Paul Nugent
Biographic Data
| ID | 93871 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Paul Nugent |
| GIVEN NAMES | Paul |
| FAMILY NAME | Nugent |
| SIGNATURE | NUGENT P |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Edinburgh |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4950-6347 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 82 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 330 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 78 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 4 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1986 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
Bridging African Boundaries: Four Reviews of Professor Asiwaju’s Compendium
Last October, a box arrived at the office of Borders in Globalization Research Laboratory containing the nearly 1,000-page tome, Bridging African Boundaries: Cross-Border Areas and Regional Integration in Comparative History and Policy Advocacy, by Professor Emeritus Anthony I. Asiwaju (Pan-African University Press, 2021). The book is a compendium of three seminal works by the author, representing a lifetime of labor and outstanding achievement. …
The impact of transport policies on road accessibility in Ghana (2010-2019)
This article examines the impact of transport policies on road accessibility in Ghana. To measure accessibility gains, the article applies a model that compares the area and population that can be reached in under four hours by road from any city in 2010 and 2019. By quantifying travel times required to reach the nearest city ten years apart, we measure whether road improvement projects have led to improving accessibility and in which regions of …
Border festivals, closures and practical governance: A comparison of Agbamevoza (Agotime) and Godigbeza (Aflao) on the Ghana–Togo border
Since the 1990s, there has been a proliferation of cultural festivals across West Africa. In this article, we argue that border festivals are distinctive. They take on the work of cultural codification in a context where borders often magnify differences between partitioned communities. They also help to shape border governance, because, as moments of exception, they provide a platform on which it is possible to variously criticize and lobby poli…
Turning Water into Wine: The Curious History of Terroir in South Africa
The paper considers the different meanings of terroir and then addresses the reasons why it has become a focus of South African wine producers only in the recent past. This is related to the history of a region where irrigation came to be associated with bulk wines produced by co-operatives. When independent producers attempted to produce quality wines from the 1970s, they were focused on specific cultivars rather than the attributes of terroir. …
Border studies at 45
Introduction Transport Corridors in Africa: Synergy, Slippage and Sustainability
Transport Corridors in Africa
In-depth examination of the inherent tensions and dynamics of transport corridors in Africa: between short-term optics and long-term durability; between regional integration and national interest; between the facilitation of trade and the generation of corridor revenue. The image of the corridor, a central pathway of road and rail carving its way through Africa's interior, has guided the coordination of transport and trade developments on the con…
Why have so many African leaders died of Covid-19
This paper provides evidence that the COVID-19-related mortality rate of national government ministers and heads of state has been substantially higher than that of people with a similar sex and age profile in the general population, a trend that is driven by African cases (17 out of 24 reported deaths worldwide, as of 6 February 2021). Ministers’ work frequently puts them in close contact with diverse groups, and therefore at higher risk of cont…
One-stop border posts in East Africa: State Encounters of the Fourth Kind
Across Africa, One-Stop Border Posts are being rolled out as part of a continental/ regional integration agenda that seeks to facilitate the movement of people and goods. This article focuses on four OSBPs in East Africa and addresses the question, firstly, of how far they make a break with entrenched operational patterns within government bureaucracies, and secondly whether they represent a distinct type of border management regime? The article …
Boundaries, Communities and State-Making in West Africa: The Centrality of the Margins
Border regions are often considered to be the neglected margins. In this book, Paul Nugent argues that through a comparison of the Senegambia and the trans-Volta (Ghana/Togo), we can see that the geographical margins have shaped notional centres at least as much as the reverse. Through a study of three centuries of history, this book demonstrates that states were forged through an extended process of converting a topography of settled states and …
Assan Sarr. Islam, Power, and Dependency in the Gambia River Basin: The Politics of Land Control, 1790–1940
Whereas there are abundant historical studies of the Senegal River basin, the same could hardly be said of the Gambia. In some ways this reflects the enduring consequences of the colonial partition itself, given that Francophone scholarship has tended to gravitate toward northern Senegal, while Anglophone scholarship has been heavily concentrated on the Gold Coast and Nigeria rather than on the tiny strip of territory that became the Gambia. The …
Border studies
The prediction that processes of globalization would inexorably lead to the diminished significance of international borders now seems decidedly misplaced. Border scholars grapple with very different bodies of material, which is in part a function of disparate disciplinary starting points. One advantage that border scholars can exploit is that they are able to mine perspectives from either side of the line. Archives tend to offer a dual perspecti…
A word from the outgoing editors
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Peripheral Urbanism in Africa: Border Towns and Twin Towns in Africa
There has been a proliferation of research on Africa's borderlands over the past decade, which reflects their centrality in regional systems of trade and the rapid growth of border settlements. The development of twin towns/cities at the border, which has attracted the interest of scholars in other regions of the world, has been a distinctive feature of Africa as well. This paper examines some of the particularities of peripheral urbanism in Afri…
Taxing Colonial Africa: The Political Economy of British Imperialism, by Leigh A. Gardner
Taxation has typically been woven into accounts of particular colonies or has featured in regional comparisons, but it has not been given the extended treatment it deserves. Administrators were obsessed by the issue, whether for ideological reasons (as with Frederick Lugard) or for more mundane reasons. Moreover, taxation structured the ways in which the metropoles engaged with their colonies (because of the insistence on self-sufficiency), as we…
Modernity, Tradition, and Intoxication: Comparative Lessons from South Africa and West Africa
Modernity, Tradition, and Intoxication: Comparative Lessons from South Africa and West Africa Get access Paul Nugent Paul Nugent 1 The research for this article was partly funded by a Leverhulme Trust Fellowship. It was written up under a fellowship at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS). The author wishes to express his gratitude to both. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Past & Present, V…
Dreams and Nightmares of Nationhood: The Obi Igwara Special Memorial Event to mark 50 Years of Decolonization in Africa, 1960–2010
Millennial Africa: The National Question Revisited
The Shape of Things to Come: Irredentism, Secessionism and the Pan-African Ideal
Modernity and Tradition, Power and Prestige: Monarchs, Chiefs and Politicians, 1956–74
Khaki Fatigue: Military Rule in Africa, 1960–95
At independence, it was widely assumed that the Armed Forces would accept their support role in relation to the duly constituted civilian authority. However, it did not take very long before this assumption was called into question. The Congo crisis, which propelled Mobutu to the fore, provided an early indication that the men in khaki had the capacity to set themselves up as the arbiters of the fate of squabbling politicians. From here, it was b…
Invasion of the Acronyms: SAPs, Aids and the NGO Takeover
African Independence: Poisoned Chalice or Cup of Plenty?
‘Ism Schisms’: African Socialism and Home-Grown Capitalism, 1960–85
A Profile of Africa at Independence
Africa Since Independence
An indispensable introductory textbook that provides students with a genuinely comparative study of the different trajectories and experiences of independent African states. Paul Nugent explores a ran
Smugglers, Secessionists and Loyal Citizens on the Ghana-Togo Frontier: The Lie of the Borderlands since 1914
Paul Nugent, Smugglers, Secessionists and Loyal Citizens on the Ghana–Togo Frontier: the lie of the borderlands since 1914. Athens OH: Ohio University Press; Legon: Sub-Saharan Books; Oxford: James Currey, 2002, 316 pp., £14.95, ISBN 0 85255 473 7 (hard covers), £16.95, ISBN 0 85255 472 9 (paperback). - Volume 73 Issue 1
Ethnicity in Ghana: The Limits of Invention
List of Tables List of Maps and Illustrations Foreword Notes on the Contributors Ethnicity in Ghana: A Comparative Perspective C.Lentz & P.Nugent In the Mix: Women and Ethnicity Among the Anlo-Ewe S.Greene 'We Stay, Others Come and Go': Identity Among the Mamprusi in Northern Ghana M.Schlottner Asante Nationhood and Colonial Administrators, 1896-1935 I.Wilks Be(com)ing Asante, Be(com)ing Akan: Thoughts on Gender, Identity and the Colonial Encount…
Putting the History Back into Ethnicity: Enslavement, Religion, and Cultural Brokerage in the Construction of Mandinka/Jola and Ewe/Agotime Identities in West Africa, c. 1650-1930
It does not always happen that academic debates result in an agreed victory or a tidy consensus. As often as not, the protagonists lose interest, or the terrain itself shifts. For that reason, it is worth remarking on the fact that after around two decades of debating the roots of ethnicity in Africa, something like a consensus has in fact emerged. The colonial thesis that Africans were born into 'tribes' that were rooted in a timeless past has b…
Winners, Losers and Also Rans: Money, Moral Authority and Voting Patterns in the Ghana 2000 Election
Journal Article Winners, Losers and Also Rans: Money, Moral Authority and Voting Patterns in the Ghana 2000 Election Get access Paul Nugent Paul Nugent Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar African Affairs, Volume 100, Issue 400, 1 July 2001, Pages 405–428, https://doi.org/10.1093/afraf/100.400.405 Published: 01 July 2001
African Cities: Competing Claims on Urban Spaces
CONTENTS Figures, Tables and Maps ... vii Introduction ... 1 Francesca Locatelli and Paul Nugent Hinges and Fringes: Conceptualising the Peri-urban in Central Africa ... Theodore Trefon Angolan Cities: Urban (Re)segregation? ... 37 Cristina Udelsmann Rodrigues Who Control the Streets? Crime, 'Communities' and the State in Post-Apartheid Johannesburg ... 55 Claire Benit-Gbaff ou African Cities: Competing Claims on Urban Land ... 81 Paul Jenkins Co…
Living in the past: Urban, rural and ethnic themes in the 1992 and 1996 elections in Ghana
A comparative literature on democratic transitions in Africa has sought out points of similarity across the continent in order to yield generalisations about the prospects for democratic consolidation. The underlying contention of this article is that history needs to be taken seriously in any such exercise, not least because politicians and voters alike are guided by their readings of the past. These, in turn, have a bearing on democratic prospe…
Smugglers, Secessionists and Loyal Citizens on the Ghana-Togo Frontier: The Lie of the Borderlands Since 1914
Respacing Africa
Space has been reintroduced as an analytical category to the humanities and social sciences in the early 1990s. African Studies is one of the fields of knowledge production where the so-called spatial turn has proved to be extremely fruitful. The continent provides ample evidence for complex processes of deterritorialisation (migration, globalisation, sub-nationalisms) and reterritorialisation (new regionalisms, processes of bordering, etc.). The…
States and Social Contracts in Africa
Arguing for a renewed focus on political economy, Nugent surveys repertoires of state power and forms of social contract in Africa. Control of revenue, land and population as variables permuted by post-colonial regimes—and reordered by the pressures of structural adjustment
The successful Ghana election of 2008: A Convenient Myth
Ghana's 2008 election has been hailed by national and international observers as a model for Africa. The perception of success has prevailed despite persistent concerns about an inflated voters' register and electoral fraud perpetrated by the two major parties, the NPP and NDC, in their strongholds in the Ashanti and Volta Regions respectively. Electoral malpractice in Ghana's virtual two-party system could acquire a decisive importance as a 'thi…
Cyclical History in the Gambia/Casamance Borderlands: Refuge, Settlement and Islam From C. 1880 to the Present
This article begins with a quotation from a local informant highlighting a perception in the Gambia/Casamance borderlands that there is a pattern linking the violence of the later nineteenth century with more recent troubles. It argues that there is some merit in this thesis, which is encapsulated in a concatenation of events: systematic raiding by Fodé Sylla led to the creation of a relatively depopulated colonial border zone which was later fil…
Africa's Young Majority
Barbara Trudell, Kenneth King, Simon McGrath and Paul Nugent (eds), Africa's Young Majority. Edinburgh: Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh, 2002, 342 pp., £19.50, ISBN 0 9527917 7 3 (paperback). - Volume 73 Issue 4
Peripheral Urbanism in Africa: Border Towns and Twin Towns in Africa
There has been a proliferation of research on Africa's borderlands over the past decade, which reflects their centrality in regional systems of trade and the rapid growth of border settlements. The development of twin towns/cities at the border, which has attracted the interest of scholars in other regions of the world, has been a distinctive feature of Africa as well. This paper examines some of the particularities of peripheral urbanism in Afri…
The Temperance Movement and Wine Farmers at the Cape: Collective Action, Racial Discourse, and Legislative Reform, C. 1890–1965
This article addresses the struggle between the temperance and wine interests in South Africa during three phases: 1890–1920, 1920–48 and 1948–65. It argues that divergent outcomes were rooted in a combination of differential levels of internal cohesion and the configuration of the political arena within which the protagonists manoeuvred for advantage. Conflicting interests within the wine industry hindered collective action, whereas the temperan…
One-stop border posts in East Africa: State Encounters of the Fourth Kind
Across Africa, One-Stop Border Posts are being rolled out as part of a continental/ regional integration agenda that seeks to facilitate the movement of people and goods. This article focuses on four OSBPs in East Africa and addresses the question, firstly, of how far they make a break with entrenched operational patterns within government bureaucracies, and secondly whether they represent a distinct type of border management regime? The article …
Do Nations Have Stomachs? Food, Drink and Imagined Community in Africa
This paper takes a rhetorical question posed by Ernest Gellner and reframes it to ask whether a sense of national identity can be forged through everyday acts of consumption - in particular, that of food and drink. The article finds value in Benedict Anderson's conception of the nation as an imagined community, but argues that it makes little sense to privilege the printed word over other forms of consumption. The article goes on to suggest that …
Les élections ghanéennes de 2004: Anatomie d'Un Système Bipartite
En dépit d'estimations augurant une large victoire du parti au pouvoir (NPP), le principal parti d'opposition (NDC) ghanéen a obtenu de meilleurs résultats qu'escompté. Lors de la présidentielle de 2004, J. Kufuor réussit à éviter de peu un second tour, alors que les pertes de l'opposition aux législatives furent contrebalancées par un sursaut ailleurs, notamment dans le Grand Accra. La prestation du NDC, eu égard aux piètres résultats des petits…
The Gambia and the World: A History of the Foreign Policy of Africa's Smallest State, 1965-1995
Omar A. Touray, The Gambia and the World: a history of the foreign policy of Africa's smallest state, 1965–1995. Hamburg: Institut für Afrika-Kunde (paperback €16.00, ISBN 3 928049 66 6). 2000, 209 pp. - Volume 74 Issue 2
Border studies at 45
Ethnicity in Ghana: The Limits of Invention
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Adjusting society: The World Bank, the IMF and Ghana
Journal Article Adjusting society: the World Bank, the IMF and Ghana Get access Adjusting society: the World Bank, the IMF and Ghana. By Lynne Brydon and Karen Legge. London: Tauris. 1996. 222pp. Index. £39.50. ISBN 1 86064 000 1. Paul Nugent Paul Nugent 1University of Edinburgh Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume 73, Issue 3, July 1997, Page 606, https://doi.org/10.2307/2624338 P…
Transport Corridors in Africa
In-depth examination of the inherent tensions and dynamics of transport corridors in Africa: between short-term optics and long-term durability; between regional integration and national interest; between the facilitation of trade and the generation of corridor revenue. The image of the corridor, a central pathway of road and rail carving its way through Africa's interior, has guided the coordination of transport and trade developments on the con…
Modernity, Tradition, and Intoxication: Comparative Lessons from South Africa and West Africa
Modernity, Tradition, and Intoxication: Comparative Lessons from South Africa and West Africa Get access Paul Nugent Paul Nugent 1 The research for this article was partly funded by a Leverhulme Trust Fellowship. It was written up under a fellowship at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS). The author wishes to express his gratitude to both. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Past & Present, V…
Dreams and Nightmares of Nationhood: The Obi Igwara Special Memorial Event to mark 50 Years of Decolonization in Africa, 1960–2010
What Is Political Economy? A Study of Social Theory and Underdevelopment
Journal Article What Is Political Economy? A Study of Social Theory and Underdevelopment Get access What Is Political Economy? A Study of Social Theory and Underdevelopment, by Martin Staniland. Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1985. xi + 229 pp. ISBN 0-300-03295-1. £18.50 in UK. PAUL NUGENT PAUL NUGENT School of Oriental and African StudiesLondon Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar African Affairs…
Hobbes in an agbada: Democracy and civil order in Nigeria
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Rural Communities Under Stress: Peasant Farmers and the State in Africa
Journal Article Rural Communities Under Stress: Peasant Farmers and the State in Africa Get access Rural Communities Under Stress: Peasant Farmers and the State in Africa, by Jonathan Barker. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1989. ix + 228 pp. £25.00 hardback, £8.95 paperback. ISBN 0 521 30867 4 and 0 521 31358 9. PAUL NUGENT PAUL NUGENT University of Edinburgh Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar African…
The State, Development and Politics in Ghana
Ghana Under Rawlings: The early years
Journal Article Ghana Under Rawlings: The early years Get access Ghana Under Rawlings: The early years, by Emmanuel Hansen. (African Association of Political Science Project Series No. 2). Malthouse Press, Lagos and Oxford, 1991. xxix+157 pp. £9.50 paperback. ISBN 9 782 601586. Distributed by African Books Collective, Oxford. PAUL NUGENT PAUL NUGENT University of Edinburgh Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar A…
Ghana's Transition to Constitutional Rule
Journal Article Ghana's Transition to Constitutional Rule Get access Ghana's Transition to Constitutional Rule by Kwame Ninsin and Francis Drah (eds.). Ghana Universities Press, Accra, 1991 and distributed by African Books Collective, Oxford, ii + 124 pp. £8.50 paperback. ISBN 9964-3-0199-5. PAUL NUGENT PAUL NUGENT University of Edinburgh Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar African Affairs, Volume 93, Issue 37…
An Abandoned Project: The Nuances of Chieftaincy, Development and History in Ghana’s Volta Region
The present Sambujat chief deals with the Senegalese civil authorities. He passes on information, collects taxes and coordinates the occasional regional services provided by government agencies... He also sees to it that villagers inscribe their children in school. During the last decades as the Senegalese State attempts to bring extension services into the countryside, government agents have relied upon the chief to help settle local disputes ov…
Adjusting society: The World Bank, the IMF and Ghana
Journal Article Adjusting society: the World Bank, the IMF and Ghana Get access Adjusting society: the World Bank, the IMF and Ghana. By Lynne Brydon and Karen Legge. London: Tauris. 1996. 222pp. Index. £39.50. ISBN 1 86064 000 1. Paul Nugent Paul Nugent 1University of Edinburgh Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume 73, Issue 3, July 1997, Page 606, https://doi.org/10.2307/2624338 P…
Drink, Power and Cultural Change: A social history of alcohol in Ghana, c.1800 to recent times
Journal Article Drink, Power and Cultural Change: A social history of alcohol in Ghana, c.1800 to recent times Get access Drink, Power and Cultural Change: A social history of alcohol in Ghana, c.1800 to recent times, by Emmanuel Kwaku Akyeampong. James Currey Publishers, 1997. xxiii+189 pp. £40.00 hardback, £14.95 paperback. ISBN 0-85255-673X and 0-85255-623-3. PAUL NUGENT PAUL NUGENT University of Edinburgh Search for other works by this author…
Living in the past: Urban, rural and ethnic themes in the 1992 and 1996 elections in Ghana
A comparative literature on democratic transitions in Africa has sought out points of similarity across the continent in order to yield generalisations about the prospects for democratic consolidation. The underlying contention of this article is that history needs to be taken seriously in any such exercise, not least because politicians and voters alike are guided by their readings of the past. These, in turn, have a bearing on democratic prospe…
Ethnicity in Ghana: A comparative perspective
By comparison with some African countries where ethnicity casts an imposing shadow over public debate it has manifested itself in a variable and episodic manner in Ghana.1 While the history of twentieth-century Ghana could certainly not be written without reference to ethnicity, nor could it serve as a central organising principle without distorting the totality of the picture. Perhaps because ethnicity has proved so elusive, less attention has b…
Ethnicity in Ghana
Although African ethnicity has become a highly fertile field of enquiry in recent years, most of the research is concentrated on southern and central Africa, and has passed Ghana by. This volume exten
Ethnicity in Ghana: The Limits of Invention
List of Tables List of Maps and Illustrations Foreword Notes on the Contributors Ethnicity in Ghana: A Comparative Perspective C.Lentz & P.Nugent In the Mix: Women and Ethnicity Among the Anlo-Ewe S.Greene 'We Stay, Others Come and Go': Identity Among the Mamprusi in Northern Ghana M.Schlottner Asante Nationhood and Colonial Administrators, 1896-1935 I.Wilks Be(com)ing Asante, Be(com)ing Akan: Thoughts on Gender, Identity and the Colonial Encount…
Moral Discourses and Public Spaces in the Fourth Republic
In 1992 a historic watershed was reached with the formal inauguration of the Fourth Republic. As the very name would suggest, this represented above all a political turning point. It ushered in an era of renewed competition for political office and of comparative freedom of expression, as
The Things That Money Can Buy: Chieftancy, the Media and the 1996 Elections in Hohoe-North Constituency
Like the other contributions in this section, this article is concerned with the contours of public space in Ghana under the Fourth Republic.[1][1] The difference is that it addresses politics in a rural milieu where the rules of engagement cannot be assumed to be the same as those of the urban
Winners, Losers and Also Rans: Money, Moral Authority and Voting Patterns in the Ghana 2000 Election
Journal Article Winners, Losers and Also Rans: Money, Moral Authority and Voting Patterns in the Ghana 2000 Election Get access Paul Nugent Paul Nugent Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar African Affairs, Volume 100, Issue 400, 1 July 2001, Pages 405–428, https://doi.org/10.1093/afraf/100.400.405 Published: 01 July 2001
Ethnicity in Ghana: The Limits of Invention
Ethnicity in Ghana: The Limits of Invention
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Smugglers, Secessionists and Loyal Citizens on the Ghana-Togo Frontier: The Lie of the Borderlands since 1914
Paul Nugent, Smugglers, Secessionists and Loyal Citizens on the Ghana–Togo Frontier: the lie of the borderlands since 1914. Athens OH: Ohio University Press; Legon: Sub-Saharan Books; Oxford: James Currey, 2002, 316 pp., £14.95, ISBN 0 85255 473 7 (hard covers), £16.95, ISBN 0 85255 472 9 (paperback). - Volume 73 Issue 1
Africa's Young Majority
Barbara Trudell, Kenneth King, Simon McGrath and Paul Nugent (eds), Africa's Young Majority. Edinburgh: Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh, 2002, 342 pp., £19.50, ISBN 0 9527917 7 3 (paperback). - Volume 73 Issue 4
Smugglers, Secessionists and Loyal Citizens on the Ghana-Togo Frontier: The Lie of the Borderlands Since 1914
‘Ism Schisms’: African Socialism and Home-Grown Capitalism, 1960–85
Millennial Africa: The National Question Revisited
Democracy Rediscovered: Popular Protest, Elite Mobilisation and the Return of Multipartyism
A Profile of Africa at Independence
Political science (54 works) · Law (44 works) · Sociology (38 works) · African history and culture studies (35 works) · Politics (34 works) · Geography (22 works) · Law (22 works) · History (21 works) · Political economy (18 works) · Mathematics (13 works)