The Divergence of Art from “African Culture”: From Achimota to the Educational Reforms of 1986 in Ghana's Art Education

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes1 This article is primarily based on research conducted between 1997 and 2002, when I attended Ghanaian school cultural competitions on a regular basis. They continue to be popular institutional events today.2 For a similar process in colonial Algerian teacher-training institutions, see Colonna (Citation1997).3 These debates seemed peripheral to local craftspeople. Technical innovations seemed to allow educated people to become an artisan, because the profession was then considered "modern," or for a different gender to practice it. See Harrod (Citation1989, Citation2012) and Renne (Citation1997). However, technical innovations were sometimes too costly for artisans to implement, given their need to keep the costs of production low. See Browne (Citation1981).4 This paper is based on records in the National Archives in Accra and the Eastern Regional Archives in Koforidua, and published firsthand accounts of students and teachers at Achimota. I observed five vocational skills classes in five junior-secondary schools in Akropong and Abiriw on the Akuapem ridge in southern Ghana in September 1998. I also conducted four recorded interviews (totaling eight hours) in September 1998 with Mr Mansfield Bediako Adi-Dako, a retired art specialist teacher, artist and member of Akwapim Six, and four interviews (totaling five hours) in September 1998–January 1999 with Professor Albert Mawϵre-Opoku, dance professor at the University of Ghana and former art instructor at Achimota. Both men – beloved by their students and generous in sharing their wisdom with me – have since passed away. This essay, in reflecting on the history which shaped them and which they helped shape, is offered in their memory.5 Well described by Harrod (Citation1989, Citation2012), I do not have the space to discuss it here.6 There are numerous villages near Kumasi like Bekwai where women produce pottery (Browne, Citation1981).Additional informationNotes on contributorsCati CoeCati Coe, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Rutgers University, is the author of The Dilemmas of Culture in African Schools (University of Chicago Press, 2005) and The Scattered Family: Parenting, African Migrants, and Global Inequality (University of Chicago Press, 2013). Her research interests include nationalism, the politics of culture, schooling, and transnational migration. Her preferred email address is ccoe@camden.rutgers.edu.