George Meyiri Bob-Milliar

This paper constructs the intellectual histories of learned societies in Ghana to illuminate African agency in pursuing knowledge production and dissemination. Academics and politicians founded some of Africa’s first scientific societies in Ghana. Previous scholarship on scientific research and higher education in Africa has overlooked the role of disciplines-based learned societies and national academies. This paper contributes to that literature using a historical comparative approach to construct the histories of learned societies that emerged during the colonial and postcolonial periods to understand how such scientific associations contributed to research productivity. I advance two arguments based on case studies of three scientific societies. First, there is linearity in the evolution of learned societies. Second, the institutionalization of scientific communities along interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary lines provided flexibility and enabled learned associations to contribute relevant knowledge to the “developmental state” that the political leaders were constructing.

The essentiality of student activism in Ghana is revealed through the role students played in ensuring political stability, economic accountability, and human rights preservation. Scholarly debates are either silent on the gendered nature of student activism or treat women student activists as insignificant participants. Student activism is typically construed around illustrious men and important men-centered events. Men’s voices dominated due to demographical advantage, gender-blind policies, the socialization of the sexes, and the seeming violence attached to student activism. Using the qualitative research design, this study draws on original data to argue that women have been significant players in Ghanaian student activism even though there have been certain socio-political barriers to women’s student activism. The article interrogates femininity/masculinity in Ghanaian universities, institutional cultures influencing student activism, and gender inequality in enrollment. It highlights the unique role women played in student activism in Ghana’s universities.

This note seeks to bring awareness to the wide variety of archival documents available for research in urban history in Kumase, Ghana’s second city and capital of the historic Asante Kingdom. We draw mainly on our experiences researching the history of Jackson Park, one of colonial Kumase’s earliest public parks.

Why do young Muslim students who live in a relatively peaceful and pluralistic society like Ghana embrace extremist ideologies? This paper examines the radicalisation of young Muslims in Ghanaian universities. It analyses the different structural and managerial models adopted by three of the oldest public universities to govern students’ religious activities on campus. We draw on data from several sources to argue that the weaknesses of the management of religious spaces in university campuses and the marginalisation of Muslim students’ association in university chaplaincies contributes to the radicalisation of young Muslims in Ghana. The unregulated sacred spaces encourage students to search for religious resources on the internet; a significant source that helps to radicalise young Muslims in institutions of higher learning.

It is widely acknowledged that geographic data in Ghana and most of Sub-Sahara Africa is patchy, and lack geographic coverage and detail. This has implications for mobility and access to socioeconomic, and cultural opportunities which require address and location data typically provided through geocoding. A critical component of geocoding is a reference database to lookup matching address and location information. Accordingly, we investigate the suitability of, and the use of electoral polling stations to build a reference database for geocoding. This was undertaken by mapping their geographic coordinates, analyzing their geographic spread and detail, and outlining the database structure for building the reference database. Using the 2020 electoral polling station data for the Greater North area of Ghana, we found that 93% of the geographic coordinates can be obtained from open data sources. Also, there is high proximity with a nearest neighbor distance of 663 m, a reasonable service area of 4300 m, and a median distance of 3700 m from a community location. The widespread availability, large geographic spread and moderate detail, make polling stations a creditable data source for geocoding. It is recommended the polling station data be augmented with a detailed geographic data like those from landmarks and paratransit service.

What role does a commission of inquiry (COI) play in delivering accountability? In theory, when the public delegates power to political leaders to formulate and implement policies, they seek political accountability in return. Using Ghana as a case study, this study examines how the operations of COIs may deliver accountability. Principal–agent theories of accountability and African conceptions of legitimacy are incomplete on their own and need to be integrated into an explanation of political accountability that takes into consideration political transitions and the role of COIs in delivering a minimalist form of accountability. This study argues that a COI is an instrument of regime legitimatisation. The demands by citizens for political accountability in Ghana correlate with political transitions. Accompanying each power alternation was a different model of political accountability. To understand the predominant applications of accountability, we emphasise the politicisation of accountability.