A New African Elite: Place in the Making of a Bridge Generation

Focusing on a sub-set of the Dagomba of northern Ghana, this book looks at the first generation to go through secondary school in the north. After university and post-graduate education, they relocate to Accra, the capital, hundreds of miles south. They crossed social and physical space and have become cosmopolitan while holding on to tradition and attachment to their home town. This bridge generation are patrons to those living up north. This book charts their path into elite status and argues that they use the tools gained through education and social connections to influence politics back home.

Deborah Pellow is Emerita Professor of Anthropology at Syracuse University, where she was Director at the Maxwell African Scholars Union. Publications include Landlords and Lodgers: Socio-Spatial Organization in an Accra Community (Chicago, 2008).