Harcourt Fuller, Ph.D.
Book Chapters
“From Cowries to Coins: Money and Colonialism in the Gold Coast and British West Africa in the Early 20th Century,” 54 - 61
Money in Africa
Featuring 12 papers from the 'Money in Africa' conference held at the British Museum, this volume brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars to consider the role that money and trade plays in our understanding of African history. Ranging from the 10th century ad to the present day, the chapters cover the pre-colonial and colonial currencies of Africa, including copper, cowry shells, beads, manillas and gin; and coins, counterfeiting, banking and the symbolism of money in modern Africa.
Editors: Catherine Eagleton, Harcourt Fuller and John Perkins
Series: British Museum Research Publication (Book 171)
Publisher: British Museum Press, 2009
ISBN-10: 0861591712 / ISBN-13: 978-0861591718
Available from all good booksellers including Amazon and Barnes & Noble.“Artists, Activists and Ethno-Historians: Community Builders, Identity Creators and Civil Rights Pioneers in Afro-Peruvian Pueblos, 1800s – Present,” 311-332
New Frontiers in the Study of the Global African Diaspora: Between Unchartered Themes and Alternative Representations
Editors: Rita Kiki Edozie, Glenn A. Chambers, and Tama Hamilton-Wray
Series: The Ruth Simms Hamilton African Diaspora Series
Publisher: Michigan State University Press, 2018
ISBN-10: 1611863023 / ISBN-13: 978-1611863024
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As the first country in Sub-Saharan Africa to gain independence from a European imperial power, Ghana has always occupied a position of primacy in the African political and historical imagination. This is due in no small part to the indelible impression left by its first president, the charismatic and self-promoting Kwame Nkrumah, who by his death had become one of the most iconic figures of the postcolonial era. Nkrumah's legacy has long been the subject of debate, with some depicting him as a pioneering nationalist and others as a dictatorial megalomaniac, and the political, social, and global-historical dimensions of his presidency have been thoroughly studied. At the same time, the symbolic, semiotic, iconographical, and ephemeral strategies he used to consolidate power and construct a coherent Ghanaian nation-state have been largely neglected by scholars. This innovative study of Nkrumah and Ghana offers a fascinating look at his propagandistic use of political iconography through 'symbols of nationhood' such as currency, postage stamps, museums, monuments, Adinkra symbols, the national anthem, emblems, and both national and party flags. As author Harcourt Fuller demonstrates here, the premiership of the self-proclaimed Founder of the State of Ghana was mainly characterized by a cult of personality wherein Nkrumah branded the national flock with his image by personalizing public symbols of nationhood.
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Series: African Histories and Modernities
Publisher: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2014
“Atomic Africa: Modernization, Technological Nationalism and ‘Scientific Standstill’ in Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana & Beyond, 1957 – Present,” 185 - 203
Kwame Nkrumah 1909-1972: A Controversial African Visionary
In 1957, Ghana was the first sub-Saharan country in Africa to achieve independence. The key African figure in this process was Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of the new state. Having studied in the USA and in London he was influenced by socialist and pan-African ideals. His ambitious projects in the fields of education and scientific as well as technological development provided an example for other former colonies. But in 1966 he was overthrown by a military coup supported by the USA and died in exile in 1972. Fifty years later, his memory is omnipresent in Ghanaian society and in other African countries. Still, his achievements are a subject of controversy. Was he a hero of the anti-colonial struggle or an authoritarian dictator? This volume presents chapters by researchers from Ghana, Austria, Germany, and the USA. They analyse the visionary politics of Nkrumah, investigate the reasons for the growing protest against his rule and shed new light on the background of the coup. The last part is dedicated to questions of evaluation and memory. Fifty years after his fall from power, new research and distance from the events allow for a more balanced judgment of Nkrumah.
Editors: Bea Lundt and Christoph Marx
Series: Volume in a companion book series to the journal Historische Mitteilungen der Ranke Gesellschaft
Publisher: Franz Steiner Verlag (Stuttgart, Germany), 2016
ISBN-10: 9783515115728 / ISBN-13: 978-3515115728
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