Hardback
October 3, 2016
9780253022776
English
264
15 b&w illus.
9.00 Inches (US)
6.00 Inches (US)
1.13 Pounds (US)
$85.00 USD, £66.00 GBP
v2.1 Reference
Paperback / softback
October 3, 2016
9780253023070
English
264
15 b&w illus.
9.00 Inches (US)
6.00 Inches (US)
.76 Pounds (US)
$35.00 USD, £27.00 GBP
v2.1 Reference

Ghana on the Go

African Mobility in the Age of Motor Transportation

As early as the 1910s, African drivers in colonial Ghana understood the possibilities that using imported motor transport could further the social and economic agendas of a diverse array of local agents, including chiefs, farmers, traders, fishermen, and urban workers. Jennifer Hart's powerful narrative of auto-mobility shows how drivers built on old trade routes to increase the speed and scale of motorized travel. Hart reveals that new forms of labor migration, economic enterprise, cultural production, and social practice were defined by autonomy and mobility and thus shaped the practices and values that formed the foundations of Ghanaian society today. Focusing on the everyday lives of individuals who participated in this century of social, cultural, and technological change, Hart comes to a more sensitive understanding of the ways in which these individuals made new technology meaningful to their local communities and associated it with their future aspirations.

About the Author

Jennifer Hart is an Assistant Professor of African History at Wayne State University.

Reviews

"This well-written book deeply engages with the dynamics of African mobility and constitutes a major contribution to twentieth-century Ghanaian history."—International Journal of African Historical Studies

"Jennifer Hart's text sweeps triumphantly across a century of authomobility in colonial and post-colonial Ghana. . . sophisticated, clear and inspiring account. . ."—Journal of Transport History

"There is much here for readers across a wide range of disciplines to learn and enjoy."—Africa

"Jennifer Hart has an acute ear for listening to stories and noticing important themes in the narratives and archives. Such fascinating material."—Jamie Monson, author of Africa's Freedom Railway

"Automobile technology was quickly and fluidly remade and redefined to suit local uses—in ways that alter how we think about economy, society, and modernity, as well as modes of African inventiveness: the capacity to divert, adapt, or redesign material goods or objects, how we think about them, their histories, and cultural possibilities."—William Cunningham Bissell, author of Urban Design, Chaos, and Colonial Power in Zanzibar

"Hart has given us a sensitively aware and richly documented account of (auto)mobility in Ghana."—American Historical Review
Indiana University Press

9780253022776 : ghana-on-the-go-hart
Hardback
264 Pages
$85.00 USD
9780253023070 : ghana-on-the-go-hart
Paperback / softback
264 Pages
$35.00 USD

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