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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Prosopographical Approaches to Fante History |
Author: | Casely-Hayford, Augustus |
Year: | 1991 |
Periodical: | History in Africa |
Volume: | 18 |
Pages: | 49-66 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Ghana |
Subjects: | Fanti history ethnic groups biographies (form) History and Exploration Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/3172053 |
Abstract: | Some of the earliest books written by Gold Coast writers were about their own family histories and stool institutions. These works represent a form of written history that was designed to transcribe and incorporate systematically as much oral tradition as possible. Much of this first generation of indigenous literature from the Gold Coast (present-day Ghana) is by and about a small group of Fante. The books combine an academic pursuit with a family responsibility to the position of Linguist or Okyiame, the spokesman of the Chief, who, being held sacred, must neither be addressed by, nor address another person directly. This generation of Fante (1860-1930) is the main subject of this prosopographical study, i.e. the study of distinctive groups or families through collective biography. The author describes his 'Okyiame project', which attempts, through the computerization of data storage and retrieval, to create as many ways of interacting with the same data as possible. Notes, ref. |