-Lenoch is Assistant Professor of African History at Dartmouth College