Asante Identities: History and Modernity in an African Village, 1850-1950

An account of the life of a Ghanaian village during a century oftumultuous change, this study is also a richly textured microhistory and anexploration of the meanings of history and modernity in an African context. Theyears 1850-1950 witnessed several momentous and transformative developments inAsante history, including British annexation and colonial overrule. In AsanteIdentities, T. C. McCaskie provides a nuanced study of this era 'frombelow, ' focusing on the everyday lives of commoners in Adeebeba, an independentvillage that was engulfed by the expansion of the city of Kumase in the 20thcentury. He tells this story through the words of the villagers themselves, drawingon life histories collected by the Ashanti Social Survey in the 1940s.McCaskie provides a deep cultural reading that ranges over issuesof selfhood and community and their impact on the colonial experience. Hisdiscussion touches on questions of identity, belief, power, money, rights, obligations, gender, sexuality, and much more. The result is a book compelling inboth its historical detail and its analytic sophistication.