Cocoa and Gold: Ghana's Development in Global Perspective

Catalog description

Explores Ghana's development in historic perspective from the colonial era to the recent postcolonial period. Provides an interdisciplinary history that is attentive to political economy, social relations, geography, and politics as they congeal in particular ways throughout Ghana's developmental trajectory. Traces the key forces at play in Ghanaian development through time, paying particular attention to the transformations prompted by the region's encounter with and incorporation into a global economy. Key historical moments will include the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the colonial era in light of their attendant reconfigurations of land, labor, and natural resources—as well as landscapes of power and politics. In the postcolonial period, examines the central epochs in the country's development trajectory, in relation to its rich political history and shifting global discourses of development and geopolitics, and considers such dynamics as Asian investment, urbanization, international development aid, and the discovery of oil. Field visits will complement class discussions and take advantage of our location in Accra. Ghana's specific developmental trajectory is viewed in contexts of wider African and global south developmental trajectories.