Resilient Rituals

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How should modern Ghanaians relate to 'culture'? This is a hotly debated issue in Ghana, where the annual performance of the initiation rites for Krobo girls (dipo) is highly contested. Drawing on her extensive fieldwork and missionary and colonial archives, Steegstra shows how the contemporary performance of dipo relates to and is shaped by Krobo encounters with missionary Christianity, colonial intervention and modern nationalism. Krobo responses to global processes of change involved considerable resistance, and over time, ongoing local struggles but also a pursuit of cultural resilience.
Marijke Steegstra (Ph.D. University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands, 2004) currently holds a post-doctoral research position at the anthropology department of the University of Nijmegen.