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Ofosu Ankrah, J. & Amoako-Gyampah, A. K. (2021). Prophetism in the wake of a pandemic: charismatic Christianity, conspiracy theories, and the Coronavirus outbreak in Africa.. Research in Globalization, 3,
Abstract
The outbreak of COVID-19 subjected prophets and the prophetic ministry to ridicule and taunts by both disenchanted Christians and non-believers alike. This study examines responses to these challenges posed by COVID-19 to prophets and the prophetic movement in Africa. The study shows that Charismatic Christianity on the continent may serve as useful resource for public education amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, but also, a source of public health misinformation and thus, create doubts, uncertainties and fear. The paper argues that, the Covid-19 pandemic has both prospects and challenges for prophecies, as well as greater implications for Char- ismatic Christianity in Africa
The outbreak of COVID-19 subjected prophets and the prophetic ministry to ridicule and taunts by both disenchanted Christians and non-believers alike. This study examines responses to these challenges posed by COVID-19 to prophets and the prophetic movement in Africa. The study shows that Charismatic Christianity on the continent may serve as useful resource for public education amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, but also, a source of public health misinformation and thus, create doubts, uncertainties and fear. The paper argues that, the Covid-19 pandemic has both prospects and challenges for prophecies, as well as greater implications for Char- ismatic Christianity in Africa
Amoako-Gyampah, A. K. (2022). Sanitary Inspection, Mosquito Control and Domestic Hygiene in the Gold Coast [Ghana] from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century.. Social History of Medicine, 35,
Abstract
Mosquito control was the focus of many public health interventions in the Gold Coast because, during the colonial period, malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases remained a leading cause of European and African morbidity and mortality. Tagging along with theories of racial ecology that portrayed Africans and their surroundings as the nidus of infection, and therefore, perceiving African homes as a source of danger, colonial officials targeted the fight against mosquito at African households and surroundings. Sanitary inspectors were deployed to African households to search, prosecute and fine householders whose environment harboured larvae. By examining the connection between household sanitary inspection, mosquito control and domestic hygiene, this article demonstrates how sanitary inspection was not limited to finding larvae. Instead, it became a tool for checking general cleanliness in African households, and therefore, provided the colonial administration, the means to regulate, and manipulate African habits and practices in the domestic sphere.
Mosquito control was the focus of many public health interventions in the Gold Coast because, during the colonial period, malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases remained a leading cause of European and African morbidity and mortality. Tagging along with theories of racial ecology that portrayed Africans and their surroundings as the nidus of infection, and therefore, perceiving African homes as a source of danger, colonial officials targeted the fight against mosquito at African households and surroundings. Sanitary inspectors were deployed to African households to search, prosecute and fine householders whose environment harboured larvae. By examining the connection between household sanitary inspection, mosquito control and domestic hygiene, this article demonstrates how sanitary inspection was not limited to finding larvae. Instead, it became a tool for checking general cleanliness in African households, and therefore, provided the colonial administration, the means to regulate, and manipulate African habits and practices in the domestic sphere.
Amoako-Gyampah, A. K. (2022). The Public Health Question and Mortuary Politics in Colonial Ghana.. Social History, 47,
Abstract
British colonial rule in Ghana profoundly affected the interment of corpses. The practice of home burials was widespread in nineteenth-century Ghana. Guided by prevailing Euro-Western discourses on sanitation and public health, colonial officials banned home interment and introduced cemeteries. This article examines the imposition of cemetery burials in colonial Ghana, the responses of the local population, its impact on indigenous burial practices, and its ramifications beyond the public health imperative. I argue that, despite initial opposition, the colonial administration succeeded in imposing cemeteries and this reoriented the people’s beliefs and practices regarding burial rituals, with spiritual and pragmatic implications for health, identity and the use of space; it also reoriented the people’s perceptions of the relationship between the living and the dead. The widespread acceptance of cemeteries was accompanied by a penchant by chiefs and other notables to create private cemeteries exclusively for their families. This threatened the spatial planning policies of the colonial administration, especially in urban areas, forcing them to strictly regulate the creation of cemeteries, limiting burials to public cemeteries, and closing already demarcated ones. Chiefs exploited cemeteries to flex power by imposing customary fees and sanctions, and by forcing their opponents to exhume their buried relatives.
British colonial rule in Ghana profoundly affected the interment of corpses. The practice of home burials was widespread in nineteenth-century Ghana. Guided by prevailing Euro-Western discourses on sanitation and public health, colonial officials banned home interment and introduced cemeteries. This article examines the imposition of cemetery burials in colonial Ghana, the responses of the local population, its impact on indigenous burial practices, and its ramifications beyond the public health imperative. I argue that, despite initial opposition, the colonial administration succeeded in imposing cemeteries and this reoriented the people’s beliefs and practices regarding burial rituals, with spiritual and pragmatic implications for health, identity and the use of space; it also reoriented the people’s perceptions of the relationship between the living and the dead. The widespread acceptance of cemeteries was accompanied by a penchant by chiefs and other notables to create private cemeteries exclusively for their families. This threatened the spatial planning policies of the colonial administration, especially in urban areas, forcing them to strictly regulate the creation of cemeteries, limiting burials to public cemeteries, and closing already demarcated ones. Chiefs exploited cemeteries to flex power by imposing customary fees and sanctions, and by forcing their opponents to exhume their buried relatives.
Amoako-Gyampah K. A. & Kafui, O. T.
Social Science Conference: Developing Society through Human Security and Social Justice. Anamuah-Menash Auditorium, Winneba, Ghana 16th - 16th March
Paper presented:
The Ghanaian Mass Media, the Politics of Insult and the Burden of History
Abstract
The promulgation of the 1992 constitution ushered in several constitutional provisions and regulatory enactments that combined to produce a liberal, vociferous and proactive media landscape in Ghana. The combined efforts of the various media outlets, both privately-owned and state-owned, have not only served as watch-dog over government excesses, but have also served as a guardian of public interests, exposing corruption at all levels and acting as the conduit between the government and the governed. Yet, in recent times, there have been concerns that the Ghanaian media is becoming overly sensational, sleazy and superficial in its reportage. Above all there are concerns that the media front is increasingly serving partisan political ends as tools for hurling insults at political opponents, as typified particularly, by the two dominant political parties – the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP). As a result, the media appears to be sowing discord rather than concord, hate speech instead of sober debate and suspicion rather than social trust. This study attempts to contextualise the complicity of the mass media in serving as an avenue for the propagation and perpetuation of political insults in Ghana. Drawing evidence mainly from the print media, we will: (a) investigate the trajectory and context of political insults in Ghanaian Newspapers and (b) examine how Ghanaian newspapers report insults that are targeted at political actors. In order to present a more critical and nuanced analysis, we shall engage in content, contextual and inter-textual analysis of contents that are of the nature of political insults presented in newspapers. While we concede to the view that there has been preponderance of political insults peddled through the Ghanaian media under the fourth republic, we will contend that: (a) the use of insults are not new to Ghana’s political culture and that it even predates the colonial encounter. What is new, however, is the contrived, aggressive, and acrimonious motive implied in the present-day political insults. (b) That the incidence of political insults of the nature peddled through the media presently is traceable to the early part of 1950s – a period that epitomised aggressive politicking in the contemporary political history of Ghana.
The promulgation of the 1992 constitution ushered in several constitutional provisions and regulatory enactments that combined to produce a liberal, vociferous and proactive media landscape in Ghana. The combined efforts of the various media outlets, both privately-owned and state-owned, have not only served as watch-dog over government excesses, but have also served as a guardian of public interests, exposing corruption at all levels and acting as the conduit between the government and the governed. Yet, in recent times, there have been concerns that the Ghanaian media is becoming overly sensational, sleazy and superficial in its reportage. Above all there are concerns that the media front is increasingly serving partisan political ends as tools for hurling insults at political opponents, as typified particularly, by the two dominant political parties – the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP). As a result, the media appears to be sowing discord rather than concord, hate speech instead of sober debate and suspicion rather than social trust. This study attempts to contextualise the complicity of the mass media in serving as an avenue for the propagation and perpetuation of political insults in Ghana. Drawing evidence mainly from the print media, we will: (a) investigate the trajectory and context of political insults in Ghanaian Newspapers and (b) examine how Ghanaian newspapers report insults that are targeted at political actors. In order to present a more critical and nuanced analysis, we shall engage in content, contextual and inter-textual analysis of contents that are of the nature of political insults presented in newspapers. While we concede to the view that there has been preponderance of political insults peddled through the Ghanaian media under the fourth republic, we will contend that: (a) the use of insults are not new to Ghana’s political culture and that it even predates the colonial encounter. What is new, however, is the contrived, aggressive, and acrimonious motive implied in the present-day political insults. (b) That the incidence of political insults of the nature peddled through the media presently is traceable to the early part of 1950s – a period that epitomised aggressive politicking in the contemporary political history of Ghana.
Amoako-Gyampah K. A. (2015). STRIKING WHERE IT HURTS: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF GRADUATE TEACHERS STRIKES AND LABOUR RELATIONS IN GHANA’S PUBLIC EDUCATION SECTOR. African Review of Economics and Finance, 7,
Abstract
This article examines the 2005 and 2006 strike actions of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT). It seeks to investigate the root causes of teacher grievances during the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government’s administration; government responses to these agitations; and, finally, to highlight significant contours of the political economy of labour relations in Ghana’s public education sector. It is demonstrated that, among other things, it was the lackadaisical attitude of government, the Education Ministry and the Ghana Education Service in resolving the teachers’ grievances that resulted in the 2005 and 2006 strikes. I also argue that the posturing of the government and its institutions in resolving the teacher’s grievances, once the strike had started, entrenched the attitudes of the striking teachers and prolonged the strike action. Government’s failure to stifle teacher’s discontent and find an amicable settlement resulted in legal pressure and threats of dismissal aimed at compelling the striking teachers to end their action. Government also attempted to drive a wedge between NAGRAT and the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) by hiding behind the technicality of the use of the collective bargaining certificate in the education sector, and presented the strike action as a rift between GNAT and NAGRAT, rather than between NAGRAT and the government. Furthermore, government sought, subtly, to pitch the public (at least its sympathisers) against the striking teachers by constructing the strike action as politically inspired to discredit its administration. Primary sources used for the article were drawn from personal interviews, newspaper reports, observations, and official union documents, which include letters, memoranda and press releases.
This article examines the 2005 and 2006 strike actions of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT). It seeks to investigate the root causes of teacher grievances during the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government’s administration; government responses to these agitations; and, finally, to highlight significant contours of the political economy of labour relations in Ghana’s public education sector. It is demonstrated that, among other things, it was the lackadaisical attitude of government, the Education Ministry and the Ghana Education Service in resolving the teachers’ grievances that resulted in the 2005 and 2006 strikes. I also argue that the posturing of the government and its institutions in resolving the teacher’s grievances, once the strike had started, entrenched the attitudes of the striking teachers and prolonged the strike action. Government’s failure to stifle teacher’s discontent and find an amicable settlement resulted in legal pressure and threats of dismissal aimed at compelling the striking teachers to end their action. Government also attempted to drive a wedge between NAGRAT and the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) by hiding behind the technicality of the use of the collective bargaining certificate in the education sector, and presented the strike action as a rift between GNAT and NAGRAT, rather than between NAGRAT and the government. Furthermore, government sought, subtly, to pitch the public (at least its sympathisers) against the striking teachers by constructing the strike action as politically inspired to discredit its administration. Primary sources used for the article were drawn from personal interviews, newspaper reports, observations, and official union documents, which include letters, memoranda and press releases.
