Edem Adotey
Biographic Data
| ID | 144293 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Edem Adotey |
| GIVEN NAMES | Edem |
| FAMILY NAME | Adotey |
| SIGNATURE | ADOTEY E |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Ghana |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8007-7950 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 28 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 11 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Aɖaʋatram (Madness Has Led Me Astray): Ritual Archives and Ewe Identities on the Ghana–Togo Borderlands
The Ghana–Togo border separates the Ewe people from their ritual spaces and objects. In Nyive, a border town divided into Ghana Nyive and Togo Nyive, these ritual spaces and objects are in Togo Nyive. The liminal space of the border complicates ritual practice by preventing community members from moving the ritual drum Aɖaʋatram (madness has led me astray) across the river and the international border. Nonetheless, communities in Nyive use ritual…
Anatomy of a Border: Contradictory Discourses on Othering and Mobilities on the Ghana-Togo Border
Two 'contradictory' perspectives of the borderlands exist: one is that the creation of arbitrary borders and different nationalities imposed on single communities and families not only others them and casts them as aliens in their traditional homelands but also restricts their mobilities and access to resources. The second perspective is that borderlanders do not recognise these borders and continue their activities as if the borders do not exist…
Oil Palm Branch to Oil Palm Branch”: Festivals, Borders, and Trans-Border Ewe Ethnic Identities on the Ghana–Togo Border
An Institute of Residual Studies? Nkrumah and the “Afroepistemic” Origins of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana
This paper examines the development of the University of Ghana’s Institute of African Studies (IAS), arguing that the landscape of decolonial epistemology is more complex than is often assumed. Drawing on new archival documents it maps out the different landscape of ideas regarding its decolonial origins — phase one (1948–50), phase two (1954–61), and phase three (1960–63) — not only to elucidate problems of defining what decolonial work should e…
Th May 2017 is OUR DAY: The Homeland Study Group Foundation and contested national imaginaries in postindependence Ghana
Ghana has been held up as an oasis of stability in a highly volatile region of Africa due to its peaceful decolonisation process, absence of serious civil conflict and successful change of governments. However, in Ghana as in parts of postindependence Africa, there are lingering secessionist movements that are a legacy of colonialism. The latest comes from the Homeland Study Group Foundation (HSGF) which declared the former British Togoland, a fo…
An imaginary line? Decolonisation, bordering and borderscapes on the Ghana–Togo border
Africa’s inherited colonial borders have been central in debates on decolonisation for reasons that include challenges posed to African mobilities and identities, suggesting that there is a crisis of ideas about the border. This article draws on critical border studies (CBS) to examine the agency and negotiating capabilities of border residents using Leklebi and Wli, on the Ghana–Togo border, as case studies. How are discourses and practices of t…
Multiplicity and simultaneity in ethnographic research: Exploring the use of drones in Ghana
This research note explores the ethical and methodological implications of using drones for ethnographic research at events that involve simultaneous activities and/or large crowds and large spaces. Based on the methodological challenges of collecting visual data using cameras in the case of royal funerals in Ghana, this note argues that the aerial viewpoint provided by drones could transform visual data collection by capturing sophisticated view…
Operation Eagle Eye”: Border Citizenship and Cross-border Voting in Ghana’s Fourth Republic
This article examines the role of elections in bordering through disputes over cross-border voting since Ghana returned to multi-party democracy in 1992. It uses case studies from some communities that border Togo in the Volta Region of Ghana which is the epicenter of alleged cross-border voting. In these communities, “border citizenship” is expressed through the deployment of ritual space, social and political relations which is across national …
Parallel or dependent? The state, chieftaincy and institutions of governance in Ghana
In recent policy frameworks, traditional authorities have been (re)assigned roles of directly representing civil society and local communities as key actors in development, leading to questions about the relationship between the chieftaincy institution and the state in governance. Using the example of a chieftaincy dispute between the Sokpoe and Tefle, a Tongu-Ewe people of Ghana, at the heart of which are claims to paramountcy status, this artic…
Where is My Name? – Contemporary Funeral Posters as an Arena of Contestation and (Re)negotiation of Chiefly Relations Among the Ewe of Ghana and Togo
In Ghana and other regions of West Africa a funeral poster is an important part of funerary ritual. Examining two funeral posters – one about omission and the other about inclusion of names – printed to commemorate two chiefs in two Ewe communities in Ghana and Togo, this article shows funeral posters as arenas of contestation, negotiation, affirmation, and elaboration of beliefs and conflicting views. The article argues that funeral posters are …
International chiefs: Chieftaincy, rituals and the reproduction of transborder Ewe ethnic communities on the Ghana-Togo boundary
The issue of 'alien' voters in Ghana's electoral politics since the return to multiparty democracy in 1992 points to tensions between local/ethnic identities in culturally demarcated spaces and national identity/citizenship promoted by states. Focusing on the two Ewe-speaking communities of Nyive and Edzi, this article examines the legacies of partition in the aftermath of World War One, when the British and French split the former German colony …
International chiefs: Chieftaincy, rituals and the reproduction of transborder Ewe ethnic communities on the Ghana-Togo boundary
The issue of 'alien' voters in Ghana's electoral politics since the return to multiparty democracy in 1992 points to tensions between local/ethnic identities in culturally demarcated spaces and national identity/citizenship promoted by states. Focusing on the two Ewe-speaking communities of Nyive and Edzi, this article examines the legacies of partition in the aftermath of World War One, when the British and French split the former German colony …
Where is My Name? – Contemporary Funeral Posters as an Arena of Contestation and (Re)negotiation of Chiefly Relations Among the Ewe of Ghana and Togo
In Ghana and other regions of West Africa a funeral poster is an important part of funerary ritual. Examining two funeral posters – one about omission and the other about inclusion of names – printed to commemorate two chiefs in two Ewe communities in Ghana and Togo, this article shows funeral posters as arenas of contestation, negotiation, affirmation, and elaboration of beliefs and conflicting views. The article argues that funeral posters are …
Parallel or dependent? The state, chieftaincy and institutions of governance in Ghana
In recent policy frameworks, traditional authorities have been (re)assigned roles of directly representing civil society and local communities as key actors in development, leading to questions about the relationship between the chieftaincy institution and the state in governance. Using the example of a chieftaincy dispute between the Sokpoe and Tefle, a Tongu-Ewe people of Ghana, at the heart of which are claims to paramountcy status, this artic…
An imaginary line? Decolonisation, bordering and borderscapes on the Ghana–Togo border
Africa’s inherited colonial borders have been central in debates on decolonisation for reasons that include challenges posed to African mobilities and identities, suggesting that there is a crisis of ideas about the border. This article draws on critical border studies (CBS) to examine the agency and negotiating capabilities of border residents using Leklebi and Wli, on the Ghana–Togo border, as case studies. How are discourses and practices of t…
Oil Palm Branch to Oil Palm Branch”: Festivals, Borders, and Trans-Border Ewe Ethnic Identities on the Ghana–Togo Border
Operation Eagle Eye”: Border Citizenship and Cross-border Voting in Ghana’s Fourth Republic
This article examines the role of elections in bordering through disputes over cross-border voting since Ghana returned to multi-party democracy in 1992. It uses case studies from some communities that border Togo in the Volta Region of Ghana which is the epicenter of alleged cross-border voting. In these communities, “border citizenship” is expressed through the deployment of ritual space, social and political relations which is across national …
Th May 2017 is OUR DAY: The Homeland Study Group Foundation and contested national imaginaries in postindependence Ghana
Ghana has been held up as an oasis of stability in a highly volatile region of Africa due to its peaceful decolonisation process, absence of serious civil conflict and successful change of governments. However, in Ghana as in parts of postindependence Africa, there are lingering secessionist movements that are a legacy of colonialism. The latest comes from the Homeland Study Group Foundation (HSGF) which declared the former British Togoland, a fo…
Where is My Name? – Contemporary Funeral Posters as an Arena of Contestation and (Re)negotiation of Chiefly Relations Among the Ewe of Ghana and Togo
In Ghana and other regions of West Africa a funeral poster is an important part of funerary ritual. Examining two funeral posters – one about omission and the other about inclusion of names – printed to commemorate two chiefs in two Ewe communities in Ghana and Togo, this article shows funeral posters as arenas of contestation, negotiation, affirmation, and elaboration of beliefs and conflicting views. The article argues that funeral posters are …
International chiefs: Chieftaincy, rituals and the reproduction of transborder Ewe ethnic communities on the Ghana-Togo boundary
The issue of 'alien' voters in Ghana's electoral politics since the return to multiparty democracy in 1992 points to tensions between local/ethnic identities in culturally demarcated spaces and national identity/citizenship promoted by states. Focusing on the two Ewe-speaking communities of Nyive and Edzi, this article examines the legacies of partition in the aftermath of World War One, when the British and French split the former German colony …
Parallel or dependent? The state, chieftaincy and institutions of governance in Ghana
In recent policy frameworks, traditional authorities have been (re)assigned roles of directly representing civil society and local communities as key actors in development, leading to questions about the relationship between the chieftaincy institution and the state in governance. Using the example of a chieftaincy dispute between the Sokpoe and Tefle, a Tongu-Ewe people of Ghana, at the heart of which are claims to paramountcy status, this artic…
Operation Eagle Eye”: Border Citizenship and Cross-border Voting in Ghana’s Fourth Republic
This article examines the role of elections in bordering through disputes over cross-border voting since Ghana returned to multi-party democracy in 1992. It uses case studies from some communities that border Togo in the Volta Region of Ghana which is the epicenter of alleged cross-border voting. In these communities, “border citizenship” is expressed through the deployment of ritual space, social and political relations which is across national …
An imaginary line? Decolonisation, bordering and borderscapes on the Ghana–Togo border
Africa’s inherited colonial borders have been central in debates on decolonisation for reasons that include challenges posed to African mobilities and identities, suggesting that there is a crisis of ideas about the border. This article draws on critical border studies (CBS) to examine the agency and negotiating capabilities of border residents using Leklebi and Wli, on the Ghana–Togo border, as case studies. How are discourses and practices of t…
Multiplicity and simultaneity in ethnographic research: Exploring the use of drones in Ghana
This research note explores the ethical and methodological implications of using drones for ethnographic research at events that involve simultaneous activities and/or large crowds and large spaces. Based on the methodological challenges of collecting visual data using cameras in the case of royal funerals in Ghana, this note argues that the aerial viewpoint provided by drones could transform visual data collection by capturing sophisticated view…
Th May 2017 is OUR DAY: The Homeland Study Group Foundation and contested national imaginaries in postindependence Ghana
Ghana has been held up as an oasis of stability in a highly volatile region of Africa due to its peaceful decolonisation process, absence of serious civil conflict and successful change of governments. However, in Ghana as in parts of postindependence Africa, there are lingering secessionist movements that are a legacy of colonialism. The latest comes from the Homeland Study Group Foundation (HSGF) which declared the former British Togoland, a fo…
Oil Palm Branch to Oil Palm Branch”: Festivals, Borders, and Trans-Border Ewe Ethnic Identities on the Ghana–Togo Border
An Institute of Residual Studies? Nkrumah and the “Afroepistemic” Origins of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana
This paper examines the development of the University of Ghana’s Institute of African Studies (IAS), arguing that the landscape of decolonial epistemology is more complex than is often assumed. Drawing on new archival documents it maps out the different landscape of ideas regarding its decolonial origins — phase one (1948–50), phase two (1954–61), and phase three (1960–63) — not only to elucidate problems of defining what decolonial work should e…
Aɖaʋatram (Madness Has Led Me Astray): Ritual Archives and Ewe Identities on the Ghana–Togo Borderlands
The Ghana–Togo border separates the Ewe people from their ritual spaces and objects. In Nyive, a border town divided into Ghana Nyive and Togo Nyive, these ritual spaces and objects are in Togo Nyive. The liminal space of the border complicates ritual practice by preventing community members from moving the ritual drum Aɖaʋatram (madness has led me astray) across the river and the international border. Nonetheless, communities in Nyive use ritual…
Anatomy of a Border: Contradictory Discourses on Othering and Mobilities on the Ghana-Togo Border
Two 'contradictory' perspectives of the borderlands exist: one is that the creation of arbitrary borders and different nationalities imposed on single communities and families not only others them and casts them as aliens in their traditional homelands but also restricts their mobilities and access to resources. The second perspective is that borderlanders do not recognise these borders and continue their activities as if the borders do not exist…
Sociology (10 works) · Political science (6 works) · Anthropology (5 works) · Gender Studies (5 works) · Gender Studies (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Ethnology (4 works) · Geography (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Political economy (4 works)