Southeastern Ghana Research Articles

Adult caddisfly diversity along a headwater stream in south-eastern Ghana (Insecta: Trichoptera)

Adult caddisfly diversity along a headwater stream in south-eastern Ghana (Insecta: Trichoptera)

A Handbook of Eweland, vol. I: The Ewes of Southeastern Ghana edited by FRANCIS AGBODEKA Accra: Woeli Publishing Services, 1997. Pp. 393. £19.95 (available in the UK from African Books Collective, Oxford).

A Handbook of Eweland, vol. I: The Ewes of Southeastern Ghana edited by FRANCIS AGBODEKA Accra: Woeli Publishing Services, 1997. Pp. 393. £19.95 (available in the UK from African Books Collective, Oxford). - Volume 38 Issue 1

High‐Pressure Granulite Facies Metamorphism in the Pan‐African Dahomeyide Orogen, West Africa

High‐pressure (HP) granulite facies rocks are associated with eclogites in the Pan‐African Dahomeyide orogen, West Africa. The HP‐granulite and eclogite facies mineral assemblages occur in mafic gneisses within the suture zone exposed in southeastern Ghana and the adjoining part of Togo. Thermobarometric calculations and phase equilibria considerations indicate that the HP metamorphic rocks preserve a record of: (i) prograde garnet crystallization during eclogite facies metamorphism as temperature increased to a maximum of ∼600°C and pressure reached >18 kbar, followed by (ii) HP‐granulite facies metamorphism when temperatures reached 800–900°C at P ∼14 kbar, resulting in partial melting to produce leucocratic veins. Decompression along a retrograde path is inferred from granulites that yield temperatures down to ∼700°C at ∼10 kbar. The inferred P‐T path of the metamorphic record defines a clockwise loop in the kyanite stability field, compatible with orogeny involving subduction during the Pan‐African as...

Geochemical characteristics and KAr ages of rare-metal bearing pegmatites from the Birimian of southeastern Ghana

The pegmatite-aplite rocks at Mankwadzi (Ejisimanku Hills) in southeastern Ghana are part of the pegmatite district that extends from Cape Coast to Winneba along the Atlantic coastline. The pegmatites are associated with the Cape Coast granite complex and were intruded during the waning phase of the Eburnian Orogeny (∼2.0 Ga). Three muscovite separates from pegmatite give KAr retention ages of 1909 ± 13 Ma, 1965 ± 13 Ma and 2019 ± 14 Ma. A biotite separate from granite yields a KAr age of 1907 ± 13 Ma. These ages are similar to KAr dates previously reported for the Cape Coast granites, indicating that the granites and pegmatites are coeval and probably genetically linked. The pegmatites are enriched in Li, Be, Nb and Sn and considerably impoverished in Rb, Th, Y and REEs. Microscopic examination of quartz from the pegmatites shows a large number of low salinity fluid inclusions that can be divided into two types: (1) one-phase liquid or gas-filled inclusions; and (2) two-phase liquid-vapour inclusions, with the vapour occupying 2–5% of the volume. The homogenisation temperature of the fluid inclusions clusters between 129 and 144°C. These homogenisation temperatures lead to an inferred entrapment temperature of ∼300°C at a pressure of ∼2.5 kbar, which is estimated for the metamorphism of host hornblende schists. The pegmatite fluid inclusions are interpreted as being secondary to the quartz hosts.

Strain differentiation of Onchocerca volvulus from Uganda using DNA probes.

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) combined with non-radioactive DNA hybridization was applied for the detection and characterization of a 150 bp tandem repeat of Onchocerca volvulus. DNA of worms from western Uganda was amplified and then probed with a digoxygenin-labelled oligonucleotide, specific for the forest form of O. volvulus and compared to samples from various African countries. Hybridization was only observed with PCR products from the forest in Liberia, south-eastern Ghana, Benin and southern Cameroon, but not with worms from Uganda or the savannah in Burkina Faso and northern Ghana. A nested PCR using primers derived form the forest form-specific DNA sequence confirmed these results. Morphometric studies revealed length differences between the microfilariae of Ugandan O. volvulus to those of West Africa, especially to those of the savannah in Burkina Faso. It is concluded that the forest/savannah classification of O. volvulus from West Africa is not suitable for Simulium neavei-transmitted O. volvulus from Uganda.

The Signifying Crab

Domestic slavery in West Africa was practiced differently by different peoples in different historical periods, but it is well known that many domestic slaves married into their masters' families and inherited property. It was extremely impolite (and was illegal in some places) to even say that a person was a slave or had been born of slave parents. Through time, some slaves became relatively wealthy, and for all practical purposes their offspring were no different from those of nonslave parents. Today numerous who inhabit portions of southeastern Ghana, southern Togo, and southwestern Benin, say that one or more of their great-grandparents was a person. It is said that these ancestors were bought or captured from peoples living to the north of Eweland and that their Ewe masters professed an admiration for the beauty of the of the north, their music, their clothing, and their gods. Even so, or perhaps precisely because of this admiration, first-generation slaves, no matter how well they were treated, were not considered to be Ewe. This profound difference in identity is said to be bound up with Such extreme ambiguity in legendary relationships between Ewe and their people (slaves) is brought to the surface in a just-so crab story (and here I am signifying on Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s Signifying Monkey [1988]). story comes from Anlo country in Ghana's chunk of Eweland. A version of it is found in Blema Konuwo, Lododowo kple Adaganawo, by R. K. Nutsuako (1977), a book in Ewe of and about Ewe proverbs and expressions.1 In this yarn, categories of the wild and the tame (civilized) are insinuated into people and of the house categories. It is included in the book as an explanation of the origin of the proverb The slave understands language, but s/he does not understand 'the wild crab,' or, translated slightly differently, The slave understands language, but s/he does not understand signifying expressions. Instead of expressions we might say deep Ewe, local Ewe, dialect, or vernacular. Transposing to American culture, we could say, among other things, street language. These definitions or translations do

The Krobo People of Ghana to 1892: A Political and Social History

This book presents a broad analytical framework for the history of southeastern Ghana within the context of a representative study of one of the country's most important political and economic forces. The 150,000 Krobo are the most numerous of the Adangme-speaking peoples. They are located in the mountains just inland from the coast and are the fourth largest ethnic group in the country. During the nineteenth century they were one of the small states of the Gold Coast in the formative stages of political and cultural development. After the middle of the nineteenth century they became economically and politically one of the most important groups in the country because of their dominant role in commercial production of export crops. Historical research on Ghana has produced mostly case studies of the large, centralized Akan states. Wilson's study is an account of one of the smaller societies without which a history of Ghana would be incomplete.

'If You Are a Devil, You Are a Witch and, If You Are a Witch, You Are a Devil.' The Integration of 'Pagan' Ideas into the Conceptual Universe of Ewe Christians in Southeastern Ghana

'If You Are a Devil, You Are a Witch and, If You Are a Witch, You Are a Devil.' The Integration of 'Pagan' Ideas into the Conceptual Universe of Ewe Christians in Southeastern Ghana

Managing the fallow: Weeding technology and environmental knowledge in the Krobo district of Ghana

The paper explores the relationship between environmental knowledge and farming and fallowing strategies on degraded forest land in the Upper Manya Krobo district of southeastern Ghana. Changes in cropping strategies are related to the expansion and transformation of frontier agrarian settlement, increasing population density, social differentiation, and land hunger. As a consequence land degradation has become a serious problem among the smaller farmers with insufficient land to allow fallow recuperation. Small farmers' awareness and perceptions of the processes of degradation are explored, as are possible innovative contributions to the development of agroforestry research. But labor constraints often prevent the farmer from developing practical systems of fallow management. Local environmental knowledge reveals important insights into the processes of fallow degradation, potentials for fallow management, constraints that farmers face, and some problems that might emerge with the transformation of current agroforestry technology to farmers' fields. It is suggested that this knowledge should not be abstracted from its socio-economic context. The problems that local farmers' knowledge reveal are in this respect as important as questions of its efficacy and potential as a resource.

The dietary habits of a Ghanaian farming community

This case study examines the specific techniques associated with household food processing and meal preparation, and the consumption patterns of the food farming people of Ayirebi, near Akyem Oda in southeastern Ghana. Changes and continuities in household dietary patterns are noted. Such micro level ethnographic studies of food processing and consumption are relevant for effective policy recommendations on development planning, particularly in light of current socioenvironmental and economic crises in Africa.

Indigenous knowledge and economic production: The food crop cultivation, preservation and storage methods of a West African community

This paper examines specific cultivation, preservation and storage techniques for some selected staple crops in the food farming community of Ayirebi, near Akyem Oda, in southeastern Ghana. The traditional subsistence methods of Ayirebi farming households are well adapted to the social and geographical environments of the region. The long‐term future of developing African communities may well lie in building up thriving rural communities producing the food needed by the wider population. However, before this can be achieved, the particular food cultivation strategies of local communities need to be understood. Micro level studies such as this one will provide specific data vital to formulating and implementing a general agenda for national agricultural and economic development.

The "Bloodless Conquest" in Southeastern Ghana: The Huza and Territorial Expansion of the Krobo in the 19th Century

Analyse de l'emergence et de la consolidation de la domination economique des Krobo sur la commercialisation a l'exportation de l'huile de palme, puis du cacao. L'evolution du systeme de tenure fonciere huza et ses consequences demographiques pour les Krobo. L'apparition de grands marches le long du fleuve Volta. L'evolution des systemes de travail traditionnels et l'accroissement du role economique des femmes

Hunting and gathering in a Ghanaian rain forest community

Abstract This paper examines the nature, contribution, and impact of the exploitation of forest resources on a rural food farming economy in Ghana. Hunting and gathering of food resources is shown to be an adaptive response to seasonal food supply cycles in the local community of Ayirebi, near Akyem Oda in southeastern Ghana. The implications of this study for national development planning are explored.

Conventional potassium - Argon age of the Shai Hills, Southeastern Ghana

KAr ages of samples from the Dahomeyan orogen have been determined. Hornblendes of three plagioclase-garnet-hornblende-gneiss samples from the Shai Hills area, southeastern Ghana give KAr ages of 649 ± 4, 549 ± 8, 562 ± 6 M.a. respectively while hornblendes from two plagioclase-garnet-hornblende-gneisses from about one kilometer east of these samples give ages of 547 ± 2 M.a. and 667 ± 9 M.a.. The average age of 595 ± 29 M.a. is in agreement with recently reported measurements on hornblende of a single rock sample from the Shai Hills. This result supports the belief that the Shai Hills were highly affected by the Pan-African orogeny of the late Precambrian to Cambrian (500 – 700 M.a.) and the Hills did not preserve any record of the Birimian during the Pan-African orogeny. The possible explanation of the 120 M.a. range in ages is briefly discussed.

The Changing Use of Mountains by a Farming People: The Krobos of Ghana

The Krobos are a people of Dangme stock who live in the eastern region of southeastern Ghana. They are farming people who occupy areas in the Accra Plains, the Akwapim Mountains, and the Afram Basin. The land of the Krobos is mainly lowland, but historically they occupied two major mountains - Krobo Mountain and Akwapim Mountain. This study examines the changing land use in these mountains and the history of settlement. Krobo Mountain was initially occupied because it provided a favourable place for settlement, for defence against invading enemies, for a burial ground, and it served as a symbol of unity. Later on, the mountain came to be regarded as an ancestral home, visited for an annual blessing. Akwapim Mountain is occupied only when population pressure makes it necessary to increase food production. Some areas have been converted from forest reserves to agriculture and there are also burial grounds for people who died an untimely death. On the whole, the Krobos use their mountain land in response to their changing needs.

Crisis and Adaptation in a Ghanaian Forest Community

This article examines the allocation, procurement, and use of economic resources and other productive means in a Ghanaian rural community to solve problems resulting from socioenvironmental stress and economic deprivation. There is a general beliefthat during times of economic crisis in Third World societies, village adaptation tends to be negatively affected and that conditions in rural areas will even be worse than in the urban centres of the affected countries. This article argues that this has not been the case among the rural peoples of Ayirebi, nearAkyem Oda, in southeastern Ghana. Itpoints out how power, moral authority, and social responsibility were used for the well-being of the village population. [crisis, adaptation, West Africa, Ghana, subsistence]

Music in the Funeral Traditions of the Akpafu

NT na lo seniu kuwe, fie oresire somoloo? (Who laid a mat for him, so that he slept so deeply?) With this rhetorical question, the Akpafu of Southeastern Ghana initiate a period of public mourning occasioned by the death of one of their number.1 The philosophic significance of death in Akpafu culture is twofold. First, it marks the completion of the earthly cycle of existence, birth-circumcision-puberty-marriage-death. Second, it opens the door to a higher, spiritual realm in which the deceased, as an ancestor, takes his place alongside the lesser gods and the Supreme Being in the higher reaches of the hierarchy of existence. Just as the rites accompanying birth, puberty, and marriage are performed in and through music, so death occasions some of the most distinctive forms of musical expression among the Akpafu. This essay describes the music of the Akpafu funeral with particular reference to the funeral dirge. After giving a brief ethnographic background, I elaborate two models for the funeral, those of a Christian and a non-Christian. Then, using the latter as main framework, I discuss

Social change in eighteenth-century Anlo: the role of technology, markets and military conflict

Opening ParagraphTechnological change among the Anlo-Ewe of southeastern Ghana is a subject that has received little attention from scholars, but it is a theme which figures prominently in Anlo oral tradition. Of the technologies mentioned, those associated with lacustrine fishing and salt making are discussed in the greatest detail. Traditional accounts of the fishing industry, for example, agree that when the Ewe-speaking Anlo first settled in their present area (located on the Atlantic coast immediately east and south of the Volta River and Keta Lagoon system) the Anlo were not familiar with the use of boats. As a consequence they employed fishing techniques that restricted such activities to the more shallow sections of the Keta Lagoon. The first boat that was developed (the agowu, made by hollowing out the trunk of the fan palm [Borassus aethiopium]) was said to have been inefficient because it capsized easily (Greene, 1981b: no. 29). A more stable vessel, still in use today and known as the lewu, was introduced, according to the traditions, by Amega Le.

Clinical epidemiology, not seroepidemiology, is the answer to Africa's AIDS problem.

The shortcomings of the "seroepidemiology" approach as opposed to the traditional "clinical epidemiology" approach in answer to Africa's acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) problem, are discussed. Investigators with a knowledge of tropical medicine have observe that recurrent malaria and other infectious diseases are associated with excessively high rates of false-positivity with H9/HTV-III, enzyme linked immunoabsorbent assay (ELISA), leading to a dichotomy between seroepidemiology and clinical epidemiology in tropical Africa. In addition, patients with alcoholic liver disease have a high incidence of false positive results on tests for HTLV-III antibodies, while acute malaria infections have produced false positivity even with the Western blot. When the conclusions of clinical epidemiology differ from those of seroepidemiology, clinicians should always believe the former. Serological work should be limited to assessing the specificity and sensitivity of the various kits under African conditions, screening all blood before transfusion, and serving as a back up procedure when clinical features are not clear cut. In his Krobo tribe, in southeastern Ghana, Dr. Konotey-Ahulu suggests that the bulk of any available funds should be resourcefully utilized in answering the questions: how, when, who, which, why and where?

RbSr and KAr geochronometry of southeastern Ghana

The Cape Coast granite complex of the West African Craton in southern Ghana has been dated as 2051 ±45 Ma by whole rock RbSr;. Mineral dates are ∼ 20006 for hornblende by KAr, 1974 ± 28 Ma for biotite by RbSr and ∼ 1900 Ma for biotite by KAr. A few biotite dates are somewhat younger. The low whole-rock 87Sr/ 86Sr initial ratio, 0.7015 ± 0.0002, indicates that the granites were created shortly before 2050 Ma. The successively younger mineral dates result from uplift, erosion, and cooling following the Eburnian cratonization event. Dahomeyan metamorphic rocks of southeastern Ghana give biotite RbAr dates of 330–542 Ma, mostly 508–542 Ma, due to the Pan-African orogeny. Hornblende KAr dates are somewhat older, at 561–611 Ma. Gneisses from Teshie, Numgua, and Tema Beach are parts of a reworked older basement at least 2841 ± 468 Ma old with an initial ratio of 0.7041 ± 0.0014. Gneisses from Ho and Dzigakope also appear to be pre-Eburnian with RbSr dates of 2176 ± 44 Ma and about 2800 Ma, respectively, but this is not as well established. Nine whole-rock samples of Dahomeyan gneiss scatter about an isochron of 515 ± 16 Ma with an initial ratio of 0.7056 ± 0.0002. An intrusive carbonatite from Kpong gives concordant whole-rock RbSr, biotite RbSr, and biotite KAr dates of 593 ± 250, 545 ± 11 and 572 ± 15 Ma, respectively, but it also gives discordant and geologically contradictory plagioclase KAr and Rb dates of 665 ± 20 and 975 ± 167 Ma, respectively. Excess Ar and radiogenic Sr in xenocrysts unrelated to the groundmass are suspected.