long essay university of ghana

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2016, Eugene Danso

The study sought to identify the traditional political institutions and modern democratic governance in Ghana by using Akim Abuakwa as the case study. Eleven communities in the Abuakwa Traditional area were specifically selected for the study. The study employed the probability sampling technique which is more scientific in selecting forty-five (45) participants to participate in the study. The study employed the institutional model framework as its theoretical approach. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used in collecting data from traditional authorities in the selected communities for the study. The quantitative data employed a standardized questionnaire whilst the qualitative data employed an interview guide. These data collection tools were used to collect primary data for the study. Secondary data was collected through articles, journals and online materials that related to the topic under study. The collected data was analyzed using the SPSS Package and was presented in charts and figures. The study established that the traditional leaders in the country initiate and embark on a number of developmental projects on their own. It was also established that they partner the government in harnessing development for their various communities. It was again established that the traditional authority system is still relevant in modern society despite the immense changes it has encountered. The study again established that there is the need for the chieftaincy institution in the country to be refined in order for it to be abreast with the changing trend of society. The study concluded by making some recommendations for stakeholders in the institution. One major recommendation is that NGOs and stakeholders in the traditional establishments in the society should come on board and help the traditional authorities in developmental projects in the various communities.

Related Papers

Eugene Danso

This study sought to examine the relevance of traditional political institution in modern democratic governance in Ghana by using Akim Abuakwa as the case study. This paper argues that the chieftaincy institution has become anachronistic due to elements of colonialism and modern democratic institutions which had adverse impact on the institution. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used in collecting data from chiefs and local government authorities in the selected communities for the study. The primary data were obtained from both questionnaire administration and interview guides whereas the secondary data was collected from articles, journals and online materials that are related to the topic under study. The study revealed that the chieftaincy institution in Ghana to be refined to be abreast with the changing trend of society.

Lawrence Prince Baffoe

The relevance of traditional leadership in facilitating social and economic change and state building in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is a highly contested matter. This study seeks to explore how traditional leadership has been integrated into mainstream development efforts in Ghana. Using the case study of two prominent traditional leaders, Otumfuo and Osagyefo, the paper seeks to elucidate the nature of conditions that must be present for traditional leaders to be effective in supporting grassroots development efforts, while also examining the ways in which the institution of chieftainship itself has adapted in response to social, economic and political demands of the 21st century. The paper draws on newspaper reports (n=142) on social and economic contributions of these two chiefs to development efforts in Ghana covering the period from 2010 to 2016. The data were then manually grouped under: social development, economic development and peace and security. The findings suggest that, given appropriate conditions, traditional leaders can play a vital role in facilitating desired social change. In particular, the study found that the institution of chieftainship itself is modernising under the weight of the 21st century demands and expectations, and that a measure of political and economic independence from the government is vital for chiefs to be able to assess, articulate, and advocate for the needs of their subjects, administer community development projects, and act as stewards of government and civil society initiatives at the local level. The findings indicate that given the necessary conditions, traditional leaders will serve as the missing link in delivering grassroots development in SSA. Keywords: Traditional Leaders, Development, sub-Saharan Africa, Ghana, Otumfuo, Osagyefo

Social Education Research

JACOB ISSAKA

This paper seeks to create awareness on the perception of the people of Akyem Abuakwa about the usefulness of chieftaincy Institution in Ghana today. In pre-colonial Ghana, the chieftaincy institution was the main system of governance and adjudication of justice. It is the oldest form of government in Ghana. The institution equally in present times is ripped with a number of violent conflicts. With this development, some people are of the opinion that the institution has outlived its usefulness in contemporary Ghanaian society. There is the argument on the issue of chieftaincy institution and its usefulness in the Ghanaian society. Probing the situation, 200 indigenes from the Akyem Abuakwa state in the Eastern Region of Ghana were selected through quota and purposive sampling techniques in a cross-sectional study. The article found that few people in the traditional area believed that the institution is a potential source of conflict and violence while the majority of the people be...

FIIFI EDU-AFFUL

Joseph Taabazuing

Monika Różalska

Ghana is regarded as a leader of democracy and stability in Sub‑Saharan Africa. Owing to two decades of rapid economic growth and relatively peaceful transitions of power after elections, it is also one of the fastest developing and safest countries in the region. However, some challenges for internal stability and development are still to be addressed, for instance: the quality of leadership, poverty, environmental problems or inadequate and ineffective regulations. While solving these problems Ghanaian politicians and citizens have to either choose between or bring together both tradition and modernity. One of the aspects to analyse is traditional form of governance, in particular the role of traditional leaders, such as chiefs and queen mothers, in development, as well as their relationships and coexistence with the local and state government institutions. Therefore, this article focuses on understanding how traditional ways of thinking and acting, especially in the case of tradi...

Oguaa Journal of Social Sciences

KENDIE S.B.

The role of traditional Authorities in local governance was the subject of the study. The research design consisted of various methods of data collection including in-depth face-to face interviews, document reviews and observations. One technique that was used throughout the research to get information from all traditional role players was the appreciative technique. The population was made up of opinion leaders, settlers, chiefs, fetish priests, identified group leaders, tengdamba (land owners), family heads and local government staff. The instruments were pretested for reliability The analysis consisted of describing qualitative data while quantitative data was analysed using SPSS (statistical package for social sciences). It emerged that traditional institutions have more good to offer the District Assembly in local governance than their limitation of the work of the Assembly. The institutions have remained resilient in the face of modern challenges because of the confidence and ...

Journal of Sociology and Social Work

Samuel Marfo

Kojo Damptey

The discourse of governance on the continent of Africa focuses primarily on achieving and imbibing Western values and ideals. Africans on the other hand, are highly invested in their indigenous culture, socially, so what is the relationship between indigenous culture and contemporary governance. This study focuses on the nature and to what extent indigenous culture influences governing practices in contemporary Africa using Ayittey’s (1991) summary of the features of the African indigenous political system. Using a mixed methods approach participants in the study were asked to fill out a semi-structured survey of indicator questions corresponding to the features of the African indigenous political system. The participants of the study comprised of Members of Parliament, a traditional Chief, and citizenry. The results indicate that Ghana’s current political dispensation lacks real incorporation of indigenous governance, specifically as it relates to citizens’ influence on government, decentralization of the polity, decision-making by consensus and effective participatory democracy. On the basis of the results, it is recommended that; first Ghana’s legislature be decentralized through regional parliamentary sessions, secondly, the powers of the executive be reduced, thirdly creating a constitution that is built on indigenous governing principles and finally building an indigenous political system.

Edwin Kodwo Kuntu Blankson

DR. EDWIN K . K U N T U BLANKSON

Studies on Natural Resource Governance (NRG) have often explored the institutions, principles and processes of governance and promoted the practice of endogenous governance systems as a better alternative to statutory imported governance systems. Empirical studies on Natural Resource Governance (NRG) in traditional communities have however not explored sufficiently the dynamics and processes of integrating Traditional Ecological Institutions (TEIs) in to NRG. The main objective of the study was to explore the nature of resource governance in Boabeng – Fiema, Tafi – Atome and Amansuri communities in Ghana. Additionally, the study examined the role of Traditional Ecological Institutions in the governance process and explained the role played by the TEIs in achieving the governance principles. The study employed a multiple-case study approach using a qualitative study design. A combination of convenience and purposive sampling were used to select the respondents. Data collection was through interviewing, focus group discussion and observation. Qualitative data analysis involved thematic analysis, discourse analysis and interpretative phenomenological analysis. The study revealed that, the governance system relied mostly on traditional ecological institutions, laws, processes. Moreover, the key institutions that were major governance players were the chieftaincy, the traditional priesthood and the clan/ family institutions. The roles played by the institutions differed from community to community but mainly centered on law enforcement, monitoring and review of ecological laws on natural resource use and conservation. The main recommendation was that, for the integration of TEIs into NRG system to be improved, there was the need to properly document the TEK and Traditional Governance regimes that justified the involvement of these institutions in NRG

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Tracey Slaughter becomes first overseas winner of Calibre Essay Prize

Maryana Garcia

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In her newest published essay Why your hair is long and your stories short , award-winning author and University of Waikato senior lecturer Tracey Slaughter explores memories of her mother’s hairdressing salon, where she grew up. The essay has been awarded the prestigious Australian Book Review’s Calibre Essay Prize, a $10,000 honour that has never been given to an overseas writer before. Slaughter spoke to the Waikato Herald about the difficult journey behind her words.

Tracey Slaughter first learned about domestic violence sitting on the lino floors of her mother’s salon, watching hair drift down around her.

“It was a storytelling space,” Slaughter told the Waikato Herald .

“It’s where my fascination with stories came from. I did a lot of listening.”

Slaughter said the salon was a place of female community with a strong sense of support.

“It was also a dangerous place. I learned disturbing lessons about what it means to be a woman, in particular the story of domestic violence.

“That was the story that I felt needed to be told in a truthful way.”

But it was also a story that almost never made it to the page.

“To just sit down and tell the story of domestic violence is heavy and when I had tried before, I failed,” Slaughter said.

“Domestic violence goes on being a traumatic truth in so many women’s lives.

“My early encounters with it and with its impact on female psychology - there were some lessons there that it’s taken me a long time to unwind.”

Then, after winning the Landfall Essay Prize in 2015, Slaughter’s writing began to take a different direction.

“When I gave myself permission to work in essay form rather than story mode, it really sprang to life,” Slaughter said.

“I wanted to dig into both the good things but also the harrowing realities of the past.

“It’s been a real journey.”

Then, once she had finished the piece, Slaughter wasn’t sure it was ready to be read by anyone else, let alone be entered into a prestigious overseas writing competition.

“I was just a hair’s breadth away from not sending it in.

“It was very unconventional, very fragmented, very personal. I thought my chances were near zero.”

Slaughter said she has never managed to look at her work from a distance.

“It’s quite extreme, the mind state I still get into. I wanted to send it in as an act of faith, to back myself.”

In the end, Slaughter’s risk paid off.

Her personal essay, Why your hair is long and your stories short, stood out against 567 entries from 28 countries to win first place in the Australian Book Review’s Calibre Essay Prize competition.

Slaughter is also the first overseas writer to be awarded the prize.

“I was absolutely astounded when I got the call that I was in the shortlist. That in itself was enough of a shock.”

Slaughter missed the first phone call announcing her win.

“They called while I was teaching. I saw the Australian number and thought, ‘What is this?’”

Slaughter called the number back.

“I was blown away,” Slaughter said.

“I just feel so blessed in that it feels like such a confirmation of the direction that my work is moving in.”

The Calibre Essay Prize was begun by the Australian Book Review in 2007 and has been open to overseas writers since 2015.

Now in its 18th year, the prize encourages writers of all kinds to explore one of the oldest forms in literature while its 5000-word limit and $10,000 prize set it apart from other essay writing competitions.

Australian Book Review editor and one of this year’s Calibre Prize judges Peter Ross said the response to Slaughter’s essay was “enthusiastic”.

“For me it is one of the finest essays in the history of the Calibre Prize,” Ross told the Waikato Herald.

“It is certainly the most innovative and lyrical.”

Ross said the essay deserved a wider New Zealand audience.

Judges Amy Bailieu, Shannon Burn and Beejay Silcox said in a joint statement that this year’s entries “delighted” them.

“Among them were essays exploring the ethics of AI and the repercussions of war, reflections on loss, climate change and family.”

The judges’ statement said Slaughter’s essay stood out because it was “sharp as good scissors”.

“A beauty salon becomes a refracting point for the dark complexities of womanhood,” the statement said.

“[It is] as evocative as it is decisive.”

Maryana Garcia is a Hamilton-based multimedia reporter covering breaking news in Waikato. She previously wrote for the Rotorua Daily Post and the Bay of Plenty Times .

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Three Inspiring BU Master’s and Professional Graduates Who Plan to Give Back to Their Communities

All first-gen students, they hail from Wheelock, Metropolitan College, and the School of Law

Ana Calderon (MET’24) (from left), George Boateng (LAW’24), and Tabitha St. Bernard-Jacobs (Wheelock’24). Photos by Cydney Scott (Calderon), Jackie Ricciardi (Boateng), and Lauren Crothers (St. Bernard-Jacobs)

Alene Bouranova

This year, Boston University is graduating almost 4,000 advanced-degree students.

These master’s, professional, and doctoral students have dedicated years to their studies, often while balancing jobs and families. Making it to Nickerson Field on Sunday, May 19, marks the culmination of the hard work and sacrifices they’ve made in pursuit of a second or even a third degree.

Each year, BU Today highlights three inspiring advanced-degree graduates. These three, from the Class of 2024, are immigrants and first-generation college students who found homes for themselves at BU. Hailing from Metropolitan College, the School of Law, and Wheelock College of Education & Human Development, all three say they plan to use their degrees to give back to their communities.

Ana Calderon (MET’24)

Ana Calderon’s secret to balancing a master’s program with a full-time job at Boston City Hall?

Lists, and lots of them.

“Every week, write down everything you need to do for school, everything you need to do for work, and everything you need to do for your own life,” says Calderon (MET’24), who’s graduating with a master’s in urban affairs from Metropolitan College. “Then try to find the space every day to do three to four of those things. That’s what I would do. That’s how you get along.”

Organization was critical to Calderon’s tenure at BU. She participated in MET’s City of Boston Employees Scholarship program, which allows Boston city employees to earn a MET graduate degree for free, as long as the degree is related to their field of work. Outside of BU, Calderon is chief of staff for Boston City Councilor At-Large Henry Santana.

That’s not exactly a recipe for free time. Nor did a busy job with after-hours obligations like attending community meetings afford her as much time for schoolwork as other students have. But she made it work.

Calderon came to Boston from the Dominican Republic as a teenager. Back home, her family had always stressed the importance of community engagement and voting in elections. So it was natural for her to become involved in like-minded nonprofits as a new South Boston resident. In high school, Calderon started working as a youth community organizer with the Roxbury nonprofit Sociedad Latina. And as a first-generation college student at UMass Boston, she worked with a similar civic engagement nonprofit, South Boston en Accíon.

That would serve as her introduction to local government.

“I was very involved with getting out the vote with Latino residents and making them aware of the importance of participating in elections and having their voice be heard,” Calderon says. “I met so many people in that [en Accíon] role—people in the community, state representatives, senators, city councilors.”

One of those people was Ed Flynn, a Boston city councilor.

Flynn hired Calderon to work as his director of constituent services, first part-time and then full-time when she graduated from UMass. That role is where Calderon honed her ability to make things work. (She left that job to work for Santana in February of this year.)

“When I was doing constituent services, what I enjoyed the most was telling people, ‘I have a solution to your issue,’” Calderon says. “There was so much I could do to get people from zero to 10—you’re in a shelter and you want stable housing? Let’s go apply to housing. You want to take ESL classes? Let’s find some. You want to build a career? Let’s get you into community college, then UMass Boston. You have all these connections to help residents, and I just loved that.”

Amidst the hustle, Calderon’s mind kept returning to one thing: grad school. Then COVID-19 and lockdowns happened, and during that time she also lost her twin brother.

“I thought, wow, life is short,” Calderon recalls. “After my brother’s passing and seeing everyone go through so much during the pandemic, I told myself I needed to do what I’d been wanting to do for so long.”

She applied for the City Scholars program after lockdowns ended. She chose Urban Affairs, a subset of MET’s City Planning & Urban Affairs Program. Urban Affairs looks at a broad range of issues that cities face—such as budgeting, housing, and traffic—and analyzes different solutions. It was extremely complementary with her work in City Hall, she says, which is why she enrolled.

“I love what I do,” Calderon says. “That’s why I wanted to go to school—to expand my knowledge on topics I’ve already worked on, and learn about what other cities do for things I haven’t worked on.”

Finding time for her school responsibilities required rigorous time management (and lots of support from her family and supervisors, she says). She set aside an hour before bed every night to do readings, and often used her lunch hours and T commutes to catch up. Her weekends were all about homework and writing papers. The one time she fell way behind on a major project, Calderon says, she took days off from work to get it done.

Her dedication resulted in being selected as the student speaker for MET’s 13th annual City of Boston Scholars reception on April 11.

Addressing the crowd of soon-to-be MET grads and their supervisors—including Boston Mayor Michelle Wu—Calderon told the group that her teenage self never could have imagined getting a graduate degree, never mind one from Boston University. Her new urban affairs master’s, she said, would allow her to make even more meaningful contributions to the city of Boston and beyond.

She ended by urging any City of Boston employee considering applying for the MET program to just go for it: “It’s amazing what you can accomplish with a little bit of support and discipline.”

Tabitha St. Bernard-Jacobs (Wheelock’24)

Tabitha St. Bernard-Jacobs (Wheelock’24) has had numerous labels over the course of her life: fashion designer, author, activist, consultant, wife, mother, immigrant, and stutterer. Her latest? Wheelock graduate.

St. Bernard-Jacobs is one of the first graduating cohort for Wheelock’s new online Master of Education ( EdM) for Equity and Social Justice . The program, which fully launched in fall 2023, gives participants an overview of how systemic inequities develop before diving into strategies for ameliorating them through education.

The EdM is geared toward professionals working in education, social work, nonprofit, and government spaces. St. Bernard-Jacobs, a 2023 Martin Luther King. Jr. Fellowship winner, works as a columnist and runs an antiracist parenting consultancy with her partner. The two travel the country running trainings and workshops for institutions like businesses, school systems, and libraries. The EdM mirrors much of what she’s spent the past few years doing—but that’s exactly why she applied.

“I wanted to deepen my own lens on the work,” St. Bernard-Jacobs explains. “I wanted to deepen my own learnings and understandings around the intersection of early childhood and social justice. And I wanted to actually study antiracist parenting in order to have research grounding the work I was already doing—for example, having research around the fact that kids start forming friendships around race from as early as pre-K.”

Her journey to Wheelock and antiracism work involves many pivots.

St. Bernard-Jacobs grew up in Trinidad and Tobago. She escaped an abusive home and came to New York City at 19 on a scholarship to St. Francis College in Brooklyn. She studied psychology and went on to work with people with disabilities. Then she had what she calls her “quarter life crisis” and enrolled at the Fashion Institute of Technology to pursue her dream of becoming a fashion designer. She worked at a corporate brand before becoming disillusioned with the industry’s wastefulness and starting her own sustainable fashion line.

Then Donald Trump was elected president.

St. Bernard-Jacobs saw a colleague’s post about marching to Washington, D.C., in protest. When she noticed mostly white women mobilizing around a march, she reached out to the colleague about centering Black and Indigenous leadership in feminist movements. That’s how she ended up as an organizer of the historic 2017 Women’s March on Washington and a deputy executive director of the Women’s March organization in the following years.

Then she and her partner had their first child, a Jewish Afro-Indian son who presented as white. “I wrote a piece about the experience of being a Black mother with a child who had more safety than me in this country, and that began my writing career,” St. Bernard-Jacobs says.

St. Bernard’s writings on activism and antiracist parenting have appeared in Good Housekeeping , Apartment Therapy , on Romper.com, and more. Most recently, one of her essays was included in the anthology A Year of Black Joy: 52 Black Voices Share Their Life Passions (Magic Cat, 2023).

She and her partner launched their consulting business in 2020. Her time at Wheelock has only solidified her commitment to antiracist education, she says.

“I’m often the most radical person in many rooms I’m in, and that’s not the case at BU at all,” St. Bernard-Jacobs says. “I’m constantly in rooms with people who are challenging me in terms of my beliefs and helping me grow and helping me develop my lens on race and white supremacy, and so forth. I’ve learned an incredible amount. “Seeing different approaches to education that have roots in restorative justice—these things really make me hopeful for the work that I’ll be able to do as I go into the world with the backing of a degree from BU.”

Eventually, she hopes to enter a doctoral program for equitable education. But that’s down the line, she says—for now, she’ll continue working with institutions to infuse antiracism into their structures, and on her own antiracist parenting. (She and her partner now have a second child, a girl.)

In everything she’s done, St. Bernard-Jacobs says—disability services, fashion, organizing, consulting, grad school—the through line has always been a desire to give back.

“I believe in the power of my ancestors guiding me through this world, and I see myself as being led to where I can have the highest intervention to help people,” she says. “The constant thread has always been a desire to be of service.”

George Boateng (LAW’24)

George Boateng (LAW’24) vividly remembers his first day of law school at Boston University.

The Ghana native and longtime Bronx resident says he was “ so nervous. Everyone gets that doubt, right—the one of, do I belong here ?”

It was September 2021. COVID-19 protocols were in full effect on campus. Students had to show their green symptom-attestation passes to access buildings. Boateng, a 2021 Martin Luther King Jr. Fellowship winner, arrived at the BU School of Law for his first day of classes—and realized he forgot his phone at home.

Nervous, he approached Geraldine Muir , associate dean for academic engagement at LAW, for help. After Boateng more or less word-vomited his situation at her, Muir immediately hopped on her phone and got him access to the building without a problem.

“That was one of the first acts of kindness I experienced at BU,” Boateng says. “I just felt like, okay, there are people who are human here and who will help me navigate this.”

That incident would go on to inform his time at BU Law.

From then on out, he says, Muir would always say hi when she saw him in the hallway. He ultimately got to know her better while serving as copresident of the Black Law Students Association (BLSA). They’d go out for lunch occasionally and have “great conversations,” Boateng says. “All that stemmed from that singular encounter.

It inspired Boateng to become a welcoming force of his own. From taking a leadership role in BLSA to joining LAW’s First Generation Professionals organization, mentoring new students, connecting with LAW alumni, sharing meals with students outside of his sections, and more, building community within the school was a priority from day one. His efforts also led to academic opportunities: he was recently named a recipient of the Emanuel Hewlett 1877 Award Fund, an award named for BU LAW’s first Black graduate that covers the cost of books and more for students most active in BLSA.

Winning the Hewlett prize “made me go, wow, I am making a difference here,” Boateng says. “I do belong here and I can foster and create community, and these relationships will continue after our three years are over.”

But Boateng didn’t always see himself going to law school.

He moved to the Bronx from Ghana when he was 11. His academic journey led him to Boston College, where he had a double major in history and sociology and a minor in African studies. He planned to become a college professor, but when it came time to graduate, professorhood didn’t quite feel right. He’d been heavily involved at BC, serving as president of the Black Student Forum and working as a program coordinator and academic advisor. Boateng started to think, how do I use all of these experiences ?

That’s how he found himself in Palestine’s West Bank working as the English tutoring coordinator for a Catholic university.

That role was “a very interesting learning experience, but also a difficult one,” he says. He had to navigate cultural differences, a fraught political arena, and his privilege as an American with different rights than his Palestinian students. That was on top of actually doing his job, which saw him pair more than 200 students with volunteer tutors throughout Jerusalem and the West Bank. He stayed in that role for a year before returning home to the Bronx.

Then COVID-19 hit, and Boateng again saw himself face-to-face with inequity.

The pandemic exposed wide discrepancies between communities. Many Bronx residents took financial hits and struggled to find money for food. Others struggled to get their school-age children online for mandatory remote classes. Boateng started working as a political canvasser, distributing masks and hand sanitizer while educating residents about voting in the upcoming congressional election. He also helped organize food drives and get things like Wi-Fi and tablets for families.

Through that, he started thinking about what his next step might be. Law school kept coming to mind.

“I came to understand how the legal components and the economic components come together to impact both the emotional and sociological lived experiences of people,” Boateng says. “Law school would enable me to be an active agent in constructing the world I wanted to see.”

He was accepted to the School of Law and opted for the transactional practice concentration, which covers business agreements, intellectual property, and more. People were surprised he hadn’t opted for the courtroom route, he says. But to him, transactional law fulfills the same mission that litigation can—equity for those who need it.

“The economic component can help bring dreams into fruition,” he says, citing his course material on topics like contracts, legal risk, and corporate finance. Entrepreneurs from underrepresented backgrounds, he says, “need people like me to be in these rooms to gain all the knowledge I can.”

He’s still in the market for a job postgraduation. But he’s proud of what he’s accomplished in his three years at LAW.

“Right now, I don’t know how success at BU will translate directly into a job,” Boateng says. “But that success can lead you to opening doors for other people, for Black and Brown people who might think that being here and succeeding is an impossibility.

“I took that really, really seriously in helping foster that community at LAW, and making sure I did my part to make the door in this legal space wide open.”

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Alene Bouranova is a Pacific Northwest native and a BU alum (COM’16). After earning a BS in journalism, she spent four years at Boston magazine writing, copyediting, and managing production for all publications. These days, she covers campus happenings, current events, and more for BU Today . Fun fact: she’s still using her Terrier card from 2013. When she’s not writing about campus, she’s trying to lose her Terrier card so BU will give her a new one. She lives in Cambridge with her plants. Profile

Alene Bouranova can be reached at [email protected]

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