Girls’ Education, Social Constraints and State Policies in Northern Ghana, 1909–1960

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ABSTRACT This article examines the complex socio-political factors that hindered the growth of girls’ education in northern Ghana during the colonial and early postcolonial periods. While previous research has focused on broader regional disparities between the North and the South, the gendered aspects of educational disparity within the North remain relatively unexplored. We demonstrate that colonial policies and local customs combined to create barriers to girls’ education. In the early colonial period, the imperial objective of producing native interpreters and administrators, combined with cultural resistance to girls’ education, discouraged the provision of educational facilities for girls. Additionally, Christian missions, unlike in the South, were restricted in their activities in the North. While African agency influenced girls’ education, colonial ideology and policies exerted a substantial impact on girls’ education in northern Ghana. This article supports Diana Barthel’s conclusion that cultural and political factors interacted to deprive girls of access to Western education.