I am sincerely thankful to Jean Allman for chairing the 1998 association meeting in Chicago on my behalf. I was unable to attend the annual conference due to a happy family emergency. The birth of my twin-boys coincided with the 1998 annual ASA.
While the happy arrival of the boys kept me at home, I was also disappointed for my absence from Chicago as the 1998 gathering was billed to be a very eventful one. Takyiwaa-Manuh and Joe Amoako had helped me in the months before to arrange a durbar performance for our organization. It was by their contacts that I came to learn of the elders of the Greater Chicago Area Asanteman Association -- Nananom Akwasi Appiah and Kofi Owusu-Ansah. Reports reaching me after the ASA indicated that GSC members greatly enjoyed functions associated with the Asanteman performance. The durbar also offered an appropriate forum to remember recently deceased GSC members. I am very thankful to Joe Amoako for acting as GSC/Asanteman Association okyeame for the occasion.
Professor Ivor Wilks is given special mention here for his recognition as African Studies Association's 1998 "Distinguished Africanist." Ghana Studies Council is no stranger to Ivor's scholarship. As fellow member of our organization, we share in his honor and at the same time extend our warmest congratulations to him.
As in the past years, GSC sponsored two panels at the 1998 Chicago ASA conference. Papers and comments on the panel "History and Identity on the Gold Coast of West Africa" were presented by members Ray Kea (UC at Riverside), Larry Yarak (Texas A & M), and Thomas McCaskie (Center of West African Studies, Birmingham, U.K.). Paper and comments on the second panel -- "Contemporary Ghanaian Migrations" -- were also presented by members Takyiwaa-Manuh (Indiana/University of Ghana), Joe Amoako (Delaware State at Dova), Stephen Miescher (Bryn Mawr College), Jessica ('Sruti Sukhina) Franke (Leiden University, Netherlands), and Kwadwo Konadu-Agyeman (Akron University). Both panels were well attended. As reflected in the 1998 minutes, members agreed that the papers on the migration panel should be revised for the association journal, Ghana Studies. Larry Yarak (editor) has done an incredible job on the journal and we join him to celebrate the first issue (dd. 1998).
I am thankful to all for making the Chicago conference a success. GSC is already prepared for the forthcoming ASA at Philadelphia. We have proposed two panels. The panel "Assessing the Challenges, Responses, and Impact of IMF and World Bank Sponsored Structural Adjustment Programs in Africa: Ghana's Experiences, 1983-1999," will be chaired by Kwamina Panford (Northeastern University). Kwadwo Konadu Agyeman of Akron University was the panel organizer. The second is titled "Religious Discourse and Political Expressions in the Fourth Republic." Birgit Meyer (University of Leiden, The Netherlands) and Paul Nuget (University of Edinburgh, UK) put the panel together.
Let me remind you to visit our Homepage at http://people.tamu.edu/~yarak/gsc.html. Larry has posted several pieces of GSC information there for your use. If you have not sent in the 1999 questionnaire, you should do so as this provides me with updated membership information. You can print a copy of the GSC questionnaire at the Homepage. And, please, do not forget to send in your association dues!
GHANA STUDIES (the association journal), is ready for subscription (see next article). Please, join me to extend our sincere thanks to both Larry Yarak and David Henige for a wonderful work done. I call on you to take interest in the journal by sending your research papers to Ghana Studies.