http://41.74.91.244:8080/handle/123456789/109 Sun, 05 Apr 2026 19:01:44 GMT 2026-04-05T19:01:44Z http://41.74.91.244:8080/handle/123456789/483 Continuing in the shadows of colonialism: The educational experiences of the African Child in Ghana Adzahlie-Mensah V.; Dunne M. In this paper, we draw on a recent ethnographic study in a rural primary school to illustrate the ways that vestiges of colonialism remain deeply imbricated in contemporary schooling in Ghana. In reference to the history of education, we use evidence from this study to argue that colonial constructions of the African child are reproduced within schooling. We highlight the significance of schooling for the production of learner subjectivities and point to the ways that the institution of schooling and its everyday life continue to echo and re-instantiate colonial constructions of the African child. Drawing on the voices and experiences of students and teachers we illustrate the ways that formal schooling continues to work to devalue indigenous knowledge, to regulate and discipline African children and produce their inferiorisation through their education. We specifically highlight the gender inflections in the institutional routines of schooling. Following a brief introduction to the historical context of education in Ghana, we outline the research study and then the theoretical position upon which our analysis is based. We develop the analysis along three major discursive themes starting with the formal institutional structures of the school, highlighting the ways its disciplinary boundaries structure age and gender relations. We then turn to the curriculum and pedagogic practices that shape student understandings of what constitutes legitimate knowledge and the processes of learning. In the final theme, we examine the language of instruction and the ways that this produces exclusions and vilifies indigenous languages and the cultures that are expressed through it. In the conclusion, we draw the key points together to reflect on the extent to which contemporary schooling in Ghana sustains the production of the African child framed in the colonial era. Finally, we suggest that the educational experience of students offers an important starting point for efforts in decolonizing the school and curriculum. � 2018 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. Adzahlie-Mensah, V., University of Education, Winneba, Ghana; Dunne, M., Centre for International Education, University of Sussex, United Kingdom Mon, 01 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMT http://41.74.91.244:8080/handle/123456789/483 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z http://41.74.91.244:8080/handle/123456789/423 Religion, law, politics and the state in Africa: Applying legal pluralism in Ghana Tweneboah S. Applying a legal pluralist framework, this study examines the complex interrelationships between religion, law and politics in contemporary Ghana, a professedly secular State characterised by high levels of religiosity. It aims to explore legal, cultural and moral tensions created by overlapping loci of authority (state actors, traditional leaders and religious functionaries). It contends that religion can function as an impediment to Ghana's secularity and also serve as an integral tool for realising the State's legal ideals and meeting international human rights standards. Using three case studies - legal tensions, child witchcraft accusations and same-sex partnerships - the study illustrates the ways that the entangled and complicated connections between religion and law compound Ghana's secular orientation. It suggests that legal pluralism is not a mere analytical framework for describing tensions, but ought to be seen as part of the solution. The study contributes to advancing knowledge in the area of the interrelationships between religion and law in contemporary African public domain. This book will be a valuable resource for those working in the areas of Law and Religion, Religious Studies, African Studies, Political Science, Legal Anthropology and Socio-legal Studies. � 2020 Seth Tweneboah. Tweneboah, S., Centre for Conflict, Human Rights and Peace Studies, University of Education, Winneba, Ghana Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT http://41.74.91.244:8080/handle/123456789/423 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z http://41.74.91.244:8080/handle/123456789/335 Religion, Law, and Politics in Ghana: Duab (Imprecation) as Spiritual Justice in the Public Sphere Tweneboah S. This paper examines the reasons for and consequences of the resort to traditional spiritual justice in spite of increasing awareness of state civil law structures. The paper helps us theorise on how economic disputes resulting from lack of effective legal enforcement yields itself easily to the deployment of spiritual justice. The significance of this study is that it contributes perspectives into issues of law and political modernisation and their interrelationships with religious imaginations. It departs from previous accounts that focus on the pervasiveness of religion in the contemporary Ghanaian public sphere. Instead, the current study devotes attention to the conditions that occasion the deployment of religion in the public domain. Copyright � 2021 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Tweneboah, S., Centre for Conflict, Human Rights and Peace Studies, University of Education, Winneba, Ghana Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT http://41.74.91.244:8080/handle/123456789/335 2021-01-01T00:00:00Z http://41.74.91.244:8080/handle/123456789/320 You Have a Lot to Answer For: Human Rights, Matriliny, and the Mediation of Family Conflicts at the Department of Social Welfare in Ghana Salifu J. Scholars have argued that the implementation of legal reforms in African settings has largely failed because of the persistence of norms and values that privilege collective interests over individual rights. With a focus on the work of the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) in a matrilineal Asante town in Ghana, this article reflects on the potential for state institutions to implement a human rights perspective through family dispute resolution processes. In this context, the key factors that influence the work of institutions such as the DSW, which has a human rights mandate, include the long history of family legal contests outside the lineage and the principle of economic separateness in the context of marriage. The effect of these developments is that the opportunity continues to exist for individuals, in this case women, to advocate for their rights as mothers even in a supposedly collective social setting. The evidence supports the position that cultureis not always the impediment to human rights that it is often made out to be. [legal pluralism, human rights, matriliny, Ghana, marriage]. 2021 by the American Anthropological Association Salifu, J., University of Education, Winneba, Ghana Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT http://41.74.91.244:8080/handle/123456789/320 2021-01-01T00:00:00Z