Occult Rumors and Politics in Ghana

Occult Rumors and Politics in Ghana PDF Author: Comfort Max-Wirth
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031598075
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Occult Rumors and Politics in Ghana

Occult Rumors and Politics in Ghana PDF Author: Comfort Max-Wirth
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031598075
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description


Occult Rumors and Politics in Ghana

Occult Rumors and Politics in Ghana PDF Author: Comfort Max-Wirth
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 9783031598067
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book addresses the phenomenon of rumors about the occult in contemporary Ghanaian politics. Drawing on data from fieldwork interviews and analysis of case studies, it examines: why political rumors in Ghana often focus on the occult; what political-occult rumors accomplish and for whom; the ways in which Ghanaian politicians use rumors about the occult to gain political advantage; and some of the popular attitudes of the electorate to the rumors. The book demonstrates that political-occult rumors have become important tools in the hands of Ghanaian politicians to gain political advantage over opponents, and the electorate as means to critique the actions and behavior of political actors and the political process, generally. In a nutshell, this book highlights the important role of occult rumors in modern Ghanaian politics, with a particular focus on the period between the late 1970s and present. The main thrust of the argument in this book is that the flourishing of political-occult rumors and the strength of Pentecostalism are related, and that far from being a phenomenon existing on the margins of modern Ghanaian society, the occult is powerful, public and mainstream.

The Political Economy of Heaven and Earth in Ghana

The Political Economy of Heaven and Earth in Ghana PDF Author: Charles Prempeh
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 9956553905
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 472

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Book Description
In March 2017, the president of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa-Akufu announced his intention to build a national cathedral to the people of Ghana. The announcement elicited watertight counter arguments that morphed into two a priori re-litigated assumptions: First, Ghana is a secular country and second, religion and state formation are incompatible. Informed by a frustrating paradox of an overwhelming religious presence and concurrent pervasive corruption in the country, public conversation reached a cul-de-sac of “conviction without compromising.” In The Political Economy of Heaven and Earth in Ghana, Charles Prempeh deploys the national cathedral as an entry point to provide both interdisciplinary and autoethnographic understanding of religion and politics. The book shows the capacity of religion, when properly cultivated and curated as a worldview to answer the why questions of life, will foster personal, moral, collective and ontological responsibility. All this is needed to stem the tide against corruption, commodity fetishism, environmental degradation (illegal mining—galamsey), heritage destruction and religious exploitation. Prempeh recuperates a historical fact about the mutual inclusivity between religion and politics—politics helping to manage differences, while religion provides a transcendental reason for unity to be forged for human flourishing. Separating the two is, therefore, ahistorical and an obvious threat to the intangible virtues that answers, “why and how” questions for public governance.

Advancing Civil Justice Reform and Conflict Resolution in Africa and Asia: Comparative Analyses and Case Studies

Advancing Civil Justice Reform and Conflict Resolution in Africa and Asia: Comparative Analyses and Case Studies PDF Author: Yin, Elijah Tukwariba
Publisher: IGI Global
ISBN: 1799878996
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
The civil justice system is characterized by a distinct dispute resolution and law enforcement functions, although these functions are not always explicit and their relationship can be vague. People normally turn to this legal system to address an “unjust" situation they encounter. This makes civil justice both socially and economically important, as it may be driven by efficiency or access to justice concerns. The literature suggests that law reform has an uninspiring record in this field. This is because it has, largely, not been considered with a detailed, empirically informed evaluation of proposed solutions. This legal system is complex, and research in this field is correspondingly challenging, interesting, and important. Advancing Civil Justice Reform and Conflict Resolution in Africa and Asia: Comparative Analyses and Case Studies provides significant empirical research findings as well as theoretical reviews and frameworks on a wide array of issues within civil justice and the legal system. This includes topic areas such as access to justice and legal representation, the challenges to developing civil justice, courts and procedures, and civil justice reform. This book is valuable for lawyers, human rights lawyers, court officials, psychologists, social workers, sociologists, consultants, professionals, academicians, students, and researchers working in the field of law, socio-legal studies, sociology, anthropology, political science, social work, social policy, economics, and criminal justice, along with anyone seeking updated information on the current reforms and challenges within the civil justice and legal systems.

Hindu Gods in West Africa

Hindu Gods in West Africa PDF Author: Albert Wuaku
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004255710
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
In Hindu Gods in West Africa, Wuaku offers an account of the histories, beliefs and practices of the Hindu Monastery of Africa and the Radha Govinda Temple, two Hindu Temples in Ghana. Using historical material and data from his field work in southern Ghana, Wuaku shows how these two Hindu Temples build their traditions on popular Ghanaian religious notions about the powerful magicality of India's Hindu gods. He explores how Ghanaian soldiers who served in the colonial armies in India, Sri Lanka, and Burma during World War II, Bollywood films, and local magicians, have contributed to the production and the spreading of these cultural ideas. He argues that while Ghanaian worshippers appropriated and deployed the alien Hindu religious world through their own cultural ideas, as they engage Hindu beliefs and rituals in negotiating challenges their own worldviews would change considerably.

Faith in Flux

Faith in Flux PDF Author: Devaka Premawardhana
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812249984
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
Anthropologist Devaka Premawardhana arrived in Africa to study the much reported "explosion" of Pentecostalism, the spread of which has indeed been massive. It is the continent's fastest growing form of Christianity and one of the world's fastest growing religious movements. Yet Premawardhana found no evidence for this in the province of Mozambique where he worked. His research suggests that much can be gained by including such places in the story of global Christianity, by shifting attention from the well-known places where Pentecostal churches flourish to the unfamiliar places where they fail. In Faith in Flux, Premawardhana documents the ambivalence with which Pentecostalism has been received by the Makhuwa, an indigenous and historically mobile people of northern Mozambique. The Makhuwa are not averse to the newly arrived churches—many relate to them powerfully. Few, however, remain in them permanently. Pentecostalism has not firmly taken root because it is seen as one potential path among many—a pragmatic and pluralistic outlook befitting a people accustomed to life on the move. This phenomenon parallels other historical developments, from responses to colonial and postcolonial intrusions to patterns of circular migration between rural villages and rising cities. But Premawardhana primarily attributes the religious fluidity he observed to an underlying existential mobility, an experimental disposition cultivated by the Makhuwa in their pre-Pentecostal pasts and carried by them into their post-Pentecostal futures. Faith in Flux aims not to downplay the influence of global forces on local worlds, but to recognize that such forces, "explosive" though they may be, never succeed in capturing the everyday intricacies of actual lives.

Sensational Movies

Sensational Movies PDF Author: Birgit Meyer
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520287673
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
Tracing the rise and development of the Ghanaian video film industry between 1985 and 2010, Sensational Movies examines video movies as seismographic devices recording a culture and society in turmoil. This book captures the dynamic process of popular filmmaking in Ghana as a new medium for the imagination and tracks the interlacing of the mediumÕs technological, economic, social, cultural, and religious aspects. Stepping into the void left by the defunct state film industry, video movies negotiate the imaginaries deployed by state cinema on the one hand and Christianity on the other. Birgit Meyer analyzes Ghanaian video as a powerful, sensational form. Colliding with the state film industryÕs representations of culture, these movies are indebted to religious notions of divination and revelation. Exploring the format of Òfilm as revelation,Ó Meyer unpacks the affinity between cinematic and popular Christian modes of looking and showcases the transgressive potential haunting figurations of the occult. In this brilliant study, Meyer offers a deep, conceptually innovative analysis of the role of visual culture within the politics and aesthetics of religious world making.

Occult Economies and the Violence of Abstraction

Occult Economies and the Violence of Abstraction PDF Author: John L. Comaroff
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Informal sector (Economics)
Languages : en
Pages : 86

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Book Description
The Max Gluckman memorial lecture, 1998.

Witchcraft, Sorcery, Rumors and Gossip

Witchcraft, Sorcery, Rumors and Gossip PDF Author: Pamela J. Stewart
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521004732
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
This book combines two classic topics in social anthropology in a new synthesis: the study of witchcraft and sorcery and the study of rumors and gossip. First, it shows how rumor and gossip are invariably important as catalysts for accusations of witchcraft and sorcery. Second, it demonstrates the role of rumor and gossip in the genesis of social and political violence, as in the case of both peasant rebellions and witch-hunts. Examples supporting the argument are drawn from Africa, Europe, India, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia.

African Religions

African Religions PDF Author: Jacob K. Olupona
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199790582
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 177

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Book Description
This book connects traditional religions to the thriving religious activity in Africa today.