ALST 237 - Ghana: History, Culture and Politics in West Africa

Students consider how Ghana has been an active participant in international commerce, politics, and culture, whether as a global source of gold and cocoa, a producer of kente cloth, or pan-Africanism, diasporic culture and politics, or as the “Black Star” state of Africa. Ghana continues to have enormous symbolic and pragmatic value in global relations relative to its size and place, but the course asks how has Ghana grappled with becoming a nation with many histories—indigenous, Islamic, European, migrant African, and Asian—and the different meanings those histories hold in a republic hoping to balance local, continental, and global concerns. The course also asks how indigenous communities, such as the former empire of Asante and its leader the Asantehene, has come to exercise enormous influence on the world stage, at times more than the president of Ghana.

Credits: 1.0
Prerequisites: None
Major/Minor Restrictions: None
Class Restriction: None
Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements

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