Ritual Servitudes and Christian Social Practices in Ghana
Ritual Servitudes and Christian Social Practices in Ghana

Author: David Stiles-Ocran

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-10-21

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13: 1000770028

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This book explores the kinds of Christian service or diaconia that develop in non-institutionalized practices for supporting survivors of indigenous ritual servitude or Trokosi in Africa. Drawing on empirical research from Ghana, it examines the possibilities of freedom, equality, and dignity for liberated Trokosi and the manner in which these women’s experiences constitute a repudiation of dominant patriarchal family systems. With close attention to the work of indigenous parachurches – which function outside of institutionalized churches – in challenging the contemporary practice of ritual slavery and offering its survivors a lived space in which they need not remain “hidden” as they seek restoration and integration into wider society, Ritual Servitudes and Christian Social Practices in Ghana will appeal to scholars of sociology, theology, and religion with interests in gender, contemporary ministries and African religion.

A West African Model to Address Human Trafficking
A West African Model to Address Human Trafficking

Author: Paul V.I. Sidlawinde Karenga

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2022-02-02

Total Pages: 389

ISBN-13: 3030881202

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This book describes the nature of trafficking in persons in West Africa, focusing on labor and sexual exploitation in the region, and recommends tailor-made solutions established by the Catholic Church in light of governmental authorities’ failure to effectively combat this scourge of humanity. While states’ efforts to fulfill their international obligations in developing anti-trafficking legislations are recognized, their failure to carry out prosecutions of offenders and ensure protection of the victims reveals that law alone is not a sufficient instrument for realizing human rights and improving people’s lives. Faced with the sobering background of less than successful efforts by governmental entities to end the trade in humans, this research study recommends adopting essential elements of Catholic social teaching, which rests on the inherent dignity of human beings allowing the development of political, socio-cultural, and religious reforms that will increase the effectiveness of existing legislation designed to combat trafficking. This faith-based approach highlights the role that religion may play in fulfilling the discretionary provisions of the Palermo Protocol by promoting the welfare and protecting the life and dignity of the victims. Additionally, religion is composed of sound moral ethics that determine people's behavior to refrain from the sinful conduct of trafficking. It also creates a sense of ethical responsibility that promotes supply chain transparency and ethical purchasing as well as advocating social reforms and anti-trafficking legislations initiatives. In fact, the author's approach, may be a model for other regions in the world and will be of interest to scholars, law and policy makers, human rights advocates and law enforcement agents working in the field of trafficking in persons.

The Wiley Handbook of Ethnography of Education
The Wiley Handbook of Ethnography of Education

Author: Dennis Beach

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2018-03-02

Total Pages: 769

ISBN-13: 1118933729

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A state-of-the-art reference on educational ethnography edited by leading journal editors This book brings an international group of writers together to offer an authoritative state-of-the-art review of, and critical reflection on, educational ethnography as it is being theorized and practiced today—from rural and remote settings to virtual and visual posts. It provides a definitive reference point and academic resource for those wishing to learn more about ethnographic research in education and the ways in which it might inform their research as well as their practice. Engaging in equal measure with the history of ethnography, its current state-of play as well as its prospects, The Wiley Handbook of Ethnography of Education covers a range of traditional and contemporary subjects—foundational aims and principles; what constitutes ‘good’ ethnographic practice; the role of theory; global and multi-sited ethnographic methods in education research; ethnography’s many forms (visual, virtual, auto-, and online); networked ethnography and internet resources; and virtual and place-based ethnographic fieldwork. Makes a return to fundamental principles of ethnographic inquiry, and describes and analyzes the many modalities of ethnography existing today Edited by highly-regarded authorities of the subject with contributions from well-known experts in ethnography Reviews both classic ideas in the ethnography of education, such as “grounded theory”, “triangulation”, and “thick description” along with new developments and challenges An ideal source for scholars in libraries as well as researchers out in the field The Wiley Handbook of Ethnography of Education is a definitive reference that is indispensable for anyone involved in educational ethnography and questions of methodology.

The Political Economy of Heaven and Earth in Ghana
The Political Economy of Heaven and Earth in Ghana

Author: Charles Prempeh

Publisher: African Books Collective

Published: 2023-09-30

Total Pages: 472

ISBN-13: 9956553905

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In March 2017, the president of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa-Akufu announced his intention to build a national cathedral to the people of Ghana. The announcement elicited watertight counter arguments that morphed into two a priori re-litigated assumptions: First, Ghana is a secular country and second, religion and state formation are incompatible. Informed by a frustrating paradox of an overwhelming religious presence and concurrent pervasive corruption in the country, public conversation reached a cul-de-sac of “conviction without compromising.” In The Political Economy of Heaven and Earth in Ghana, Charles Prempeh deploys the national cathedral as an entry point to provide both interdisciplinary and autoethnographic understanding of religion and politics. The book shows the capacity of religion, when properly cultivated and curated as a worldview to answer the why questions of life, will foster personal, moral, collective and ontological responsibility. All this is needed to stem the tide against corruption, commodity fetishism, environmental degradation (illegal mining—galamsey), heritage destruction and religious exploitation. Prempeh recuperates a historical fact about the mutual inclusivity between religion and politics—politics helping to manage differences, while religion provides a transcendental reason for unity to be forged for human flourishing. Separating the two is, therefore, ahistorical and an obvious threat to the intangible virtues that answers, “why and how” questions for public governance.

Ending Africa's Energy Deficit and the Law
Ending Africa's Energy Deficit and the Law

Author: Yinka Omorogbe

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 0198819838

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With the inclusion of access to energy in the sustainable development goals, the role of energy to human existence was finally recognized. Yet, in Africa, this achievement is far from realized. Omorogbe and Ordor bring together experts in their fields to ask what is stalling progress, examining problems from institutions catering to vested interests at the continent's expense, to a need to develop vigorous financial and fiscal frameworks. The ramifications and complications of energy law are labyrinthine: this volume discusses how energy deficits can burden disabled people, women, and children in excess of their more fortunate counterparts, as well as considering environmental issues, including the delicate balance between the necessity of water for drinking and cleaning and the use of water in industrial processes. A pivotal work of scholarship, the book poses pressing questions for energy law and international human rights.

Witchcraft as a Social Diagnosis
Witchcraft as a Social Diagnosis

Author: Roxane Richter

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2017-02-27

Total Pages: 170

ISBN-13: 1498523196

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This interdisciplinary manuscript examines one nonprofit’s five years of medical outreach in the condemned witches village of Gnani in Ghana, focusing on the clashes between traditional Ghanaian beliefs, African religious tenets, and contemporary Western medical science. The research draws upon 1,714 patient interventions and 95 personal interviews, exposing the inherent challenges of separating indigenous beliefs surrounding fate and witchcraft convictions from contemporary interpretations of biological pathogens, structural and gender-based violence, and evidence-based medicine. This book offers a novel perspective on witchcraft as it examines questions of stigmatization in order to extrapolate how disease, injury, and illness relate to social condition and the dialogue surrounding witchcraft. These unprecedented insights will serve to uncover and explore rural Ghanaian challenges in gender-based violence, religion, legal and political tenets, human rights, and medical science and their many implications for those in search of health parity, social justice, gender equity, and human rights.

New Media and Religious Transformations in Africa
New Media and Religious Transformations in Africa

Author: Rosalind I. J. Hackett

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 2015-01-21

Total Pages: 333

ISBN-13: 0253015308

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New Media and Religious Transformations in Africa casts a critical look at Africa's rapidly evolving religious media scene. Following political liberalization, media deregulation, and the proliferation of new media technologies, many African religious leaders and activists have appropriated such media to strengthen and expand their communities and gain public recognition. Media have also been used to marginalize and restrict the activities of other groups, which has sometimes led to tension, conflict, and even violence. Showing how media are rarely neutral vehicles of expression, the contributors to this multidisciplinary volume analyze the mutual imbrications of media and religion during times of rapid technological and social change in various places throughout Africa.