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Shadows of Empire in West Africa

New Perspectives on European Fortifications

  • Book
  • © 2018

Overview

Editors:
  1. John Kwadwo Osei-Tutu

    1. Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway

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  2. Victoria Ellen Smith

    1. University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana

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  • Provides a thoroughly interdisciplinary look at West African fortresses as representations of colonization in the region
  • Features some of the leading scholars in multiple fields of African Studies
  • Presents a nuanced picture of fortifications, from historical and contemporary angles
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Part of the book series: African Histories and Modernities (AHAM)

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About this book

These essays reexamine European forts in West Africa as hubs where different peoples interacted, negotiated and transformed each other socially, politically, culturally, and economically. This collection brings together scholars of history, archaeology, cultural studies, and others to present  a nuanced image of fortifications, showing that over time the functions and impacts of the buildings changed as the motives, missions, allegiances, and power dynamics in the region also changed. Focusing on the fortifications of Ghana, the authors discuss how these structures may be interpreted as connecting Ghanaian and West African histories to a multitude of global histories. They also enable greater understanding of the fortifications’ contemporary use as heritage sites, where the Afro-European experience is narrated through guided tours and museums.

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Table of contents (11 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxii
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  2. Introduction: Interpreting West Africa’s Forts and Castles

    • John Kwadwo Osei-Tutu, Victoria Ellen Smith
    Pages 1-31

  3. Grossfriedrichsburg, the First German Colony in Africa? Brandenburg-Prussia, Atlantic Entanglements and National Memory

    • Roberto Zaugg
    Pages 33-73

  4. ‘Far from My Native Land, and Far from You’: Reimagining the British at Cape Coast Castle in the Nineteenth Century

    • Victoria Ellen Smith
    Pages 75-106

  5. Viewed from a Distance: Eighteenth-Century Images of Fortifications on the Coast of West Africa

    • Emily Mann
    Pages 107-136

  6. Illusions of Grandeur and Protection: Perceptions and (Mis)Representations of the Defensive Efficacy of European-Built Fortifications on the Gold Coast, Seventeenth–Early Nineteenth Centuries

    • John Kwadwo Osei-Tutu, Hermann W. von Hesse
    Pages 137-167

  7. Female Agency in a Cultural Confluence: Women, Trade and Politics in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Gold Coast

    • Kwabena Adu-Boahen
    Pages 169-199

  8. Fort Metal Cross: Commercial Epicentre of the British on the Gold Coast

    • Fritz Biveridge
    Pages 201-237

  9. European Fortifications in West Africa as Architectural Containers and Oppressive Contraptions

    • Henry Nii Adziri Wellington, Rexford Assasie Oppong
    Pages 239-272

  10. A Theatre of Memory for the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade: Cape Coast Castle and Its Museum

    • Neelima Jeychandran
    Pages 273-295

  11. Diplomacy, Identity and Appropriation of the “Door of no Return”. President Barack Obama and Family in Ghana and the Cape Coast Castle, 2009

    • John Kwadwo Osei-Tutu, Ebenezer Ayesu
    Pages 297-326

  12. Recreating Pre-colonial Forts and Castles: Heritage Policies and Restoration Practices in the Gold Coast/Ghana, 1945 to 1970s

    • Jon Olav Hove
    Pages 327-350

  13. Back Matter

    Pages 351-368
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Editors and Affiliations

  • Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway

    John Kwadwo Osei-Tutu

  • University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana

    Victoria Ellen Smith

About the editors

John Kwadwo Osei-Tutu is Associate Professor in the Department of Historical Studies at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway. He is a member of the Editorial Committee of the Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana.


Victoria Ellen Smith is a Lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Ghana. She is Founding Curator of the Adu Boahen Memorial Library and Archive.


Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Shadows of Empire in West Africa

  • Book Subtitle: New Perspectives on European Fortifications

  • Editors: John Kwadwo Osei-Tutu, Victoria Ellen Smith

  • Series Title: African Histories and Modernities

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39282-0

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: History, History (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-39281-3Published: 22 September 2017

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-81857-3Published: 10 August 2018

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-39282-0Published: 06 September 2017

  • Series ISSN: 2634-5773

  • Series E-ISSN: 2634-5781

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XXII, 368

  • Number of Illustrations: 13 b/w illustrations, 4 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: African History, Imperialism and Colonialism, Political History, African Politics

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