Category: Ghana
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Sharing findings with different audiences
A few weeks ago, Rachel Schurman and I published The Complex Choreography of Agricultural Biotechnologies in Africa in the journal African Affairs. In the article, we surveyed nearly 30 years of strategic and well-funded efforts by donors to bring GMOs to Africa. These efforts, we contend, have so far yielded very little. How come? We argue that…
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Public talk @ UC Berkeley March 10
I’m very excited to be giving a talk at UC Berkeley next month on genetically modified crops, sustainability, and qualitative research methods.
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Recipient of the 2019 Boahen-Wilks Prize
Happy to share that my article, “We Are Not Starving: Challenging Genetically Modified Seeds and Development in Ghana” received the 2019 Boahen-Wilks Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Article in Ghana Studies.
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2018 in Review
It’s December, which means I’ve hit the year anniversary of my defense (wow!) and 2019 is near. I’ve been reflecting on work done the past year – not because productivity is the goal – but because I, like many others, constantly fall into the trap of feeling underproductive and therefore overlooking actual accomplishments. So, I…
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A Potato Named Kofi
Earlier this week, Ghanaian scientists announced they plan to name a new sweet potato variety after fellow countryman Kofi Annan, the former UN Secretary General who died on August 18 of this year. The primary investigator overseeing the sweet potato project, Dr. Ernest Baafi, told reporters the naming was in tribute of Annan’s work with the…
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Encountering Food in the Field, Centering it in Development Studies
Why aren’t rich and tasty food cultures more central to development efforts?
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An update on GM crops in Ghana
It’s been two years since Ghana’s High Court overturned a temporary injunction on the commercialization of genetically modified (GM) rice and cowpea. Since then, research on both have continued (though there was no indication that it stopped during the injunction), and GM cowpea is slated to hit the market in 2018.
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Making “the case for colonialism” in Ghanaian social studies textbooks
By using “The Case for Colonialism” as a point of departure to discuss Ghanaian school curriculum, my intention is not to overlook the very real problematics of the article, nor to suggest that Gilley’s argument is exceptional (it is not). Rather, I believe the quick lining up of for/against overlooks the need to interrogate the very real ways…
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On Farmers as “Very Difficult People”
The Ghanaian Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture resigned today after calling northern Ghanaian farmers “liars,” “very difficult people,” and accusing them of extortion. Many were understandably, and rightfully, upset at the Deputy Minister’s comments, but I argue that his comments, though vile, are not exceptional. During fieldwork, I regularly encountered super negative discourse about…
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Trotro Advice for Surviving Fieldwork
Let these wise taxis and trotros guide you through fieldwork’s unexpected challenges.
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No One Seems Concerned
I was recently telling a friend about our brave, tiny outdoor cats who run up trees and sneak out the bamboo fence, and how no one seemed concerned about their wanderings. My friend remarked that “no one seems concerned” would be a good title for a blog about cross cultural communication (her field). Or anthropology, I…
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Temporary Injunction on GM Rice and Cowpea Overturned in Ghana
A ruling in Ghana’s High Court Thursday morning overturned a temporary injunction on the commercialization of genetically modified (GM) rice and cowpea.
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Nkrumah and AFRICOM: The Danger of Misrepresentation
The following is in response to an article entitled Accept AFRICOM Now! which ran in a few Ghanaian media sources first in September, and then this past weekend. I sent my response to the sites that carried the original article, and it is now published in SpyGhana and ModernGhana. This past month both SpyGhana and…
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Spending the evening learning about the CPP
I’m a big fan of Kwame Nkrumah, but admittedly, I know very little about the Convention People’s Party (CPP), the party started by Nkrumah during the struggle for Ghanaian independence and sovereignty. Nkrumah and the CPP ruled Ghana from 1957-1966, and n 1964, a (highly contested) constitutional referendum made Nkrumah leader for life, and CPP…
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Ghana’s Growing Economy Fails to Create Jobs
By Billie McTernan (Reposted from IPS) ACCRA, Sep 19 2013 (IPS) – Ghana’s economy registered 7.1 percent growth last year but 23-year-old Jennifer Esi Avemee has had difficulty securing a permanent job since graduating in 2011. “It’s very stressful,” she laments. “It’s very hard to sustain yourself.” Avemee studied public relations at the Ghanaian Institute of…
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Sunday Tweet Roundup: Mahama ordained by god, CNN thinks Africa is a country
Because sometimes retweeting on Twitter is just not enough. President #Mahama has declared that it is God who ordained him as the President of Ghana. http://t.co/wekIZNugHZ pic.twitter.com/5ksujn19aV — Presidency of Ghana (@PresidencyGhana) June 23, 2013 CNN finds it remarkable that Obama and Bush will both be “in Africa” and they will not “meet up” http://t.co/VFbJirTpi2…
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Friday Roundup: AFRICOM, France, and Load-shedding
Stories of interest from today: Niger: New Drone Base Highlights a Shift in US-West African Relations (ISN) Libya becomes ‘the new Mali’ as Islamists shift in Sahara (Reuters) If Mali is the “new” Afghanistan then does that make Libya the new Afghanistan? @1d4tw Classic narrative. Come in, destroy, get what you want, leave, shrug at…
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Why are we still talking about Bono?
If an article starts with Bono, I’m inclined not to listen. I’m not sure why celebrities continue to hold the spotlight in being experts on poverty or development. This morning I read an article by Bright Simmons of Ghana thinktank Imani, and Jammie Drummond of One.org entitled Africa: The Rise and the Rise of the…