Local Historians and Strangers with Big Eyes

The Politics of Ewe History in Ghana and Its Global Diaspora

Dados Bibliográficos

ID5778112
AutoresKate Skinner (0000-0002-3559-4916, University of Birmingham, autor correspondente)
Ano2010
Volume37
Páginas125-158
Data de publicação2010-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoHistory in Africa (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0361-5413 • E-ISSN: 1558-2744
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1353/hia.2010.0022
OpenAlexW1986166356
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas3
Referências citadas29

In 2001 I attended a meeting at the London headquarters of the Movement for a Resurgent Togoland (MORETO). Seven people-mainly middle-aged and elderly men from the inland Ewe-speaking areas of Ghana-had gathered together to share their findings about the modern political history of the area where they were born. They vocalised their dissatisfaction with the incorporation of this area within the borders of Ghana at independence in 1957, and they discussed how this situation came about, and whether it could be rectified. In the course of this meeting, I began to realize that contests over Ewe history had gone global. Controversial issues, which scholars had previously addressed through detailed diachronic local studies, were now being played out across a global diaspora, capturing the attention not only of Ewe-speakers originating from a specific town or district, or having a direct stake in a particular version of its history, but also of anonymous commentators, scattered thousands of miles across the globe. In this paper, I describe some of my encounters with Ewe-speaking people who study their recent political history, and I analyze some of their writings. I suggest that, despite recent attention to history-writing by Africans during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, further reflection is required on two key issues: firstly, the circulation of historical knowledge and forms of historical debate among Africans living in the global diaspora; secondly, the implications of this for historians researching the post-colonial period

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