In his new book, the eminent anthropologist Wyatt MacGaffey
provides an ethnographically enriched history of Dagbon from the
fifteenth century to the present, setting that history in the
context of the regional resources and political culture of northern
Ghana. "Chiefs, Priests, and Praise-Singers" shows how the history
commonly assumed by scholars has been shaped by the prejudices of
colonial anthropology, the needs of British indirect rule, and
local political agency. The book demonstrates, too, how political
agency has shaped the kinship system. MacGaffey traces the
evolution of chieftaincy as the sources of power changed and as
land ceased to be simply the living space of the dependents of a
chief and became a commodity and a resource for development. The
internal violence in Dagbon that has been a topic of national and
international concern since 2002 is shown to be a product of the
interwoven values of tradition, modern Ghanaian politics, modern
education, and economic opportunism.
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