CHAIR'S REMARKS

by David Owusu-Ansah

At the November 1997 African Studies Association (ASA) annual meeting at Columbus, Ohio, Council members elected me president of our organization. I, therefore, take over from Jean Allman. During her five years of excellent leadership, the organization's name was modified from AKAN to GHANA Studies Council (GSC). The result has been the growth of our membership as we became more inclusive. But as we recognize Jean for a work well done, we should not forget Ray Silverman's five years of exceptional service to this organization as its first president. What Jean and Ray benefited from was the support of an equally dedicated core of members. Hopefully, I will be accorded the same assistance from all of you.

To ensure greater communication with members and also to bring more and more of us into the planning and execution to GSC activities, I have put together an E-mail file of membership addresses. I know that Jean had a similar file, but responses to my initial contacts with members resulted in many return/undelivered messages -- indicative that many addresses are no longer in use. With your help, some old addresses have been updated, but a few remain to be corrected. To ensure closer contact and also to limit the number of messages returned because of incorrect addresses, please make ever effort to inform me of address changes.

Also, be reminded that pieces of information that need to be posted for the attention of Council members can be forwarded to Larry Yarak at Texas A&M. For the past several years, Larry has undertaken a number of initiatives on behalf of GSC. His GSC homepage at http://acs.tamu.edu/~yarak/gsc-ann.htm continues to be the most effective way of posting information for Council members. Please, make it a habit of visiting the site at least once a month. Furthermore, with the assistance of myself, Jean Allman, Amos Anyimadu, Gareth Austin, Michel Doortmont, Ray Silverman, David Henige, and Victoria Tashjian, Larry Yarak edits the Council journal, Ghana Studies. Sponsored by the University of Wisconsin (Madison), the journal will publish its first issue this year. To ensure quality articles, we call on you to increase contributions by making Ghana Studies your first stop when considering journals for article publications.

Those of you with valid E-mail addresses are aware of the request for additional funding and our latest contribution to the Ghana National Archives. (See Roger Gocking and Joseph Anim-Asante reports below). I anticipate further disccusion of this subject at the next ASA meeting.

At the November 1997 ASA conference at Columbus, Ohio,GSC was able to sponsor a roundtable and a panel. Papers and comments on the panel "Labor and Work in Pre-Colonial Ghana" were made by members Gareth Austin (London School of Economics), Raymond Dumett (Purdue University), Donna Maier (Northern Iowa University), Gracia Clark (Indiana University), and Edward Reynolds (UC-Santa Barbara). Participants on the roundtable "The past Through the Present: Forty Years of Interpreting Ghana(ian) History," were David Owusu-Ansah (James Madison University), Larry Yarak Texas A&M), Ivor Wilks (Professor Emeritus, Northwestern University), Ray Kea (UC-Riverside), and Emmanuel Akyeampong (Harvard University). Both sessions were well-attended and very good discussions were stimulated.

Council has proposed two panels for the October/November 1998 ASA at Chicago. A panel on "Contemporary Ghanaian Migrations" will be chaired by Takyiwaa Manuh (University of Ghana/Indiana University). The second panel on "History and Identity on the Gold Coast of West Africa" was proposed by Larry Yarak (Texas A&M). Additionally, Takyiwaa Manuh has arranged the appearance of the Asanteman Association of Chicago and the Mid-West to perform a durbar at our forthcoming meeting. There is every reason to expect a full program at the forthcoming ASA.

Finally, please continue to send financial contributions and Council dues to Jean Allman, History Department, University of Minnesota, 614 Social Sciences, Minneapolis, MN 55455.


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