Remembering the Germans in Ghana

Remembering the Germans in Ghana examines the oral history of the Volta Region of Ghana, scrutinizes its sources and presentation, contextualizes it historically, and uses it to make larger arguments about memory and identity in Ghana.

Memories of the German presence in the central Volta Region of Ghana are deep and vivid. This ethnically diverse area was part of the German Togoland colony from roughly 1884 to 1914 but German-speaking missionaries established stations earlier in the mid-nineteenth century. Ghanaian oral historians describe the violence, burdens, and inconveniences they associate with German rule, yet place greater emphasis on the introductions by German missionaries of Christianity and western education and the prevalence of what they say was the honesty, order, and discipline of the German colonial period. Remembering the Germans in Ghana examines this oral history, scrutinizes its sources and presentation, contextualizes it historically, and uses it to make larger arguments about memory and identity in Ghana. It also presents the case for more deliberate and extensive use of oral history in reconstructing the African colonial past and provides a methodology for its collection and analysis.

Autorentext

Dennis Laumann is Professor of African History and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of History at The University of Memphis. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles and he is the recipient of numerous teaching awards. Laumann is also author of Colonial Africa, 1884 1994 (2013).

Inhalt

List of Illustrations - List of Tables - Acknowledgments - Preface - Theoretical and Methodological Contexts - Cultural and Historical Contexts - A Written History of the "Model Colony" - An Oral History of "Gruner's Time" - Nostalgia, Neglect, and Nationalism under the British - German Scholars, Performance, and Sites of Memory - Conclusion - Index.