The Rise of the ‘Impenetrable Hedge’

African Intermediaries and the Legacy of Colonial Wars in Northern Ghana, 1896–1920

Dados Bibliográficos

ID8977952
AutoresDomenico Cristofaro (0000-0002-4122-329X, University of Bologna, autor correspondente)
Ano2023
Volume64
Fascículo3
Páginas406-421
Data de publicação2023-10-19
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoThe Journal of African History (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0021-8537 • E-ISSN: 1469-5138
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0021853723000609
OpenAlexW4387796911
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas1
Referências citadas8

This article sheds light on the effects that the unrest created by early twentieth-century colonial wars had on the increasing power of African colonial intermediaries in the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast. By managing interpretation processes as well as developing a monopoly on the use of violence, interpreters, soldiers, clerks, and chiefs created what the officers called an ‘impenetrable hedge’. Analyzing how these different figures deployed their power, the article argues that there was historical continuity in the formation of the intermediaries and the methods employed by them between the years of the colonial wars and the later British administration. Despite their institutional role, however, precariousness remained a central facet of these agents’ experiences. The article shows that they were continually challenged at a grassroots level, and suggests that it was only through the use of coercion that they were able to maintain their position

Business · Coercion (linguistics · Colonialism · Economic history · Economics · Grassroots · Hedge · Intermediary · Interpretation (philosophy · Market economy · Monopoly · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Position (finance · Power (physics · Sociology · Unrest · African history and culture studies · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · History · Law · South African History and Culture