Judicial and Legal Records in the National Archives of Ghana/Accra: An Introduction for Users

1993 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 361-367
Author(s):  
Pino Akotia

Judicial and legal records in the National Archives of Ghana headquarters repositories are important primary source materials for historians, social scientists, and other researchers, and in particular practicing lawyers. The holdings of the national archives service, both in Accra and its network, cover records relating to the political and bureaucratic activities of government. This paper focuses on the Accra holdings pertaining to judicial and legal records, in order to draw attention to the decisive attractiveness of these record series in general and, in particular, the Accra judicial and legal records to a generation inclined to both quantification and sociological analysis and to provide a guide to prospective users.The headquarters of the national archives service, where the judicial and legal records are located, is situated on Castle Road in Accra near the junction with Barnes Road. The offices are open from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday to Friday. The search room functions between 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. The formal requirement for admission to use the archives materials is the searcher's ticket obtained from the Search Room Officer on the spot.

1986 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 383-389
Author(s):  
Gareth Austin

The Ashanti Regional Office of the National Archives of Ghana is a repository of great value for historians and social scientists of Asante, and of major importance for Ghana studies generally. So far, its contents are semiorganized and they are decaying steadily. Having worked several stretches in it during the period from 1979 to August 1985, I offer the following account from a researcher's perspective, aimed at providing a guide to some practicalities of using this archive; at highlighting its need for greater resources; at going some way to clarify how its contents are arranged; and finally, at briefly illustrating their--hitherto underestimated--importance to scholars.The NAG-K is situated in the grounds of the National Cultural Centre. The formal requirement for admission is a NAG Searcher's Ticket, obtainable on the spot or at the Accra headquarters, normally by means of a letter of introduction. The Archivist, Mr. C.A. Azangweo, and his often-changing staff have maintained an impressive friendliness and helpfulness over very difficult years. But as in the Ghanaian public service generally, low pay has led to an exodus of skilled personnel and contributed to low morale among most of those who remain, while suspension of non-salary expenditure has undermined conditions of work and, more importantly, the physical state of the documents themselves.


1975 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Cooney

Before one can make conclusive statements about the causes of western imperialism, one must comprehend the network of political processes and administrative relations by which expansionist demands were fed into the political systems of imperial powers. The channels followed by demands which led to British and American imperial expansion are mapped through reference to historical studies based on a wide range of primary source materials. Expansionist demand channels are studied within the framework of Easton's concept of the political system, and of linkage theories concerning the relation of national political systems to the extra-societal environment. The British and American systems provide contrasting examples of simple and complex linkage. American expansion can be studied within the simple domestic-international linkage framework developed by contemporary authors; to comprehend the process of British expansion, one must consider the complicating factor of local imperial demands.


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-8
Author(s):  
Donna B. Smith

Gale, a Cengage company, introduces many previously classified documents from The U.K. National Archives in their digital collection Declassified Documents Online: Twentieth-Century British Intelligences: an Intelligence Empire. The archive provides over 500,000 pages of declassified UK government documents on activities pertinent to British intelligence, decolonization, and security policies from 1905 to 2002. Sourced from five government departments, these unique primary source materials support research in twentieth century history, politics, and international relations by highlighting British operations in a time of global conflicts and shifting alliances.


2018 ◽  
pp. 43-51
Author(s):  
Osamu Saito

This personal reflection of more than 40 years' work on the supply of labour in a household context discusses the relationship between social science history (the application to historical phenomena of the tools developed by social scientists) and local population studies. The paper concludes that historians working on local source materials can give something new back to social scientists and social science historians, urging them to remake their tools.


2021 ◽  
pp. 135406882110238
Author(s):  
Olga Zelinska ◽  
Joshua K Dubrow

Whereas social scientists have devised various ways to measure representation gaps between the political elite and the masses across nations and time, few datasets can be used to measure this gap for particular social groups. Minding the gap between what parties social groups vote for and what parties actually attain seats in parliament can reveal the position of social groups in the political power structure. We help to fill this gap with a new publicly available dataset, Party Representation of Social Groups (PaReSoGo), consisting of 25 countries and 150 country-years, and a method for its construction. We used the European Social Survey 2002–2016 and ParlGov data for this time span to create a Dissimilarity Index. To demonstrate the utility and flexibility in the combination of cross-national surveys and administrative data, we chose social groups of gender, age, and education, as well as intersectional groups based on gender and age, and attitudinal groups. We conclude this research note with empirical illustrations of PaReSoGo’s use.


1963 ◽  
Vol 1 (03) ◽  
pp. 48-53

Inventaire de la Série Mi des Archives de la République Malgache, by Jean Valette, Archivist (Imprimerie Nationale, Tananarive, 1963), 16 pp. reprinted from the Bulletin de Madagascar, No. 201 (February, 1963), pp. 163-176. Useful guide to the recently microfilmed collections deposited at the National Archives of Madagascar after an intensive search for foreign source materials conducted by the Archivist, Jean Valette. The inventory contains such items as photocopies from archives in Mauritius pertaining to Madagascar, 1767-1848; microfilms of the correspondence of General Gallieni, deposited at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris; microfilms of documents on Madagascar preserved at the Bibliothèque Centrale des Archives du Ministère de la Marine de France; microfilms of documents relating to Madagascar before 1789 deposited at the Archives du Ministere des Affaires Etrangères de France as well as certain political correspondence for the period 1816-1885 from the same collection. In addition to these sources the guide lists manuscripts from the British Museum and the National Archives of the United States of America concerning Madagascar.


Author(s):  
Seema S.Ojha

History is constructed by people who study the past. It is created through working on both primary and secondary sources that historians use to learn about people, events, and everyday life in the past. Just like detectives, historians look at clues, sift through evidence, and make their own interpretations. Historical knowledge is, therefore, the outcome of a process of enquiry. During last century, the teaching of history has changed considerably. The use of sources, viz. textual, visual, and oral, in school classrooms in many parts of the world has already become an essential part of teaching history. However, in India, it is only a recent phenomenon. Introducing students to primary sources and making them a regular part of classroom lessons help students develop critical thinking and deductive reasoning skills. These will be useful throughout their lives. This paper highlights the benefits of using primary source materials in a history classroom and provides the teacher, with practical suggestions and examples of how to do this.


1994 ◽  
Vol 19 (04) ◽  
pp. 829-852 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Frohmann ◽  
Elizabeth Mertz

As scholars and activists have addressed the problem of violence against women in the past 25 years, their efforts have increasingly attuned us to the multiple dimensions of the issue. Early activists hoped to change the structure of power relations in our society, as well as the political ideology that tolerated violence against women, through legislation, education, direct action, and direct services. This activism resulted in a plethora of changes to the legal codes and protocols relating to rape and battering. Today, social scientists and legal scholars are evaluating the effects of these reforms, questioning anew the ability of law by itself to redress societal inequalities. As they uncover the limitations of legal reforms enacted in the past two decades, scholars are turning—or returning—to ask about the social and cultural contexts within which laws are formulated, enforced, and interpreted.


1934 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 210-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick L. Schuman

In dealing with the evolution of political thought, most historians and social scientists, until recently at least, have tended to view political behavior and the changing patterns of power in society as rational implementations of dynamic ideas. They have accordingly concerned themselves more with the development of abstract philosophical systems than with the social-psychological contexts conditioning this development. To other observers, more Marxian than Hegelian in their outlook, all political ideas are but reflections of the economic interests and class ideologies of the various strata of society. This school therefore probes for the secrets of political and social change, not in the surface phenomena of ideas, but in the progress of technology and in the shifting economic relations of groups and classes within the social hierarchy. Still others, few in number as yet, have adopted Freud as their guide.


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