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77514-01 - Practical course: Postcolonial Nationalism in Ghana 1950s-1980s (3 CP)
| Semester | fall semester 2025 |
| Course frequency | Once only |
| Lecturers | |
| Content | This course explores the politics of state-building and nationalism in Ghana, focusing on the governments of the country’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah, and the military leadership of Jerry Rawlings. Postcolonial leaders across Africa faced the challenge of forging unity in states with colonially inherited, often arbitrary borders, and a population diverse in languages, religions, and local systems of authority. We will briefly review the fundamentals of historical source criticism, introduce key literature on postcolonial nation-building, and then focus on primary sources from major stakeholders in Ghanaian state-building—political leaders and their parties, chiefs, military leaders, and churches. In preparation, each participant will be assigned a stakeholder group and will read introductory texts to prepare for in-class source analysis. The course will take place as a block seminar on three Fridays during the semester. |
| Bibliography | At the beginning of the semester, a list of texts to read before the first session will be provided to the participants. The provided literature will equip the students with the necessary backgrond knowledge for the source criticism in class. - Mbembe, Achille: On the Postcolony, Berkeley 2001 - Gifford et al.: Decolonization and African Independence: The Transfers of Power, 1960-1980, New Haven/London 1988 - Keese, Alexander: Ethnicity and the Colonial State. Finding and Representing Group Identifications in a Coastal West African and Global Perspective (1850-1960), Leiden 2016 - Kludze, A.K.P: Chieftaincy in Ghana, Lanham 2000. - Ahlman, Jeffrey: Living with Nkrumahism. Nation, State, and Pan-Africanism in Ghana, Athens Ohio 2017 - Allman, Jean: The Quills of the Porcupine. Asante Nationalism in an Emergent Ghana, Madison 1993 - Rathbone, Richard: Kwame Nkrumah and the Chiefs. The Politics of Chieftaincy in Ghana 1951-1960, Accra 2000. - Gocking, Roger: The History of Ghana, Westport 2005. - Fuller, Harcourt: Building the Ghanaian Nation-State. Kwame Nkrumah’s Symbolic Nationalism, New York 2014. |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|---|
| Block | See individual dates | ||
Dates
| Date | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|
| Friday 17.10.2025 | 09.00-18.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 3 |
| Friday 07.11.2025 | 09.00-18.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 2 |
| Friday 05.12.2025 | 09.00-18.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 2 |
| Modules |
Modul: Archive / Medien / Theorien (Bachelor's degree subject: History) Modul: Praxis (Master's degree subject: History) Modul: Reflexion, Methodik, Praxis (Master's degree program: European History in Global Perspective) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | no repetition |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Departement Geschichte |