The Fruits of Freedom in British Togoland
Literacy, Politics and Nationalism, 1914–2014

The Fruits of Freedom in British Togoland examines the history and politics behind the failed project of Togoland unification.

Kate Skinner (Author)

9781107074637, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 17 June 2015

320 pages, 6 b/w illus. 3 maps
23.1 x 15.7 x 2.3 cm, 0.57 kg

'For this illuminating and cogent book, Skinner conducted research at archives and libraries in Ghana and Britain, complemented by an impressive collection of oral interviews in those countries as well as in Togo. The fruit of her labor is a model political history that reaches beyond the nation-state to include political activists, teachers, and missionaries on the margins of Ghana's political scene to define liberation, independence, and sovereignty.' Benjamin Talton, African Studies Review

The end of World War I saw the former German protectorate of Togoland split into British- and French-administered territories. By the 1950s a political movement led by the Ewe ethnic group called for the unification of British and French Togoland into an independent multiethnic state. Despite the efforts of the Ewe, the United Nations trust territory of British Togoland was ultimately merged with the Gold Coast to become Ghana, the first independent nation in sub-Saharan Africa; French Togoland later declared independence as the nation of Togo. Based on interviews with former political activists and their families, access to private papers, and a collection of oral and written propaganda, this book examines the history and politics behind the failed project of Togoland unification. Kate Skinner challenges the marginalization of the Togoland question from popular and academic analyses of postcolonial politics and explores present-day ramifications of the contingencies of decolonization.

1. Abl??e: African political history, from below and from within
2. Godly teachers and clever rascals: Southern British Togoland's intelligentsia
3. Education, citizenship and the 'sacred trust'
4. Revealing stepfather's secrets: making and losing the case for Togoland reunification
5. Activists in exile: political possibility in the postcolony
6. 'No one will hear your name again': the terms of the union
7. Of elephants and umbrellas: Abl??e in Ghana's political traditions.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural history [HBTB], African history [HBJH]