Bangor University DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Propaganda Censorship and the Media: An Ethnographic Study of Ghana Dagbon Chieftaincy Crisis-2002-2019 Mahama, Seth Sayibu Award date: 2020 Awarding institution: Bangor University Link to publication General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 04. Oct. 2021 PHD DISSERTATION TOPIC Propaganda, Censorship and the Media: An Ethnographic Study of Ghana Dagbon Chieftaincy Crisis, 2002-2019 Mahama Seth Sayibu This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfilment for the award of a degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) Journalism Studies, at the School of Creative Studies and Media, Bangor University, Wales, United Kingdom. August 2019 Page 1 of 286 DECLARATION This thesis is being submitted with the consent of my supervisor and I declare that it is the results of my own investigations, except where otherwise stated. All other sources are acknowledged by bibiographic references. This work has not previously been accepted in substance for any degree and is not being concurrently submitted in candidature for any degree unless, as agreed by the university, for approved dual awards. Page 2 of 286 DEDICATION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT They planned and Allah also planned, and Allah is the best of planners (Qur’an 8:30) All praise is to Allah for all the blessings. I dedicate this Ph.D. research to my late father, Mahama Sayibu Mahami, who could not live long enough to witness this moment. I pray that his soul continues to rest in perfect peace in the bosom of Allah. I also dedicate it to my mother, Hajia Mariama Yakubu Mahama for her prayers. To my children, this is a motivation for you; it is not over until it is all over. I thank President John Dramani Mahama for this magnanimous gesture in granting me state scholarship notwithstanding my criticism of his NDC government over the Dagbon crisis. Your reconciliatory nature makes this gesture unsurprising. When I set out for this Ph.D. project, a colleague journalist and Professor advised me to look for a good supervisor and not only a good university. That once I found a good supervisor, I found a good university. My searches finally webbed Professor Vian Bakir. I have no regrets coming to work with you. Your very critical commentaries, your encouraging words, your patience and due diligence to my work and your general academic guidance cannot be expressed in words. You have helped developed my intellectual capabilities. Thank you, Vian. To Ifan Jones (who read through this work and provided critical advice), Steffan Thomas and all the staff at Creative Studies and Media, thank you for your support. I am also grateful to Lawyer Ibrahim Mahama for the critical documents retrieved that proved invaluable to this research. I am equally grateful to Tugu Lana Andani Mahama, Alhaji Inusah Fuseini, Dr. Ahmed Yakubu Alhassan, Lawyer Mohammed Alhassan and all those who contributed significantly to my studies. I am equally also grateful to Sala Mahama, Anisah Mahama, Ahmed Mahama and Mahama Iddirisu Sintaro for the interest shown in this project. May Allah reward all of you. Page 3 of 286 ABSTRACT This thesis investigates the use of propaganda and censorship by Ghana’s governments, the intelligence community and the military in the Ghana media reportage of Ghana’s Dagbon chieftaincy conflict reignited by the murder of the Dagbon king, Yaa Naa Yakubu II on March 27, 2002. Even though the conflict started in 1948, Ghana’s Supreme Court had settled it in 1986 but dissatisfied with the ruling, Abudu fighters attacked the Yaa Naa’s palace and murdered him under circumstances described by the media as ‘questionable intelligence failure’. This led many to suspect it was politically motivated. There is scholarship on government and military propaganda and censorship of the media in conflict times in Africa and Ghana but no scholarship on government, military and intelligence community propaganda and censorship in chieftaincy conflict times in Africa and Ghana, including the Dagbon chieftaincy conflict. This thesis fills that gap by investigating how propaganda techniques, including lies, deception and denial and censorship techniques like pooling and denial of access, intimidation and harassment were used against the media by Ghana’s governments, intelligence community and the military in the Ghana media reportage of the Dagbon conflict. The study investigates how the above techniques have contributed to the perpetuation of the conflict from 2002 to 2019. Using the qualitative design of interviews, official documents and newspapers’ sources coupled with participant observation, autoethnography and reflexivity and using thematic and textual analysis, the study finds that governments, military and intelligence community propaganda and censorship played a large role and were partially responsible for the murder of the Yaa Naa and the perpetuation of the conflict. The study finds that media bias that largely emanated, especially from peace insensitive journalism and over reliance on official /elite sources by Ghana’s Daily Graphic newspaper and Ghana News Agency remained a threat to efforts at closing-down the conflict. Part of the study’s contribution to knowledge is that beyond the traditional method of intimidation, harassment and threats of journalists by governments, the military and the intelligence community to secure favourable media coverage, as chronicled by Western scholars of media and conflict, politicians in the Dagbon conflict used physical violence as technique of censorship and propaganda where political party and government ‘foot soldiers’ were unleashed onto critical media personnel. The study draws attention of Western scholars of media war and conflict to a reverse of the Rwandan situation in Ghana’s Dagbon, where the Ghanaian media tried to stop the Dagbon conflict, but which efforts remain undocumented, unlike their Rwandan counterparts that fanned the conflict. The study is significant for scholars of media and conflict because it is the first study on government, the intelligence community and the military propaganda and censorship of the media in the reportage of chieftaincy conflicts in Africa and Ghana, including the Dagbon chieftaincy conflict. It is also the first comprehensive study on media reportage of chieftaincy conflicts in Ghana, including the Dagbon chieftaincy conflict. Page 4 of 286 TABLE OF CONTENT DECLARATION ................................................................................................................................... 2 DEDICATION AND ACKNOWLEDGMENT ................................................................................... 3 ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................................... 4 CHAPTER ONE .................................................................................................................................... 10 1.0 Background and history of the conflict .................................................................................... 10 1.1 Motivation for research .................................................................................................................. 10 1.2 Origin of the conflict ........................................................................................................................ 11 1.3 The murder ......................................................................................................................................... 15 1.4 Government response to the murder ....................................................................................... 16 1.5 Opposition response ........................................................................................................................ 18 1.6 Bimbilla chieftaincy crisis ............................................................................................................. 18 1.7 Gap in research .................................................................................................................................. 19 1.8 Objectives of study ........................................................................................................................... 20 1.9 Phenomenon of study ..................................................................................................................... 21 1.10 Thesis structure ............................................................................................................................... 21 CHAPTER TWO ................................................................................................................................. 23 (LITERATURE REVIEW).................................................................................................................