Migrant chiefs in urban Ghana: an exploratory study of some selected Dagomba Chiefs in Accra

Abstract

Studies on migration have largely neglected the emergence of migrant chiefs in Africa’s urban centers. Chieftaincy analysis has also not been adequately extended to those who are migrants and how they are selected and installed as chiefs in the cities. Through deliberately-provoked conversations with Dagomba migrant chiefs and their elders, the paper undoubtedly extends the frontiers of both chieftaincy and migration studies bringing to the fore dynamics of Dagomba migrant chiefs and their changing roles in Ghana’s city of Accra. Reworking Blundo’s administrative brokers, this paper reveals how migrant chiefs in urban settings liaise with state institutions to help solve certain problems migrants encounter in the city. The paper concludes that other actors in the urban space, such as youth leaders around Members of Parliament coming from migrants’ home regions, could gradually take up the brokerage role in the city.

Negotiating Linguistic Disruptions and Connections in Migratory Contexts: Language Practices among Child Migrants in an Urban Market in Ghana

“…Studies have suggested that female migration is of much greater volume and complexity than was previously believed in Ghana (e.g., Ardayfio‐Schandorf and Kwafo‐Akoto 1990; Awumbila et al 2011). There has been a southward migration of the relatively young female population from northern Ghana into southern cities like Accra, Kumasi, and Takoradi for the long term, the medium term, or sometimes the short term to engage in various activities of economic value (Anamzoya 2001). Closely associated with female migration is child migration (Ansah et al 2017), where relatively young female migrants with children under five years old migrate from northern Ghana to urban markets in the south either seasonally or for a longer period to engage in economic activities.…”