Historical analysis of the formation and structural organization of political parties in Ghana: a diagnosis of the national democratic congress
Political parties, particularly the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP), have been vibrant in Ghana’s democratic space in the Fourth Republic. This paper examines the historicity of the development of the NDC. It establishes how the structural organization of the NDC pitches its appeal and attracts electoral support as a supplementary variable. Scholarship on the variables of the electoral fortunes of political parties in Ghana in the Fourth Republic has focused essentially on factors such as ethnicity, clientelism, ideological positions, retrospective voting, and rational voting. Little space has been given to the extent to which the structural organisation of a party plays an important role in electoral outcomes. This paper shifts the discourse from the traditional narrative that focused on the factors of the electoral fortunes of political parties in Ghana in the Fourth Republic to the study of the structural organization of political parties. Adapting the political development model to the study of the historicity of the structure of the NDC, this paper examined the historical formation and structural organization of the party. Employing an explanatory case study design, data for the analysis were drawn from textual studies and key informant interviews. The paper argued that the voting Ghanaian public and citizens in general seemed to be heavily tilted towards the attributes, values and principles the NDC represents as a ‘Third Political Force.’ The paper recommends that the philosophy of the NDC and its identity should be intricately grounded in real social democratic ideals, principles, policies and activities with definite levels of …
Cletus Kwaku Mbowura, Gbensuglo Alidu Bukari, Mathew Lobnibe Arah
End of War, No Resolution, No Lasting Peace: A Historical Study of the Attempts at Managing and Resolving the Nawuri-Gonja Conflict.
Epistemological and Logical Interrogations of the Mechanics of Security In Conflicts in Northern Ghana
The Ethnic Factor in International Politics: Constructing the Role of the Nawuri in the Pan-Ewe Nationalist Movement
This paper examines the German colonial project in Alfai in Northern Ghana as well as the roles the Nawuri played in the political activism of the 1940s and 1950s that sought to define the administrative status of the two Trust Territories of former German Togoland. Described as the “Togoland Question” or the “Ewe Problem”, the political activism has been labeled an Ewe affair, and examined largely within the framework of the pan-Ewe nationalists seeking to project an Ewe identity and establish an Ewe-dominated state. This study shifts focus to the roles that the Nawuri, a non-Ewe ethnic group, played in the pan-Ewe nationalist movement, and argues that the pan-Ewe nationalist movement was not entirely an Ewe affair; Nawuri association with and participation in its activities were conspicuous.
Cletus Kwaku Mbowura, Awaisu Imurana Braimah2 Felix YT Longi
Gender and peace-building: Nawuri women and peace-building initiatives in the Kpandai District in the northern region of Ghana
Scholarship on Nawuri history, sociocultural, economic and political institutions and organizations has provided little space for gender issues. Similarly, the narratives on the Nawuri-Gonja conflict, particularly its resolution and search for peace, have failed to situate peace-building encounters and initiatives within gender perspectives. This study examines the roles of Nawuri women in peace-building in Kpandai and its environs after the Nawuri-Gonja conflict of the 1990s. It examines the sociocultural tools and nomenclatures–the magico-religious rituals, songs, demonstrations and outreach programmes–that Nawuri women utilized to promote peace and advance peace-building initiatives in Kpandai and its environs after the Nawuri-Gonja conflict. By blending together data from monographs, field research and archival materials, this study constructs a coherent narrative on the contributions of Nawuri women to peace-building in Kpandai and its environments over the past three decades. It argues that Nawuri women appropriated issues and events in their sociocultural settings to advance the course of peace and peace-building in their environment after the Nawuri-Gonja conflict of the 1990s.
Constructing the historicity of chieftaincy among the Nawuri of northern Ghana
Pre-colonial societies in Northern Ghana have been described as "centralized" and "acephalous". While the Mole-Dagbani, Gonja and Wala states were said to be centralized, that is states with systems of government by which jurisdiction is territorial and based on chieftaincy with a paramount chief serving as the nexus of authority, the rest of the societies in Northern Ghana were described as acephalous - lacking territorial unity defined in administrative terms and by the notion of chieftaincy. Categorized as acephalous, the pre-colonial existence of chieftaincy in Nawuri society was dismissed. This paper argues that the description of Nawuri society as acephalous is inappropriate and inconsistent with available historical evidence about the ancient existence of chieftaincy among the Nawuri. Scholars must begin to construct the historicity of chieftaincy among the Nawuri in the context of a centralized …
Eat Mangoes, Grow Cotton and be Industrious: Interrogating German Colonial Rule in the Nawuri Area of Northern Ghana, 1899 to 1914
Gender in the Narratives on Conflicts in Northern Ghana: Nawuri Women and the Nawuri-Gonja Conflict.
One Conflict, Three Resolution Mechanisms: The Dilemma of Resolving the Inter-Ethnic Conflict between the Nawuri and the Gonja of Northern Ghana
The political economy of conflict and peace: Interrogating chieftaincy and ethnic conflicts in northern Ghana
This chapter elucidates the various armed and violent conflicts that characterize and stifle the development of northern Ghana. These conflicts have lingered over a century though armed confrontations have gradually waned and receded recently. The root of these armed conflicts is traceable to the colonial balkanization and amalgamation of ethnic groups and kingdoms into one whole for effective colonial management or administration. Postcolonial governments failed or did little to ?uproot? the seeds of conflict perpetuated by the colonialists. Armed conflicts in northern Ghana are both intraethnic and inter-ethnic with their associated cost to the region and the state at large. Pivotal to the litany of causes of these conflicts in northern Ghana are issues relating to chieftaincy, jurisdiction, and allodial land rights. Resolving these conflicts has so far been elusive. This chapter delineates the political economy of conflicts …