Beschreibung
This book on conflicts in Northern Ghana, relying on long-term first-hand research stays, points towards the importance of local wars for the formation of alliances and consciousness that inform and mould the character of the whole post-colonial state. It is about war in specific conditions of today’s Africa, where war seems to be a normal means for achieving political goals. Civil wars multiplied soon after the colonial powers left the scene, when important deposits of mineral wealth were discovered or eth no-religious composition was preventing equitable development. Another category of armed conflicts are those in which two or more groups within a state compete for hegemony on a particular territory. These conflicts are not really civil wars but conflicts which are not intended to upset the post-colonial state. However they indicate that people involved in them cherish values that might look esoteric to the outsiders. Among these values tower the differences in cultural or socio-political structure but also the quest for recognition of `traditional’ institutions.
Petr (Peter) Skalník, political anthropologist and Africanist, specialising in state and chiefdom studies. Educated in Prague, Leningrad and Cape Town. Taught African studies, social anthropology, and political science at universities in Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, South Africa, Switzerland, Poland, Lithuania, and France.
Skalnik