African Affairs Advance Access originally published online on July 25, 2009
African Affairs 2009 108(433):541-558; doi:10.1093/afraf/adp045
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Chieftaincy, Diaspora, and Development: The Institution of Nk
suohene in Ghana
George M. Bob-Milliar (bobmilliar{at}yahoo.co.uk) is a doctoral candidate at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana. The author has appreciated the assistance of Emmanuel Sackey and Opare Asante in collecting the data. For critical comments, he is grateful to M. E. Kropp Dakubu, Laura McGough, T.C. McCaskie, Emmanuel Akyeampong, Kwame Shabazz Zulu, Clifford Campbell, Albie Walls and to the two anonymous reviewers and the editors of the journal for their helpful suggestions on earlier drafts of this article. The remaining errors are my own.
This article is about the institution of the Nk
suohene/hemaa and how it relates to African Americans. The Nksuo stool was created in 1985 by the late Asantehene, Otumfuo Opoku Ware II, as a catalyst for development in Kumase and beyond. Since the 1990s, hundreds of African Americans and some white Westerners have been honoured with various royal titles. Do African Americans understand the Akan conception of slavery and a person of slave origins? Conversely, is the diasporan concept of slavery understood by Akans? In general, and using the case of the Nksuohene/hemaa, this article sets out to show how fluid the chieftaincy institution is in Ghana. Its continuous importance is seen in the development agenda that it has adopted to serve new needs and aspirations. The article makes a case for African Americans to look beyond the Akan regions of Ghana in search of their roots, and argues that such studies can advance understanding of slavery and its legacies in Ghana.