 | |
| Author | Abena Ampofoa Asare |
|---|---|
| Publisher | University of Pennsylvania Press |
Publication date | 2018 |
| ISBN | 9780812250398 |
| OCLC | 1041139857 |
Truth Without Reconciliation: A Human Rights History of Ghana is a book by American academic Abena Ampofoa Asare. It was published in 2018 by University of Pennsylvania Press as part of their Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights series.
Abena Ampofoa Asare is an American academic and associate professor of Modern African Affairs & History at Stony Brook University. [1] Her family moved to the United States from Ghana in the 1980s. [2]
Truth Without Reconciliation is based on the archives and stories gathered of Ghana's National Reconciliation Commission(NRC), a commission established by the government of Ghana to document human rights abuses in the country from the 1950s to the 1990s. In the book, Ampofoa Asare argues that the NRC functioned more as a public history project than either a nationalistic attempt to create a new history for Ghana or an academic attempt to discover the truth. She examines many of the stories that she read in the NRC archives, and combines them with historical background as well as with the history of the NRC itself.
Reviews of the book were geneally positive. In a book review published by Contemporary Justice Review, Robert Ame described Truth Without Reconciliation as a "well-researched, critical, and historical masterpiece" with a "unique approach" to Ghana's truth commissions. Ame commented favourably about Asare's decision to avoid describing the commissions "as either good or bad", instead seeing the stories archived by it as a "snapshot of Ghanaians’ perceptions". [3] Similarly, Kwasi Konadu described the book as "thoughtful" in its focus on Ghanaian's lived experiences. However, his review argues that because NRC did not examine the actions of powerful corporations and leaders such as Jerry Rawlings, he, unlike Ampofoa Asare, viewed the historical human rights abuses in Ghana as a product of ideologies that could not be solved by recording stories or through truth commissions. [4] Tawia Ansah, in the African Journal of Legal Studies , was somewhat more critical. She disagreed with Ampofoa Asare's worries that sharing these stories with a wide audience could contribute to the victimization of African women. She referred to Ampofoa Asare's attempts to document the stories as "unexceptionable" in the world of academia, and argues that she, sometimes, "succumbs to a totalistic view of Ghana’s political reality". However, she also describes Ampofoa Asare's attempt to record unclear stories with no clear line between the victims and the abusers as "bold", and compares it favourably to other, similar attempts that Ansah feels "risk falling prey to [their] own redundancy". [5]
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was a court-like restorative justice body assembled in South Africa in 1996 after the end of apartheid. Authorised by Nelson Mandela and chaired by Desmond Tutu, the commission invited witnesses who were identified as victims of gross human rights violations to give statements about their experiences, and selected some for public hearings. Perpetrators of violence could also give testimony and request amnesty from both civil and criminal prosecution.
The area of the Republic of Ghana became known in Europe and Arabia as the Ghana Empire after the title of its Emperor, the Ghana. Geographically, the ancient Ghana Empire was approximately 500 miles (800 km) north and west of the modern state of Ghana, and controlled territories in the area of the Sénégal River and east towards the Niger rivers, in modern Senegal, Mauritania and Mali. The empire appears to have broken up following the 1076 conquest by the Almoravid General Abu-Bakr Ibn-Umar. A reduced kingdom continued to exist after Almoravid rule ended, and the kingdom was later incorporated into subsequent Sahelian empires, such as the Mali Empire. Around the same time, south of the Mali empire in present-day northern Ghana, the Kingdom of Dagbon emerged. The decentralised states ruled by the tindaamba were unified into a kingdom. Many sub-kingdoms would later arise from Dagbon including the Mossi Kingdoms of Burkina Faso and Bouna Kingdom of Ivory Coast. Dagbon pioneered Ghana's earliest learning institutions, including a university town, and a writing system prior to European arrival.
Lieutenant General Akwasi Amankwaa Afrifa was a Ghanaian soldier, farmer, traditional ruler and politician. He was the head of state of Ghana and leader of the military government in 1969 and then chairman of the Presidential Commission between 1969 and 1970. He continued as a farmer and political activist. He was elected a member of Parliament in 1979, but he was executed before he could take his seat. He was executed together with two other former heads of state, General Kutu Acheampong and General Fred Akuffo, and five other generals, in June 1979. He was also popularly referred to by his title Okatakyie Akwasi Amankwaa Afrifa and was in addition the abakomahene of Krobo in the Asante-Mampong Traditional Area of the Ashanti Region of Ghana.
Country of My Skull is a 1998 nonfiction book by Antjie Krog about the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). It is based on Krog's experience as a radio reporter, covering the Commission from 1996 to 1998 for the South African Broadcasting Corporation. The book explores the successes and failures of the Commission, the effects of the proceedings on her personally, and the possibility of genuine reconciliation in post-Apartheid South Africa.
A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government, in the hope of resolving conflict left over from the past. Truth commissions are, under various names, occasionally set up by states emerging from periods of internal unrest, civil war, or dictatorship marked by human rights abuses. In both their truth-seeking and reconciling functions, truth commissions have political implications: they "constantly make choices when they define such basic objectives as truth, reconciliation, justice, memory, reparation, and recognition, and decide how these objectives should be met and whose needs should be served".
Frederick Kwasi Apaloo was a Ghanaian judge who served as Chief Justice of Kenya from 1993 to 1995 and Chief Justice of Ghana from 1977 to 1986. He is the only judge to have served on the Supreme Court of Ghana under three Ghanaian republics.
Justice Ernest Nee Pobee Sowah was the Chief Justice of Ghana from 1986 to 1990.
The Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) is a Parliament-enacted organization created in May 2005 under the Transitional Government. The Commission worked throughout the first mandate of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf after she was elected President of Liberia in November 2005. The Liberian TRC came to a conclusion in 2010, filing a final report and recommending relevant actions by national authorities to ensure responsibility and reparations.
A Human Being Died That Night is a 2003 book by Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela.
Ghana gained independence from the British on 6 March 1957. It is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The country became a republic on July 1, 1960.
Akwasi or Kwasí or Kwesi is an Ashanti masculine given name originating from the Ashanti people and their Ashanti day naming system, meaning born on a Sunday. People born on particular days are supposed to exhibit the characteristics or attributes and philosophy, associated with the days. Akwasi has the appellation Bodua or Obueakwan meaning agility. Thus, males named Akwasi are supposed to be agile by nature.
Abena as a given name, it is a girl's name of Ghanaian origin and means born on Tuesday. Day names are a cultural practice of the Akan people of Ghana. Although some might believe it is mostly practised by Ashanti people, it is actually practised by all Akan people who follow traditional customs. People born on particular days are supposed to exhibit the characteristics or attributes and philosophy, associated with the days. Abena has the appellation Kosia or Nimo, meaning friendliness. Thus, females named Abena are supposed to be friendly. Another name is also called Abena, in the indian culture. Abena is an Indian (Gujarati) surname; the Gujarati અબેના (Abēnā) possibly came from the Arabic name أبين (Abyan).
Florence Abena Dolphyne is a Ghanaian linguist and academic. She was the first female professor and first female pro-vice chancellor of the University of Ghana.
The National Reconciliation Commission was established in January 2002 by the Parliament of Ghana. The goal of the commission was to establish an "accurate, complete and historical record of violations and abuses of human rights inflicted on persons by public institutions and holders of public office during periods of unconstitutional government." The Commission was formed after a new democratic party won the elections in 2000. The Commission covered human rights violations in Ghana from 1957 to 1993. It looked into government abuses and military coups staged by former president Jerry Rawlings. The members of the Commission worked until the end of 2004.
Joe Baidoo-Ansah is a journalist, communications specialist, human rights advocate and activist, and a politician who served as a member of parliament in Ghana from 2001 to 2017. A Member of the New Patriotic party from the Western Region and Central Region, he served as a Deputy Minister of Tourism and Diaspora Relations, Minister of Aviation, Minister for Trade Industry, private sector Development and the President's special Initiatives in the administration of President J. A Kufour. He was a member of Parliament and represented the Effia/Kwesimintsim constituency from 2001 until the constituency was split into the Effia constituency and the Kwesimintsim constituency in 2013. From 2013 to 2017, he represented the Kwesimintsim constituency in parliament.
Kojo Tsikata was a Ghanaian military officer and politician, who served as the Head of National Security and Foreign Affairs of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC). He was listed as a retired army captain in the Ghana Army.
Ashtown Ladies Football Club is a Ghanaian professional women's football club based in the heart Ashtown in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The club is founded on the principles of inclusivity, empowerment, and excellence and strive to create an environment where
The case of Sallah v Attorney-General popularly known as the Sallah Case is a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of Ghana. The case revolves around the termination of 568 public servants, including Mr. E.K. Sallah, under the new 1969 Constitution, and the subsequent legal challenge that questioned the legality of these dismissals. Similar to the Kulungugu Treason trial, this case was seen as an interference by the Executive branch in the matters of the Judiciary.