The Upper Guinea Coast in Global Perspective

For centuries, Africa's Upper Guinea Coast region has been the site of regional and global interactions, with societies from different parts of the African continent and beyond engaging in economic trade, cultural exchange, and various forms of conflict. This book provides a wide-ranging look at how such encounters have continued into the present day, identifying the disruptions and continuities in religion, language, economics, and various other social phenomena that have resulted. These accounts show a region that, while still grappling with the legacies of colonialism and the slave trade, is both shaped by and an important actor within ever-denser global networks, exhibiting consistent transformation and creative adaptation.

Jacqueline Knorr is Head of Research Group at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology and Extraordinary Professor at the Martin Luther University in Halle/Saale, Germany. She was brought up in Ghana and Germany and conducted extensive field research in Indonesia, West Africa and Central Europe. She has worked as Senior Lecturer, Senior Researcher, University Professor, Scientific Director, Consultant and Political Advisor. Her research and publications focus on the political anthropology of postcolonial societies, decolonization, nationalism, identity politics, ethno-linguistics, gender, and childhood.