Colonial anthropology and historical reconstruction -- Drum chant and the political uses of tradition -- Tindanas and chiefs : ethnography -- Chiefs and tindanas : making nam -- Tamale : the Dakpema, the Gulkpe'Na, the Bugulana, and the law of the land -- Chiefs in the national arena
Summary
This book provides an ethnographically enriched history of Dagbon from the fifteenth century to the present, setting that history in the context of the regional resources and political culture of northern Ghana. This book shows how the history commonly assumed by scholars has been shaped by the prejudices of colonial anthropology, the needs of British indirect rule, and local political agency. The book demonstrates, too, how political agency has shaped the kinship system
