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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Why Ghana is Not a Nation-State
Author:Skalnik, PeterISNI
Year:1992
Periodical:Africa Insight
Volume:22
Issue:1
Pages:66-72
Language:English
Geographic term:Ghana
Subjects:nation
Politics and Government
Ethnic and Race Relations
colonialism
History and Exploration
Women's Issues
Abstract:The main thesis of this article is that the thirty-odd years that Ghana has been an independent State were not marked by any significant progress in nationbuilding. The author argues that factors like general political instability, persisting tribalism, economic malaise and the growing gap between the pace of development in the south and the north of the country effectively prevent the formation of a nation-State. He examines in detail three areas of evidence for the nonexistence of the nation-State. The gap between the development of regions, especially the country's north and south not only remained but deepened; the reasons for dissidence among the Ewe, who live on both sides of the colonial and now postcolonial border between Ghana and Togo, were not removed; and ethnic nationalism among the smaller groups in various parts of Ghana, such as the Nanumba and Konkomba in Nanun in the underdeveloped north, has entered a new phase in which serious conflicts are being solved without recourse to the modern State's mediation. Ethnic identities are thus strengthened at the cost of the ideal of national unity. Note, ref.
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