関西支部：2024年度 第8回例会

日時：2024年11月19日（火）17:30-19:30
場所：神戸大学鶴甲第一キャンパスE棟4階大会議室

演題：“Possessing the nations”: Religion, politics, and development in Ghana
講師：Charles Prempeh
Dr Charles Prempeh is currently a visiting associate professor at the African Studies Centre, Tokyo University of Foreign Studes. He is also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Cultural and African Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana. He had his PhD degree from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, and MPhil in African Studies from the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon. Prempeh also holds a First-Class degree in African Studies from the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. He has an inter-disciplinary research interest. His recent books are: Youth Activism in Modern Politics in Ghana (Accra: Woeli Publishing Services, 2024); The Political Economy of Heaven and Earth in Ghana (Bamenda/Cameroon: Langaa RPCIG, 2023); Gender, Sexuality and Decolonisation in Postcolonial Ghana: A Socio-Philosophical Engagement (Bamenda/Cameroon: Langaa RPCIG, 2023) and Nima-Maamobi in Ghana’s Postcolonial Development: Migration, Islam and Social Transformation (Bamenda/Cameroon: Langaa, 2022).

要旨：
In 2018, the Church of Pentecost (CoP), Ghana’s largest Pentecostal denomination, launched a four-year-long theme, “Possessing the nations,” that aimed at possessing the nations for the Lord. To achieve the implied main goal of aligning religion, politics and national development, the CoP has rolled out several activities that draw on the support of other religious groups, including Muslims, to re-enchant Ghana’s development trajectories with religious motives and ambitions. Specifically, the church has undertaken social services, such as building prison facilities, constructing short-mile federal roads and sheds for the public. Meanwhile, the government of Ghana is also supporting the construction of a national cathedral for (Christian) citizens. The intersection between religion and politics, from the perspective of the CoP and the state, may point to a nemesis that has expectedly re-animated the discussion on Ghana’s non-religious status. In my presentation, therefore, I will draw on both ethnographic data and auto-ethnographical experience, anchored on the richness of interdisciplinary analysis to response to questions, such as the following: To what extent can a boundary be drawn between religion and politics? How should observers analyze the centre stage that religions have taken to broaden the frontiers of development of all shades in Ghana? What are the real and potential implications of the direct correlation between religion and development in Ghana for the country’s transnational relations? Are there historical antecedents in Ghana that could be drawn on to shed insights into the close proximity between religion and development in the country?

申込み：特に必要なし。

連絡先：umeyakiyoshi[at]gmail.com 梅屋潔（神戸大学大学院国際文化学研究科）

備考：神戸大学大学院国際文化学研究科と共催。