One hundred and fifty years of Christianity in a Ghanaian town

Africa ◽  
1983 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 2-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Middleton
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Gold Coast ◽  
Local Congregation ◽  
Presbyterian Church ◽  
The People ◽  
National Capital ◽  
Large Town ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Basel Mission ◽  
The Town

Opening ParagraphThis paper deals with certain aspects of a Christian congregation in a kingdom of southern Ghana, in particular its growth over the past 150 years and the part it plays in the lives of the people of the capital town of the state. Most studies of the development of Christianity in Africa deal with questions of religious ideology (especially that of the conflict between different systems of belief), of conversion, and of the growth of syncretist and separatist movements. Here I am concerned with the development of a Christian congregation that is neither syncretist nor separatist and with its place as one element of a total local religious system which includes other faiths. It is the local congregation of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana in the town of Akuropon, the capital of the eastern Akan kingdom of Akuapem, in the Akuapem Hills that lie some twenty-five miles north of Accra, the national capital. The state has a resident population of about 70,000 and the town one of some 6000. However, the number of people who, wherever they live, regard themselves as Akuroponfo, ‘people of Akuropon’, probably amounts to some 20,000. Those who live elsewhere return to the town when they can at weekends, Christmas, Easter, and the great annual purificatory festival of Odwira, held in September or October; and most hope finally to return to their ‘home-town’ (as it is known in Ghana) to be buried. Although not a large town, it is known widely as the seat of the main educational facilities of the Presbyterian Church since the arrival of the Basel Mission in the then Gold Coast in 1828. Due largely to this fact it has provided more than its share of political, educational and other leaders of Gold Coast and Ghanian society.

scholarly journals New Jersey’s Zoning Amendment

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 28
Author(s):  
Alex Costin
Keyword(s):  
New Jersey ◽  
The State ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
State Court ◽  
The People ◽  
Town Meeting ◽  
The Press ◽  
Growth And Change ◽  
The Town

A half century before the New Jersey Supreme Court endorsed inclusionary zoning in Southern Burlington N.A.A.C.P. v. Mount Laurel Township, the state struggled to secure basic municipal zoning. While New Jersey’s political elite embraced zoning in the 1910s and 20s to weather a period of tremendous growth and change, a disapproving judiciary steadfastly maintained that the practice violated basic property rights. Hundreds of state court decisions in the 1920s held zoning ordinances unconstitutional. Finally, the people of New Jersey in 1927 overwhelmingly passed an amendment to the state constitution overruling those decisions and affirming zoning as a reasonable exercise of the state’s police power. This essay traces those uncertain early years of zoning in New Jersey. The amendment was not the result of a state monolithically coming to its senses. Instead, its passage documents a decade-long struggle played out not only in the courts and legislature but also in the press and the town meeting.

“Bustling Artisans”: Church Patronage at South Leith in the 1740s and 1750s

1994 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. A. Houston
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Church Administration ◽  
Presbyterian Church ◽  
The People ◽  
The City ◽  
The Town ◽  
Scottish Politics

Political participation in eighteenth-century Scotland was the preserve of the few. A country of more than one and a half million people had less than 3,000 parliamentary electors in 1788. Scottish politics was orchestrated from Westminster by one or two powerful patrons and their northern clients—a fact summarized in book titles like The People Above and The Management of Scottish Society. The way Edinburgh danced to a London tune is well illustrated in the aftermath of the famous Porteous riots of 1736. After a government official was lynched the Westminster government leaned heavily on the city and its council. And the nation as a whole was kept under tight rein after the Jacobite rising of 1745-46.This does not mean that ordinary people could not participate in political life, broadly defined. Burgesses could influence their day-to-day lives through membership of their incorporations (guilds) and through serving as constables and in other town or “burgh” (borough) offices. Ecclesiastical posts in the presbyterian church administration—elders and deacons of kirk sessions—had also to be filled. Gordon Desbrisay estimates that approximately one in twelve eligible men would be required annually to serve on the town council and kirk session of Aberdeen in the second half of the seventeenth century. With a 60% turnover of personnel each year, distribution of office holding must have been extensive among the middling section of burgh society from which officials were drawn. For burgesses and non-burgesses alike, other avenues of expression were open. In periods when political consensus broke down or when sectional interests sought to prevail townspeople could resort to riot.

The Sefwi Wiawso Riot of 1935: the deposition of an Omanhene in the Gold Coast

Africa ◽  
1983 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 25-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. A. Roberts
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Gold Coast ◽  
State Council ◽  
Western Province ◽  
Gun Shot ◽  
Cash Economy ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Shot Wounds

Opening ParagraphOn 15 November 193 5 a riot took place in Wiawso, the capital town of Sefwi Wiawso district in the then Western Province of the Gold Coast. It followed weeks of struggle to bring destoolment charges against the omanhene, Nana Kwame Tano II. Four people died of gun-shot wounds, forty were injured and the omanhene was assaulted. On 2 December the State Council completed its hearing of fifteen charges against the omanhene and brought in a majority verdict in favour of destoolment, which in due course was confirmed by the Governor.Studies of the deposition of chiefs in the Gold Coast have tended to focus on the changing reasons for and, particularly, the increased frequency of destoolment (Busia 1968: passim; Owusu 1970: 63ff.). Arhin especially has looked at the effect of the cash economy upon the relationships between chiefs and their subjects (Arhin 1976). Others have described the increasing complexity of the politico-jural structures surrounding the office and functions of chieftaincy as revealed in destoolment cases (Dunn and Robertson, 1973; Robertson 1976).

The African Standpoint

Africa ◽  
1935 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruno Gutmann
Keyword(s):  
Spiritual Leadership ◽  
The State ◽  
Grade System ◽  
Tribal Community ◽  
Age Class ◽  
Absorptive Power ◽  
The People ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Warrior Class

Opening ParagraphThe State in its essential nature is power. Its character is determined by the force with which it asserts its distinction from neighbouring states, by its dealing with the organic bonds in which the life of the people finds expression, and by its success in absorbing into and developing within its own structure the underlying spirit of those bonds. The origin of the State's consciousness of power lies at the point in the interlacing roots of tribal organization where the tension between associations based on kinship and those based on age brings about a change of balance, and leadership begins to pass to the latter, the age-class becoming a warrior class which outgrows the clan and subjects kinship-groupings to its own leaders. Once this change in leadership has taken place, that is to say, when no longer the spirit of the clan but the spirit of the age-class becomes dominant, then, by reason of the resulting tightening-up of the forces of war and of expansion, it is only a question of time before the age-class associations pass into a system of vassalage, with leaders who emerge from the age-grade system and acquire an authority more or less political in character. With the individualization of the leadership goes the differentiation of function in the State, which is first required in the organization of the army. Henceforward the tasks in the service of the State are no longer dependent on a man's place in the tribal organization, but upon accomplishments which can be learned. To acquire these forms of skill, to become proficient in their use and to obtain the advantages secured by them becomes an absorbing task which is pursued in common and given stability by associations for the purpose. This is the birth of organization. Without such organizations the State cannot take form, for they alone ensure to it the concentration of the primitive forces of the tribe for the accomplishment of the aims of the State. Thus these organized associations become agencies to develop and foster the consciousness of statehood. The tribal community consciousness which still persists in the organic tribal relationships and in their leadership systems is gradually, under the absorptive power of the new state-consciousness, forced back into the realm of mere emotion and habit and finally deprived entirely of its spiritual leadership. So that what is in reality the starting-point of man's spiritual existence, namely, his membership of an organic and tribal order of society, comes to be regarded as something purely natural and as the sphere of the instinctive preservation of the species.

The Agricultural System of the Manya-Krobo of the Gold Coast

Africa ◽  
1943 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 54-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. J. Field
Keyword(s):  
Gold Coast ◽  
Agricultural System ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
The Town

Opening ParagraphThe Manya-Krobo are one of the eight groups comprising the Adangme-speaking peoples who inhabit the Shai Plain between the River Volta and the Accra Plain. Until about 1890 the Krobo head-quarters were on the Krobo Hill, a rocky fastness which rises abruptly like a craggy island out of the perfectly flat plain. They have now abandoned this hill and made their head-quarters in the town of Odumase near the foot.

scholarly journals Examining Text Sediments–Commending a Pioneer Historian as an “African Herodotus”: On the Making of the New Annotated Edition of C.C. Reindorf's History of the Gold Coast and Asante

2008 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 231-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heinz Hauser-Renner
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Gold Coast ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
African Region ◽  
Knowing That ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of ◽  
Basel Mission ◽  
Text Context ◽  
Southern Ghana

In 1995 Paul Jenkins, the former Basel Mission archivist, called my attention to Carl Christian Reindorf's Ga manuscripts kept at the archives in Basel, knowing that I had lived and worked in Ghana in the 1980s and that I was able to speak, read, and write the Gã language of Accra and its neigborhood. Of course I already knew Reindorf and his monumental History of the Gold Coast and Asante published in 1895 in English, as I had written my M.A. thesis on late-nineteenth-century Asante history, and moreover I was very much interested in Gã history. Reindorf's massive, substantive, and systematic work about the people of modern southern Ghana may be considered a pioneering intellectual achievement because it was one of the first large-scale historical work about an African region written by an African, and it was highly innovative, including both written sources and oral historical narratives and new methods for the reconstruction of African history. The book has excited interest ever since it first appeared 110 years ago because it contains an unrivaled wealth of information on the history and culture of southern Ghana.A preliminary glimpse at the two heaps of folios wrapped with linen ropes at the archives showed that the manuscripts-none of them were dated–contained two different versions of the English History. That day, when I first laid my hands on the brownish, carefully folded papers, I was not aware that I was to embark on an intensive period of arduous transcribing and translating work (sometimes “lost in translation”), breathtaking archival investigations in Basel, London, and Accra, and of an exciting text/context research (unearthing sources, excavating informants, examining sediments/versions).

scholarly journals PENYULUHAN NILAI-NILAI PANCASILA KEPADA ORGANISASI SISWA INTRA SEKOLAH (OSIS) SEKOLAH MENENGAH KEJURUAN (SMK) NEGERI 39 JAKARTA

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 6
Author(s):  
Lusy Liany ◽  
Ely Alawiyah Jufri ◽  
Mohammad Kharis Umardani
Keyword(s):  
Science And Technology ◽  
The State ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
National Education ◽  
The People ◽  
State And Society ◽  
Media Hegemony ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Changing Times ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Abstrak: Pancasila bagi masyarakat Indonesia bukanlah suatu hal yang baru dan asing. Pancasila terdiri dari lima sila yang tertuang dalam Pembukaan UUD 1945 Alinea ke-IV dan diperuntukkan sebagai dasar negara Republik Indonesia. Di Indonesia, pelaksanaan  pendidikan nasional diatur dalam UU No. 20 Tahun 2003 Tentang Pendidikan Nasional. Pasal 2 UU No. 20 Tahun 2003  menyebutkan bahwa: “Pendidikan nasional berdasarkan Pancasila dan Undang-Undang Dasar Negara Republik Indonesia Tahun 1945. Pada saat ini Pancasila seiring dengan perkembangan dan perubahan zaman yang begitu pesat dan kompleks yakni di era globalisasi ini,moralsiswa-siswi Indonesia mulai dipertanyakan. Di tengah hegemoni media, revolusi iptek tidak hanya mampu menghadirkan sejumlah kemudahan dan kenyamanan hidup bagi manusia modern, melainkan juga mengundang serentetan permasalahan dan kekhawatiran terhadap kepribadian bagi seluruh bangsa Indonesia khususnya dalam hal ini para siswa-siswa. Untuk itulah, pemberian materi tentang nilai-nilai Pancasila kepada siswa-siswi mutlak diperlukan supaya para siswa-siswa agar dapat memahami nilai-nilai yang terdapat didalam Pancasila itu sendiri sehingga dapat menerapkannya dalam kehidupan berbangsa,bernegara dan bermasyarakat.Abstrak: Pancasila for the Indonesian people is not something new and unfamiliar. Pancasila consists of five precepts contained in the 1945 opening paragraph of all IV and designated as the foundation of the Republic of Indonesia. In Indonesia, the implementation of national education stipulated in Law No. 20 Year 2003 on National Education. Article 2 of Law No. 20 of 2003 states that: "The national education based on Pancasila and the Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia Year 1945. At this time Pancasila along with the development and the changing times is so rapid and complex that in this era of globalization, moralsiswa-Indonesian student was questioned. In the center of media hegemony, a revolution in science and technology is not only able to present a number of conveniences and comforts of life for modern humans, but also invited a spate of issues and concerns about the personality of the people of Indonesia, especially in this case the students. For this reason, the provision of material about the values of Pancasila to students is absolutely necessary in order for the students to understand the values contained in Pancasila itself so that it can apply in the life of the nation, the state and society.

Recent Social Welfare Developments in British Tropical Africa

Africa ◽  
1943 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Jeffries
Keyword(s):  
Social Welfare ◽  
The State ◽  
Human Spirit ◽  
Tropical Africa ◽  
The People ◽  
Practical Effect ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphAs one walks by a great river on a windy day, the surface of the water is tossed about in all directions and it is impossible to discern the flow of the current. Yet undisturbed by this superficial agitation the mighty stream rolls on. So, underlying the storm-tossed surface of present discontents there is a surge of the human spirit towards a new conception of the State as an instrument for giving practical effect to the collective will of the people.

Pastors and Prophets in Winneba, Ghana: their Social Background and Career Development

Africa ◽  
1974 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 186-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. W. Wyllie
Keyword(s):  
Career Development ◽  
Social Background ◽  
Local Area ◽  
Cape Coast ◽  
The People ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
The Town

Opening ParagraphThe town of Winneba is situated on the coast of Ghana some forty miles west of Accra and fifty miles east of Cape Coast. It is the seat of the paramount chief (Omanhene) of the Effutu people and was formerly an important seaport providing storage and loading facilities for cocoa produce. Since the construction of modern harbours at Takoradi and Tema, however, Winneba's maritime importance has declined. With a population of over 25,000, its major sources of income are fishing and farming and it also serves as a market centre for the people of the local area.

scholarly journals The Dynamics of Traditional Religion in the Political Economy of Ìkòrodú

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adéyẹmí Balógun
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Social Life ◽  
The State ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Industrial Firms ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
The People ◽  
The Town

In the precolonial period, the coastal town of Ìkòrodú played a prominent role in the traffic of goods and services between traders on its coast and many Yorùbá groups who lived in the interior. While this traffic was sustained by socio-political institutions such as the Oloja and the Osugbo cult, the role of religious groups – including the Ifá priests, Màgbó, Líw`ẹ and Agẹmọ – remained highly influential because they represent the deities and spirits which shaped Ìkòrodú’s inhabitants’ views about social life, economic activities and political institutions. Ìkòrodú has, however, experienced a transformation from a traditional commercial economy into an urban center with modern industrial firms and capital infrastructures. The town has also witnessed the emergence of Muslimand Christian groups, and socio-ethnic groups from many parts of Nigeria. This transformation has not only challenged the authority of the traditional institutions in Ìkòrodú, it has also impacted on the religious beliefs and practices which underpin the socio-economic and political systems of the people. A notable example is the reduction in dates of religious festivals which Traditionalists believe were once instrumental in sustaining social order and prosperity in the town. The power of the state has also affected the responsibilities of the Traditionalists in the town. This article further shows how this transformation hasshaped relations between religious groups and the state in Ìkòrodú.

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