Tamale 1907-1957 : between colonial trade and colonial chieftainship

Abstract

Tamale, the regional capital of

Northern Ghana, has been strangely neglected by historians and

anthropologists, despite being Ghana’s third largest city. Tamale’s

neglect, like the city itself, has colonial origins. The book unpacks the implications for Tamale’s urban character of both its colonial origins, as well as its colonial neglect. It highlights the introduction of motorized transportation in 1920, and the two World Wars, as the decisive accidents of history that transformed Tamale into what it is today; a major urban centre, at the heart of the political and economic structure of northern Ghana