Dependence and Opportunity

First published in 1973, this is a study of the historical relationship between the system of colonial control and local social and political structures in the Ahafo region of Ghana since the arrival of the British. There has been much academic writing about African policies in the past but it has not on the whole been very successful in illuminating to outsiders what political conflicts in African countries are concerned with or what political actors in Africa understand themselves to be doing. This is particularly true in the case of the political actions of those who, like the great majority of the population of Africa, are not members of elites educated in European languages. The authors of this book, a political scientist and an anthropologist, have attempted to convey enough of the context and complexity of political intention and action in one traditional area of Ghana for someone who knows nothing about Africa to begin to understand what politics there means.