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Truly National? Social Inclusion and the Ghana@50 Celebrations

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Truly National? Social Inclusion and the Ghana@50 Celebrations See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267626401 Truly national? Social inclusion and the Ghana@50 celebrations Article · January 2008 CITATION READS 1 32 2 authors, including: Nana Akua Anyidoho University of Ghana 38 PUBLICATIONS 266 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE All in-text references underlined in blue are linked to publications on ResearchGate, Available from: Nana Akua Anyidoho letting you access and read them immediately. Retrieved on: 11 July 2016 TRULY NATIONAL? SOCIAL EXCLUSION AND THE GHANA@50 CELEBRATIONS1 Nana Akua Anyidoho, University of Ghana and Kofi Takyi Asante, Northwestern University Introduction n 2007, Ghana celebrated fifty years as an independent nation. The program drawn up to commemorate this occasion, dubbed Ghana@50, was described as an opportunity to “celebrate, I 2 reflect and look forward.” Thus, while much was written and said about the Ghana@50 program—especially about the composition and work of the National Planning Committee and the decision to spend twenty million dollars on the celebrations—members of the public also took the occasion of the jubilee to reflect on the state of the Ghanaian nation over the past fifty years and to project its future. This paper makes use of the concept of social exclusion to analyze public perspectives and experiences of the Ghana@50 celebrations. Social exclusion as an analytical tool has gained popularity in recent years in policy circles. However, the phenomena that it describes are not new (Jehoel-Gijsbers and Vrooman 2007), nor is the concept, which goes back to sociologist Max Weber’s theory of social closure or the “attempt of one group to secure for itself a privileged position [in society] at the expense of some other group through a process of subordination” (Parkin 1979 in Todman 2004: 2). 1 An earlier version of this paper was presented at the panel “Ghana@50: Celebrating the Nation” at the African Studies Association (ASA) Conference in Chicago, on November 15, 2008. We wish to thank Carola Lentz and Isidore Lobnibe, the organizers of the panel, and Jean Allman, the discussant, for their comments on the paper. A grant from the University of Ghana Research Committee made attendance at the ASA possible. We also thank Mark Obeng and Evans Afful, both of the Sociology Department of the University of Ghana, for assistance with data collection and coding. 2 N. Dadson, How Ghana@50 is heading towards a no-celebration, Daily Graphic, 17 January 2007, p. 21. Ghana Studies v.11(2008): 139–173 140 NANA AKUA ANYIDOHO KOFI TAKYI ASANTE Despite its uptake by some scholars, there continues to be vigorous debate about the suitability of the concept of social exclusion as a measure of disadvantage and about its critical distinction from other concepts. There are questions raised also about the political intentions of scholars and policy makers in promoting social exclusion as an analytical concept, with some charging that it reflects collusion by academics and politicians to veil the bare face of poverty and social inequality (Gray 2005; Oyen 1997). Nonetheless, its proponents maintain that social exclusion marks an advance beyond the narrow conceptual focus on poverty as the measure of marginalization and disadvantage (Burchardt et al. 1999; Room 1999); it is argued—and usefully for our discussion—that the multi-dimensional approach to social exclusion allows it to engage with non-economic and non- monetary dimensions of social disadvantage (Rodgers 1995; Todman 2004). The literature highlights a number of dimensions of exclusion, including political participation, social interaction, consumption, production, economic benefits, as well as characteristics relating to individuals, neighborhoods, religious groups and spatial groupings. These dimensions interact so that marginalization in one context may result in marginalization in other aspects of life. As a result, the concept of exclusion can be used to analyze manifestations of social inequality as wide-ranging as political alienation, unemploy- ment and homelessness (Percy-Smith 2000; Room 1999). The utility of a tool of policy research for the analysis of public discussions of the Ghana@50 celebrations might not be immedi- ately obvious. However, we make an argument for the relevance of the concept of social exclusion for such an analysis on the following grounds: first, the commentaries and reports on the Ghana@50 celebrations make explicit and implicit statements about the dynamics of social exclusion in the Ghana@50 cele- brations. Further, as we show in our analysis, connections are made between exclusion in the Ghana@50 activities and histories of systematic exclusion of certain groups. This brings us to the doorstep of policy, and having arrived there, social exclusion TRULY NATIONAL? 141 allows us to look at of the question of participation in the process and benefits of nation building and development. Methodology This paper is based on analyses of newspaper articles that referenced the Ghana@50 celebrations. We examined newspapers archived over a 13-month period from June 2006 to June 2007, covering the initial government announcements about preparations for the celebrations, the first publication of the official schedule of activities, and the climax of the celebrations in March and its aftermath. Each edition of Daily Graphic and The Ghanaian Chronicle within this time period was browsed for articles that referenced Ghana@50; these included news reports, adverts, editorials, letters, and op-eds. In all, 142 articles were pulled out of The Chronicle and 251 from Daily Graphic. Each of the 393 articles was coded for the specific category of exclusion that was mentioned and the social group referenced. These codes were entered into a database along with details of date, source, author, and page on which it appeared. The two newspapers were chosen on the basis of circulation and to represent a balance of political orientations and diversity in terms of news stories. Daily Graphic is the most popular paper having the highest circulation; it has offices in all ten regions and is therefore read in parts of the country that other newspapers do not have the organization and finances to reach. The Daily Graphic is state-owned; consequently its reportage tends to focus on government activities and official statements. Its news report would not normally include overt criticism of the government of the day (although it does publish commentaries, features, and letters from the public that are critical of the government). In all, the Daily Graphic is seen to be the most credible print source for information (Gadzekpo 2008). The Chronicle, arguably the most popular private newspaper (Hasty 2005), comes out three or four times a week and has a circulation of approximately 20,000. By comparison, the rest of the estimated 40 registered private newspapers have much less coverage and readership, some less 142 NANA AKUA ANYIDOHO KOFI TAKYI ASANTE than 1,000 per edition.3 Since it is privately-owned, the paper can be more critical of the government and also attends to stories of wider public interest. 4 It is important to acknowledge that a paper on social exclusion that examines public discourse through newspaper reports is itself 3 Kojo Yankah, media consultant, personal communication. However, note that the readership of these newspapers is higher than the sale of hardcopies would indicate because articles and editorials from the major newspapers such as the Daily Graphic and The Chronicle are placed verbatim or summarized on the Internet. Further, news stories and headlines are quoted on radio and television. 4 We recognize that all papers have political leanings and ideological agenda in the stories they tell and how they tell them. The difference in orientation of the state-owned and private newspapers in Ghana has been described and analyzed by.Hasty (2005) and Gadzekpo (2008). From the first independent government of Kwame Nkrumah the state-owned press has been the mouth-piece of government and has been used as a tool in the construction of nationhood and a common identity. In this context, the state press has assumed the characteristics of “development journalism” in which it mainly covers formal state ceremonies and the activities and speeches of state officials, steering clear of any story that might cause controversy or embarrassment to the government and its officials. The private press, lacking the resources of the state-owned media and unable to deliver “hard news” on a daily basis, and also often being a target of repressive governments, has made its purview exposés of public officials (Hasty 2005). However, it cannot be said that private papers are consistently anti-government; there are those that have clear alignment with particular parties and can therefore be labeled “pro-government” when their party is in power. In the case of The Chronicle, it built its anti-government reputation from the 1990s, during the presidency of Jerry Rawlings, the founder of the NDC; this—coupled with the fact that the editor was seen to campaign against Rawlings and the NDC in his editorials during the 1996 elections—would suggest that The Chronicle is pro- NPP, despite the protestations of its journalists and editor about objectivity and non-partisanship. Nonetheless, compared to other private papers, The Chronicle generally does refrain from explicit alignment with any political party (Hasty 2005). In any case, whatever the ideological leanings of the paper, it continued the tradition of investigative journalism into government affairs during the NPP administration from 2001 to 2009 and therefore continues to be “anti- government” relative to the Daily Graphic. One reason therefore for the choice of the Daily Graphic and The Chronicle in this study is to provide a balanced perspective on the (NPP) government in terms of its handling of the Ghana@50 celebrations. TRULY NATIONAL? 143 in danger of sidelining a number of voices.
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