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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Contents and Contexts: The Rhetoric of Oral Traditions in the Oman of Sefwi Wiawso, Ghana
Author:Boni, StefanoISNI
Year:2000
Periodical:Africa: Journal of the International African Institute
Volume:70
Issue:4
Pages:568-594
Language:English
Geographic term:Ghana
Subjects:Akan
stools
oral traditions
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Education and Oral Traditions
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/1161473
Abstract:This article examines political oral traditions in the Sefwi (Akan) area of Ghana. Focusing on the largest of the three Sefwi 'aman' (kingdoms, precolonial States), Wiawso, the article studies two types of narrative: negotiations over the political status of stools within the kingdom and the claims to succession of matrilineal branches within stools. Narratives are analysed in relation to their claims to historicity, to the political conflicts in which they are generated and to their correspondence to legal criteria of attribution of 'traditional' political offices. The article shows that precolonial dynamic norms concerning stool status and succession turned into a fixed legal corpus in the 20th century. Contenders' histories have been used as evidence to judge 'traditional' stool disputes. Narrators have thus constructed narratives presenting ideal pasts considered worthy of legal attribution of 'traditional' political office. Narratives have consequently legalized narrators' claims with reference to ancient history. The study of the context of the emergence of oral traditions - hostility between particular stool holders, the influence of national politics or conflicts over the sharing of stool revenue - shows that narratives and political conflicts have a history of their own which is carefully omitted from the narration. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French.
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