King's College London

Strand 1: Print Culture

The first strand of LITAID aims to develop a detailed account of Ghanaian print culture in the years leading up to and following Independence, and to use this to understand the positions and forces shaping the Ghanaian literary field across the years of formal decolonization, and the dynamics of the literary world system. We are tracking written forms and practices in newspapers, periodicals and books, materials at the intersection of print and performance, and bringing together works produced and published locally with works that circulated across the continent or internationally. In doing so we are identifying an expanded group of authors – both Ghanaians and writers from elsewhere who engaged with Ghana in these years – and documenting the activities of writers and others (editors, translators, publishers, booksellers …) who participate in the making of literary works across a range of institutions.

Strand 2: Arts Education

The second strand of LITAID explores arts education in the Gold Coast and Ghana, from the final years of the colonial period, through the early years of independence. Rather than focusing only on policies at ministerial level, it traces the ways in which these policies were implemented through various institutions; as well as through the work of administrators and officials working closer to the ground, especially the cohorts of education officers who were stationed across the country. Taking a case study approach, this strand will also identify particular tertiary and secondary institutions, as focal points for detailed research.

Strand 3: Literary Travellers

The third strand of LITAID is concerned with artists and intellectuals who travelled to the Gold Coast and Ghana in the 1950s, arriving from sites across Africa and its diaspora, and seeking resources for their own liberatory struggles. Focusing on three authors – Richard Wright, Kamau Brathwaite and Guy Butler – it investigates their experiences in West Africa and the impact of

these experiences on their literary practices. It also uses these authors as entry points for exploring the impact of Ghanaian decolonization on cultural production in the United States, the Caribbean and South Africa.