Rethinking the making and breaking of traditional and statutory institutions in post-Nkrumah Ghana

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Periodical article

Title:	Rethinking the making and breaking of traditional and statutory institutions in post-Nkrumah Ghana
Author:	Stacey, Paul
Year:	2016
Periodical:	African Studies Review (ISSN 1555-2462)
Volume:	59
Issue:	2
Pages:	209-230
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Ghana
Subjects:	institutions traditional society State-society relationship institutional change
External link:	https://doi.org/10.1017/asr.2016.29
Abstract:	This article examines a complex dispute over the jurisdictions of traditional and statutory institutions that traversed shifts in forms of government in Ghana for nearly a decade following the ousting of Kwame Nkrumah in February 1966. The analysis emphasizes underlying processes of continuity and seeks to add nuance to familiar conceptualizations that view this period in terms of state weakness, crisis, and rupture. The article explores, in particular, a powerful category of chieftaincy defined in opposition to state logics that have escaped empirical investigation. It therefore invites a rethinking of the notion that the post-Nkrumah era heralded a state-initiated revival of traditional institutions. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract]