The Blacksmiths of Tamale: The Dynamics of Space and Time in a Ghanaian Industry

MacGaffey, Wyatt

doi:10.3366/e0001972009000679

Cited by 10 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Discourses categorizing occupations in rural Africa as male or female are often naturalized, with discussion muted and uncontested. Fresh produce marketing (49), artisanal mining (50), beer brewing (51), weaving (52), blacksmithing (53), and singing and playing music (54) are just some of the many examples of occupations that are strongly gendered in the informal, nonfarm economy.…”

Section: Gendered Social Normsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gendered production and consumption in rural Africa

Kevane

2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Recent research underscores the continued importance of gender in rural Africa. Analysis of interactions within households is becoming more sophisticated and continues to reject the unitary model. There is some evidence of discriminatory treatment of girls relative to boys, although the magnitudes of differential investments in health and schooling are not large and choices seem quite responsive to changes in opportunity costs. Social norms proscribing and prescribing male and female economic behavior remain substantial, extending into many domains, especially land tenure. Gender constructions are constantly evolving, although there is little evidence of rapid, transformative change in rural areas.agriculture | development | women T he economic lives of people in many parts of rural Africa are deeply gendered. Farm activities have sex valences. Handling the plow is work for men, and guiding the oxen is work for women; rice is planted by women, and cotton is managed by men. Rural households often invest less in girl children than boy children. Governments assign programs and projects to the different sexes: microfinance for women and pesticides for men. Local judges interpret custom and law as properly gendered. A wife hoping to inherit her husband's land may find herself evicted by his brother. These are illustrative generalizations, of course, and not facts. There is considerable variation across regions and ethnic groups and over time. However, there can be little doubt that gendered structures and choices and ensuing gendered life trajectories are important and complex. This article reviews an expanding literature that examines the mechanisms involved, programs and policies designed around these mechanisms, and effects of public action and large-scale change regarding gendered social structures in rural Africa.Gender is best thought of as a set of shared discursive habits relating to males and females. These habits encompass but are not limited to cognitive characterizations of gendered behaviors, expectations about gendered actions, and gendered decision algorithms. The habits guide people when they think about how other people might react to proposed action. Sometimes, the habits agree with a person's reasoned judgment, and sometimes, they do not, in which case a person might experience mental distress and cognitive dissonance. The actions under consideration range from the ordinary chores of everyday living to the infrequent and worrisome markers of life changes and from the private utterances intended for oneself to formal public pronouncements. These actions by individuals are evaluated by people in a community, and over time in-

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Section: Gendered Social Normsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gendered production and consumption in rural Africa

Kevane

2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…As a metropolitan district some 39 km across, Tamale comprises at least 160 villages, some that are concealed in the centre of town, but many others that are still exclusively rural. In town there is hardly any remaining arable land, so villagers must travel to find farmland, often at considerable distances (MacGaffey, 2009). It covers a land area of about 750 km 2 (Seidu, 2009).…”

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confidence: 99%

Trends in Agriculturally-Relevant Rainfall Characteristics for Small-scale Agriculture in Northern Ghana

Yengoh

Armah

Onumah³

et al. 2010

JAS

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This study set out to investigate the trends of agriculturally-relevant rainfall characteristics among small-scale farmers in the rainfall-sensitive dry savanna agro-ecological zone of northern Ghana. Interviews are used to identify characteristics of rainfall which are deemed by the farmers as important in their food production. Time series daily rainfall data from 1960-2007 is then used to identify trends in these variables which include the amount and temporal distribution of rainfall, occurrence of extreme daily rainfall events, the onset of rains, risk of dry spells and coefficient of variability of rains. The risk of dry spells for varying number of days following the planting period is computed using first-order Markov chain modeling. We find that there is a significant increase in mean rainfall per rain day and the coefficient of variation or summer rainfall amounts. No significant change in the onset of rains, the annual rainfall amount or maximum rainfall days are established. However, a significant decrease in the number of rain days and the probability of dry spells of up to seven and eleven days in the first four weeks of the planting season is revealed. There is need for development of an agricultural policy framework designed to understand the growing risks associated with agricultural production among small-scale farmers, and to improve management practices to accommodate and adapt to the new challenges of varying rainfall.

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“…Large-scale informal settlements are also perfunctorily conceptualised as power and resource-weak, chaotic, or occupied by the losers of globalisation 6 . Other significant themes include the role of urban informal economies (Hansen & Vaa 2004; Bryceson & Potts 2006; MacGaffey 2009); dimensions of urban–rural migration (Lynch 2005; Trefon 2011); questions and issues concerning urban development (Pieterse 2010); urbanisation as a feature of globalisation (Appadurai 2000; Grant 2006); youth culture and mobility (Langevang 2008); and urban livelihoods (Potts 2009).…”

Section: Approaching Informal Settlements – Concepts and Dynamicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

In a state of slum: governance in an informal urban settlement in Ghana

Stacey

2016

J. Mod. Afr. Stud.

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Old Fadama in Accra, Ghana, is a vast informal settlement. A legalistic approach by successive governments has meant a near-absence of statutory institutions and the emergence of alternative public authorities. These endeavour to provide the area with a range of basic public services to solve the area's serious developmental challenges. Through processes of informal negotiation residents establish rights and social contracts that underpin and define what will constitute ideas of state and law. At the same time, self-governance emerges while relations with statutory institutions shift back and forth between vilification, tacit acceptance, and productive cooperation. The article contributes to studies of governance in informal urban settlements on two fronts. First, it shows how informal arrangements lead to the provision of basic public services and influence the workings of formal institutions of government. Second, it challenges facile understandings of large-scale informal settlements as generally chaotic, lawless or subversive.

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The Blacksmiths of Tamale: The Dynamics of Space and Time in a Ghanaian Industry

Cited by 10 publications

References 9 publications

Gendered production and consumption in rural Africa

Gendered production and consumption in rural Africa

Trends in Agriculturally-Relevant Rainfall Characteristics for Small-scale Agriculture in Northern Ghana

In a state of slum: governance in an informal urban settlement in Ghana

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