Region:  Ghana (formerly Gold Coast, Slave Coast)

Bibliography

Primary sources



"The Annual Register, Or a View of the History, Politicks, and Literature, for the Year 1759." (1759) Print. http://ia600406.us.archive.org/27/items/annualregisteror1759londuoft/annualregisteror1759londuoft.pdf

B., R. The English Acquisitions in Guinea & East-India Containing First, the several Forts and Castles of the Royal African Company, from Sally in South Barbary, to the Cape of Good Hope in Africa ... Secondly, the Forts and Factories of the Honourable East-India Company in Persia, India, Sumatra, China, &c. ... : With an Account of Theinhabitants of all these Countries ... : Also the Birds, Beasts,Serpents and Monsters and Other Strange Creatures found there ... : Likewise, a Description of the Isle of St. Helena, Where the English usually Refresh in their Indian Voyages. (1700) Print.

Dapper, Olfert. Beschreibung Von Afrika. New York: Johnson Reprint Corp, 1967. Print.

Leyden, John, and Hugh Murray. Historical Account of Discoveries and Travels in Africa, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time: Including the Substance of the Late Dr. Leyden’s Work on That Subject. Printed for A. Constable and company, 1818. http://archive.org/details/historicalaccou03leydgoog

Marees, Pieter , A . Dantzig, and Adam Jones. Description and Historical Account of the Gold Kingdom of Guinea (1602). Oxford [England: Published for The British Academy by Oxford University Press, 1987. Print.

Moore, Francis. "Moore, Francis. Travels into the Inland Parts of Africa: Containing a Description of the several Nations for the Space of Six Hundred Miles Up the River Gambia; their Trade, Habits, Customs, Languages, Manners, Religion and Government; the Power, Disposition and Characters of some Negro Princes; with a Particular Account of Job Ben Solomon, a Pholey, Who was in England in the Year 1733, and Known by the Name of the African. to which is Added, Capt. Stibbs's Voyage Up the Gambia in the Year 1723, to make Discovries; with an Accurate Map of that River Taken on the Spot: And Many Other Copper Plates. also Extracts from the Nubion's Geography, Leo the African, and Other Authors Antient and Modern, Concerning the Niger Nile, Or Gambia, and Observations Thereon. by Francis Moore, Factor several Years to the Royal African Company of England. the Second Edition. London, [1755?]. Eighteenth Century Collections Online. Gale. University of Iowa. 13 Sept. 2011 <http://find.galegroup.com.proxy.lib.uiowa.edu/ecco/infomark.do?&contentSet=ECCOArticles&type=multipage&tabID=T001&prodId=ECCO&docId=CW3302484508&source=gale&userGroupName=uiowa_main&version=1.0&docLevel=FASCIMILE>." (1755)Web.

Narbrough, John, Sir. "an Account of several Late Voyages & Discoveries to the South and North Towards the Streights of Magellan, the South Seas, the Vast Tracts of Land Beyond Hollandia Nova &c. : Also Towards Nova Zembla, Greenland Or Spitsberg, Groynland Or Engrondland, &c.." (1694) Print.

Walthoe, John. "A Collection of Voyages and Travels." 5 of 6 (1732)Print.

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Secondary sources



Akyeampong, Emmanuel. “History, Memory, Slave-trade and Slavery in Anlo (Ghana).” Slavery and Abolition 22, no. 3 (2001): 1--24.

This is mainly a historical and political discussion of the slave-trade history in Anlo (Ghana) from the 17th to the 20th century (with the focus on the 19th to the 20th century). Emmanuel Kwaku Akyeampong, a native of Ghana, obtained his Ph.D. in African history in 1993 from the University of Virginia and is now Professor of History and Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. The author opens with a discussion of different attitudes of slave descents in West Africa and North America towards their origins and further discusses that in modern Ghana, few Ghanaian historians have worked systematically on slavery and the slave-trade. Two developments brought about more discussion of the legacy of the slave trade and slavery in the Anlo society in Ghana today: the first development came from UNESCO’s declaration of some forts and castles in Ghana built by the Europeans, among which Atorkor, an Anlo coastal town and former slave-history site was also listed; the second development was a result of a report in 1993 by Ghanaian media about the existence of ritual female bondage in some areas in Ghana. Anlo, located in southeast Ghana, bordered to the east by the Republic of Togoland and isolated from the rest of Ghana, lacked gold and ivory as well as land and fertile soil, all of which made it both necessary and accessible to play a part in the slave trade. Before the colonial period of Anlo, it had been from the 1750s on constantly engaged in dispossessing its neighbor Ada’s salt ponds and fishing grounds, which Anlo lacked itself. The consolidation of the Anlo war-machinery also contributed to Anlo’s being an important player in the slave trade. The Dutch took charge on the Slave Coast from the 1630s, and were joined in the Guinea trade from the mid-seventeenth century by the English, French, Swedes, Brandenburgers and Danes. By the late 17th century, several polities dotted between the Volta estuary (south) and the Lagos Channel (north) all took part and vied as intermediaries in the Atlantic slave-trade. Part of the reason was geographical: the major Anlo slave marts were all located between the lagoon and the sea, facilitating the smuggling of slaves along the lagoon and the shipping from ports other than Keta, which was mostly under Danish control. Not only did the slave traders in Anlo sell slaves to the New World, they also kept some slaves themselves, especially women, whom they married and over whom they had much control (including their offspring). The slave trade was welcomed by the local governor, who at the same time also felt threatened by the wealth of the slave traders. From the 18th century, the priests of powerful shrines began to demand young women, fiasidi, as payment from devotees who sought their service and these women remained as servants of the shrine for the rest of their lives. These services could be in aid of childbirth, healing, the settling of disputes or vengeance for wrongs committed. Fiasidi became institutionalized and grew in Anlo society over the 19th century. fiasidi loosely means “wife of chief” and mainly exists in Anlo (north), whereas the other kind of human payment, trokosi (literally means “pledge of god”) is mainly practiced in Tongo (south). A trokosi currently functions as a punitive institution for checking crime. However, the exploitation of the sexuality and labor of the trokosi are its most blatant features. From the 1970s on, humanists in Ghana as well as in other countries began investigating the trokosi practice and condemned it as inhumane, which brought international attention. The author believes that it is the acts of betrayal by local chiefs that contributed greatly in the abduction of local inhabitants, and that it is the chiefs that suggested these slave-trade spots be considered as a Slave-Trade Memorial worthy of national preservation and tourist promotion. It is also those powerful chiefs, indigenous priests and educated “traditionalists” that pledged to uphold African “culture” in the face of Western/ Christian encroachment. In the process of investigating into the slave-trade history of Anlo, the author discovers that despite the fact that the “oral tradition” of the slave-trade is passed down through generations in forms of songs, drum names or as proverbs, the “oral data” of individuals gets lost quite easily, and usually dies with the death of the individual who experienced them. [Sicong Zhu]

Barbour, Thomas. "Further Notes on Dutch New Guinea." National Geographic Magazine. (1908): 527-545. Print.

Bravmann, René A. "Gur and Manding Masquerades in Ghana." African Arts 13, no. 1 (Nov., 1979): pp. 44-51+98.

Coombs, Douglas. “The Place of the ‘Certificate of Apologie’ in Ghanaian History.” Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana. 3 (1958): 180--193.

Coombs investigates how the Dutch used bounty-like “notes” to exercise control over the African peoples they encountered and the role these played in Ghanaian colonial transition from Dutch to British authority. The Dutch originally seized control by means of either conquest or contract, and a “note” was an agreement with a local ruler where the Dutch would pay an annual stipend for compliance and allegiance. This led to misunderstanding between the parties though, because the Dutch saw the transaction as a mere temporary payoff to insure trade that could be voluntarily terminated at any time, whereas the African chiefs interpreted the contract as a guaranteed voucher. The Asante in particular considered Dutch “notes” to be valid regardless of who the original parties were, and believed that “notes” could be transferred to them when they conquered other peoples. Coombs' article focuses on the 1870 “Elmina note” that the Asante claimed they had acquired because of their victory in a conflict with Elmina. The Dutch rejected this complaint arguing that the “note” was no longer relevant. When the British took over Ghana later that year, the Asante asserted that their claim was still legally binding and that title over Elmina must be honored. Not wishing to be on the defensive from the outset, the British refused to take control of Elmina until the Asante withdrew their position. The Dutch responded by sending an emissary to the Asante King who deceived the ruler into believing that if he issued a “certificate of apology,” stating that the whole matter was a colossal misunderstanding, he would be given authority of Elmina. Although the King’s letter was insincere, it satisfied the British enough to completely take over Ghana. Despite the Asante raising the issue again later, saying the Dutch lied to them, making the “certificate of apology” void; the British saw the document as genuine and refused to release Elmina to the Asante. The bitterness over this one document became a rally point against white oppression and even after independence, Ghanaian people see it as authenticating their national legitimacy. [Nathan Popp]

Doortmont, Michel, and Jinna Smit. Sources for the Mutual History of Ghana and the Netherlands : an Annotated Guide to the Dutch Archives Relating to Ghana and West Africa in the Nationaal Archief, 1593-1960s. Leiden, the Netherlands; Boston: Brill, 2007.

Dordunoo, Cletus K. The Foreign Exchange Market and the Dutch Auction System in Ghana. Nairobi: African Economic Research Consortium, 1994.

Daaku, K. Y. “The Basis of Dutch Relations with Axim.” Ghana Notes and Queries., no. 8 (1966): 19--20.

“The European Traders and the Coastal States.” Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana. no. 8 (1965): 11-23.

Dantzig, A. van, and Netherlands. Algemeen Rijksarchief. Dutch Documents Relating to the Gold Coast (Coast of Guinea), 1680-1740 : Translations of Letters and Papers Collected in the Algemeen Rijks Archief (ARA), State Archives of the Netherlands at the Hague. Legon, Ghana: Van Dantzig, 1971.

Emmer, P. C. "Engeland, Nederland, Afrika En De Slavenhandel in De Negentiende Eeuw." Economisch-En Sociaal-Historisch Jaarboek 37, (01, 1974): 44-144.

Feinberg, H. M. "an Incident in Elmina-Dutch Relations, the Gold Coast (Ghana), 1739-1740." Vol. 3, No. 2 (1970), pp. 359-372 Web.

Feinberg, Harvey M, and American Philosophical Society. Africans and Europeans in West Africa : Elminans and Dutchmen on the Gold Coast During the Eighteenth Century. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1989.

Feinberg, Harvey Michael. Elmina, Ghana : a History of Its Development and Relationship with the Dutch in the Eighteenth Century. Ann Arbor, Mich. [etc.]: University microfilms international, 1978.

Hess, Janet Berry. "Imagining Architecture: The Structure of Nationalism in Accra, Ghana." Africa Today 47, no. 2 (Spring, 2000): pp. 35-58.

Jones, Adam. "Dutch Seventeenth-Century Documents on the Gold Coast." Journal of African History 49.2 (2008): 308-9. Print..

Kankpeyeng, Benjamin W. and Christopher R. DeCorse. "Ghana's Vanishing Past: Development, Antiquities, and the Destruction of the Archaeological Record." The African Archaeological Review 21, no. 2 (Jun., 2004): pp. 89-128.

Kankpeyeng, Benjamin W. “The Slave Trade in Northern Ghana: Landmarks, Legacies and Connections.” Slavery & Abolition 30, no. 2 (June 2009): 209--221.

Kessel, Ineke van. Merchants, Missionaries & Migrants : 300 Years of Dutch-Ghanaian Relations. Amsterdam; Accra, Ghana: KIT Publishers ; Sub-Saharan Publishers, 2002.

Koert, Robinus Gerardus van, Jos Moerkamp, and Stichting Afrikaanse Dutch Wax. African Dutch Wax. Eindhoven [Netherlands]: Lecturis, 2007.

Musée Dapper (Paris, France). Ghana : Hier Et Aujourd’hui = Yesterday and Today. Paris: Musée Dapper, 2003.

Okoye, Ikem Stanley. "Architecture, History, and the Debate on Identity in Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa." Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 61, no. 3 (Sep., 2002): pp. 381-396.

Paton, Diana, and Jane Webster. “Remembering Slave Trade Abolitions: Reflections on 2007 in International Perspective.” Slavery & Abolition 30, no. 2 (June 2009): 161--167.

Perbi, Akosoua. “Merchants, Middlemen and Monarchs: Dutch and Ghanaians in the Atlantic Slave Trade.” In Merchants, Missionaries & Migrants : 300 Years of Dutch-Ghanaian Relations, by Ineke van Kessel, 33--40. Amsterdam; Accra, Ghana: KIT Publishers ; Sub-Saharan Publishers, 2002.

Perbi, Akosoua. “Merchants, Middlemen and Monarchs: Dutch and Ghanaians in the Atlantic Slave Trade.” In Merchants, Missionaries & Migrants : 300 Years of Dutch-Ghanaian Relations, by Ineke van Kessel, 33--40. Amsterdam; Accra, Ghana: KIT Publishers ; Sub-Saharan Publishers, 2002. As Perbi emphasizes, the history of Ghana cannot be told without reference to the Dutch. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to arrive in Ghana. Their first trading post São Jorge da Mina (later St George d'Elmina) built in 1471, was the first European settlement south of the Sahara. The Dutch arrived in the 1590s, and began forcing the Portuguese out in the early 17th century, eventually capturing Elmina in 1637.1 While Perbi’s article is primarily about the Dutch role in the Slave trade he emphasizes that from 16th to mid-17th centuries trade centered around exchange of gold, ivory and gum for provisions, liquor, cloth, guns and gunpowder, copper, tin and iron.2 In early 17th century, the Dutch participation in slave trade was limited to haphazard capture of other European slave ships. 3 This changed when the Dutch established their own plantations in America that they began to see slaves as a valuable commodity. The Dutch acquisition of ‘New Holland,’ in northern Brazil in 1630 produced a huge demand for slaves, many who went through the Dutch forts in West Africa. In a little more than a decade 26,000 slaves sent to New Holland with a peak in 1644 when 5,000 slaves disembarked for Brazil.4 With the lose of Brazil the Dutch shifted to supply slaves to the Spanish and British New World possessions, but also acquired Suriname from the British, which soon became the primary destination for Dutch slave ships. From the mid-17th to early 19th century, the slave trade totally eclipsed other forms of trade in the Guinea Coast. Perbi cites, the Ghanain historian Kwame Yeboa Daaku (1970:15) who notes that between 1642 and 1650 the Gold Coast which had been a literal and figurative gold mine, became a slave mine.5 Interestingly, art historical and cultural historical approaches, Perbi, notes that despite this shift toward the exportation of slaves the Guinea continued to be associated with gold and ivory, even as these objects diminished in importance. 1 Akosoua Perbi, “Merchants, Middlemen and Monarchs: Dutch and Ghanaians in the Atlantic Slave Trade,” in Merchants, Missionaries & Migrants : 300 Years of Dutch-Ghanaian Relations, by Ineke van Kessel (Amsterdam; Accra, Ghana: KIT Publishers ; Sub-Saharan Publishers, 2002), 33. 2 Ibid. 3 Perbi describes how the Dutch were uncertain how to effectively sell slaves noting that the twenty slaves sold by Dutch captain to Jamestown in 1619, were sold in exchange for much needed food, but nonetheless also accidentally introduced slavery to British-America. 4 Perbi, “Merchants, Middlemen and Monarchs: Dutch and Ghanaians in the Atlantic Slave Trade,” 34. 4 K. Y Daaku, Trade and Politics on the Gold Coast, 1600-1720: a Study of the African Reaction to European Trade. (London: Clarendon, 1970), 15. [Tyler E. Ostergaard]

Pedler, Frederick. "Dutch Wax Blocks." Lion and the Unicorn in Africa: a History of the Origins of the United Africa Company, 1787-1931. (1974): 240-244. Print.

Quarcoopome, Nii Otokunor. "Art of the Akan." Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 23, no. 2, African Art at The Art Institute of Chicago (1997): pp. 134-147+197.

This article provides the reader with a brief introduction to the art and culture of the Akan people who reside in modern-day Ghana and along the Ivory Coast. After a general historical overview of the Akan people, their cultural identities, and the role of art in their various societies, Nii Otokunor Quarcoopome, presently the curator of African Art at the Detroit Institute of Fine Arts, surveys the Akan objects in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Quarcoopome argues that because of their “distinctive blending of art and philosophy, the Akan group includes some of Africa’s most accomplished artists” (135). He also points out that despite the commonalities shared between the various sub-groups of the Akan people, Akan artists retain a strong sense of individuality (137). The objects surveyed here include fertility sculptures, ceremonial stools, goldweights (used for economic transactions involving gold), pendants, and various textiles. This variety demonstrates the extent to which Akan artists utilized an array of media along with extensive repertoires of decorative motifs in the creation of their art forms. [Amanda Strasik]

Ross, Doran H. "The Heraldic Lion in Akan Art: A Study of Motif Assimilation in Southern Ghana." Metropolitan Museum Journal 16, (1981): pp. 165-180.

Doran H. Ross, the Associate Director and Curator of African Art at the Museum of Cultural History at UCLA, wrote this article about the lion motif in Akan art. First, Ross establishes that the lion motif, not widely used in sub-Saharan Africa, is nevertheless prevalent in Akan art. Both the lion and leopard are used as symbols of power and leadership, and Ross discusses how representation of big cats in Akan art are usually representations of a proverb or traditional saying, in which lions and leopards are somewhat interchangeable. Ross explores various possible ways in which the motif of the lion could have entered Akan society. He suggests that not only could the lion itself have inspired naturalistic depictions, but that the specific characteristics of the represented lions, specifically a side-facing head, S-curved tail, and protruding tongue, may be inspired by European heraldic lions. He notes that the lion is found on the shields of the Danish, Dutch and British royal arms and suggests that the Dutch arms were widely understood symbols of white authority in this region. Though the prevalence of the lion in Akan art did not actually begin until the nineteenth century, Ross posits a link between European imperial imagery and relatively recent creations, such as wooden combs, drums, staff finials, and goldweights. He suggests that because the Dutch did not abandon the Gold Coast until 1872 and the Ghanaians continued to use Dutch imperial motifs even after their independence in 1957, a link exists between the colonial use of the lion and its use in Akan art. Overall, while Ross’ argument is somewhat weak and flawed, this is an interesting article that clearly relates to Ghanaian incorporation of European visual imagery. [Ashley Mason]

Rutten, A. M. G. Dutch Transatlantic Medicine Trade in the Eighteenth Century Under the Cover of the West India Company. Rotterdam: Erasmus Pub., 2000.

Yinka Shonibare, Double Dutch Edited by Jaap Guldemond, Gabriele Macerate, and Barbera van Kooij. Rotterdam: Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, 2004. Published in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name, shown at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, and the Kunsthalle, Vienna.

This exhibition catalogue was published in conjunction with the most comprehensive showing of Yinka Shonibare’s work to date. Shonibare, a London based artist of Yoruba heritage, refers to himself as a “post-colonial hybrid,” a label which emphasizes the intercultural nature of his work (8). Considering the exhibition broadly, Double Dutch was not intended to be a retrospective. It focuses primarily on Shonibare’s three-dimensional sculpture in the curators’ efforts to present major themes including hybridization, cultural exchange, colonialism, and identity. The catalogue is well-illustrated and contains a number of large-format reproductions of Shonibare’s work. Scholarly contributions include six short essays and an interview with the artist. These essays include a diverse set of approaches to the analysis of Shonibare’s work, ranging from Manthia Diawara’s exploration of the artist’s use of stereotypes as a source of inspiration to Achille Mbembe’s discussion focused on African identity. Of special interest to scholars researching Shonibare’s work, the catalogue contains a brief biography of the artist’s exhibitions and education in addition to a substantial bibliography. Reviews available for consultation: Reed, Margaret E. Reviewing Yinka Shonibare: Double Dutch, edited by Jaap Guldemond, Gabriele Macerate, and Barbera van Kooij. African Arts 38, no. 2 (Summer 2005): 91. [Lauren M. Freese]

Stahl, Ann B. "The Archaeology of Global Encounters Viewed from Banda, Ghana." The African Archaeological Review 16, no. 1 (Mar., 1999): pp. 5-81.

Stahl, Ann Brower. "Colonial Entanglements and the Practices of Taste: An Alternative to Logocentric Approaches." American Anthropologist 104, no. 3 (Sep., 2002): pp. 827-845.

----. "Innovation, Diffusion, and Culture Contact: The Holocene Archaeology of Ghana." Journal of World Prehistory 8, no. 1 (March, 1994): pp. 51-112.-

Sutton, Elizabeth. “Mapping Meaning : Ethnography and Allegory in Netherlandish Cartography, 1570-1655.” Itinerario : Bulletin of the Leyden Centre for the History of European Expansion 33, no. 3 (2009): 12--42

This exhibition catalogue was published in conjunction with the most comprehensive showing of Yinka Shonibare’s work to date. Shonibare, a London based artist of Yoruba heritage, refers to himself as a “post-colonial hybrid,” a label which emphasizes the intercultural nature of his work (8). Considering the exhibition broadly, Double Dutch was not intended to be a retrospective. It focuses primarily on Shonibare’s three-dimensional sculpture in the curators’ efforts to present major themes including hybridization, cultural exchange, colonialism, and identity. The catalogue is well-illustrated and contains a number of large-format reproductions of Shonibare’s work. Scholarly contributions include six short essays and an interview with the artist. These essays include a diverse set of approaches to the analysis of Shonibare’s work, ranging from Manthia Diawara’s exploration of the artist’s use of stereotypes as a source of inspiration to Achille Mbembe’s discussion focused on African identity. Of special interest to scholars researching Shonibare’s work, the catalogue contains a brief biography of the artist’s exhibitions and education in addition to a substantial bibliography. Reviews available for consultation: Reed, Margaret E. Reviewing Yinka Shonibare: Double Dutch, edited by Jaap Guldemond, Gabriele Macerate, and Barbera van Kooij. African Arts 38, no. 2 (Summer 2005): 91. [Lauren M. Freese]

“The Akan of Ghana.” Ghana Notes and Queries., no. 9 (1966): 1--70.

Yarak, Larry W. Asante and the Dutch, 1744-1873. Oxford [England: Clarendon Press, 1990.

Young, Paulette Renee. "Cloth that Speaks: African Women's Visual Voice and Creative Expression in Ghana (West Africa)." (2004): 414 p.