Podcast Summary:

New Books Network – Jeffrey Ahlman, "Ghana: A Political and Social History" (Zed Books, 2023)

Date: January 10, 2026
Host: Anisa Prosperedi
Guest: Jeffrey Ahlman, Professor of History and Chair of African Studies at Smith College

Episode Overview

This episode explores historian Jeffrey Ahlman’s new book, Ghana: A Political and Social History. The discussion centers on Ahlman’s experience grappling with the challenges and paradoxes of writing a national history in an era where such narratives are increasingly questioned in global historical scholarship. Ahlman and host Anisa Prosperedi investigate what it means—and has meant—to be "Ghanaian" across two centuries, unpacking the complex, shifting nature of national identities, and discussing the process, sources, and historiographical choices that shaped the book.

Key Discussion Points

1. The Genesis of the Project

• Ahlman’s Path to Ghanaian History:
  • Initially intended to pursue a transnational dissertation on Ghana-Algeria connections, but remained in Ghana after the project stalled, leading to a deep focus on Ghanaian history—especially decolonization and the legacy of Kwame Nkrumah.

    “What I thought was going to be this transnational project...ended up just sort of supplanting me in Ghana for the last almost 20 years now.” (02:34–03:46, Ahlman)

• Book’s Origins:
  • Approached to write a biography of Nkrumah, Ahlman pivoted to the broader challenge of national histories, intrigued by the tension inherent in crafting a national narrative in Ghana, a state whose borders and identity have always been in flux.

2. Methodology & Structure

• Synthetic, Not Monographic:
  • The book is a synthesis, drawing on secondary literature and accessible primary sources, rather than a traditional, archival research monograph.

    “It’s really a book that I would want...for a student...to get their head around Ghanaian history more broadly...and how you construct a narrative out of this process.” (06:50–08:45, Ahlman)

• Accessibility for Students:
  • Designed to enable both broad understanding and practical engagement, with chapters built around primary sources available through university libraries or digital archives, facilitating student research.

    “The goal was that...if [an instructor is] focusing on World War II, they could go to the Endangered Archives...and incorporate documents into their teaching.” (11:16–12:24, Ahlman)

• Pedagogical Ambition:
  • Conceived as a “teachable” history—offering conceptual landscapes without overwhelming detail, ideal for advanced undergraduates and graduate students.

3. Writing Process

• Old-School and Messy:
  • Ahlman writes by hand, sprawled on the floor, with books encircling him—a method he recognizes as unconventional but essential for his thinking process.

    “I can’t write on a computer, so everything that I’ve written has been written by hand...with a spiral notebook and a mechanical pencil. The circle on the floor is a literal thing as well. I’ve always written laying down…” (13:12–15:59, Ahlman)

• No Strict Outline:
  • Prefers thinking in terms of a few main points for each chapter, letting sources guide the narrative’s shape.

    “I also don’t really write with an outline. I write in terms of...three or four sort of main points I want to get across...and I see how the sources will take me there.” (13:12–15:37, Ahlman)

4. The National History Paradigm & Its Limits

• The “Unstable Container”:
  • The Ghanaian nation is a perpetually shifting idea—politically, culturally, economically, and geographically.

    “The idea of what Ghana is...has really...been extremely unstable...who is Ghanaian? This is something people in Ghana have been debating for a very, very long time.” (17:21–21:09, Ahlman)

• Interrogating the Nation:
  • Instead of taking national borders and identities as given, Ahlman foregrounds their contestation, exposing the tension and debates that have shaped Ghana from its precolonial, through colonial, to post-independence periods.

5. Economic History & the Centrality of Cocoa

• The Case for Cocoa:
  • An entire chapter is devoted to cocoa—a commodity that shaped both Ghana’s economy and social structures, offering a lens into class, migration, mobility, and exclusion.

    “As was it Fred Sarpong’s song talks about like, coco is life...everything sort of flows through cocoa...for a long time it was Ghana’s primary export commodity...But...it goes beyond that...Coco provides a means of social mobility...” (22:32–25:43, Ahlman)

• Commodity as National Lens:
  • Unlike global commodity histories that circumvent the nation, Ahlman purposely uses cocoa to illustrate and problematize national narratives, exploring who gets to benefit or is excluded.

6. Choosing Whose Stories to Tell

• Centering Everyday Experiences:
  • Instead of focusing on colonial administrators or “great men,” Ahlman highlights ordinary Ghanaians’ lived experiences, spotlighting how they navigated and shaped social and political change.

    “What really interests me is how are people experiencing political and social change over...time?...That’s a more interesting historical question for me…” (27:22–29:42, Ahlman)

• Major Figures Serve Context:
  • Political leaders appear as contextual frameworks, not protagonists, with the narrative driven by community perspectives.

7. Deciding Where to Begin (and End)

• Starting Point:
  • Takes cues from Richard Wright’s Black Power, beginning with the transition from trans-Saharan to Atlantic trade, marking the gradual emergence of the “Gold Coast” as a coherent but unstable entity.

    “The Gold coast as we think of it today...is a creation of the Atlantic trade because it shifted the perspective of where the world’s wealth...was going to come from.” (31:01–35:21, Ahlman)

• End Point:
  • Book concludes with the advent of the Fourth Republic in 1992, demarcating a natural break before Ghana’s current democratic era.

    “There’s a whole different book in terms of understanding the 30 plus years now of the Fourth Republic...maybe it’s sort of a sequel type book.” (35:28–36:50, Ahlman)

8. Future Directions

• Next Project:
  • Ahlman is planning work on W.E.B. Du Bois’s legacy in African Studies, examining how Du Bois’s interdisciplinary approach influenced African historiography.

    “I want to understand W.E.B. du Bois’s place in history and African studies...sort of thinking through African history through a perspective of Du Bois himself...” (37:11–39:15, Ahlman)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On synthetic history:

  “It’s really a book that I would want...for a student...to get their head around Ghanaian history more broadly.” (07:30, Ahlman)

• On the instability of national identity:

  “What it means to be Ghanaian...has really...been extremely unstable...This is something that people in Ghana have been debating for a very, very long time.” (18:17, Ahlman)

• On writing process:

  “I can’t write on a computer...the little blinking thing...is scary...So I found the paper and pencil aspect of it a more liberating way to actually write.” (13:12, Ahlman)

• On choosing to focus on ordinary Ghanaians, not colonial administrators:

  “For me, what is really interesting...is just like, how are people experiencing this?...the big figures are there to really...serve a role of understanding the community perspective.” (27:22, Ahlman)

• On cocoa as life:

  “Coco is life...everything sort of flows through cocoa...It’s a way of imagining oneself in this changing context.” (22:32–25:43, Ahlman)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Intro to Jeff Ahlman and book background: 02:15–04:13
• Book’s genre and synthetic methodology: 06:06–08:45
• Targeting teaching and accessibility: 10:34–12:24
• Ahlman’s writing process: 13:12–15:59
• Debates over national history, "unstable container": 17:21–21:09
• Cocoa and economic/social mobility: 22:32–25:43
• Centering everyday Ghanaians: 27:22–29:42
• Periodization and starting/ending points: 31:01–36:50
• Future project on W.E.B. Du Bois: 37:11–39:15

Tone and Final Thoughts

The conversation is reflective, engaging, and collegial, blending scholarly rigor with personal anecdotes. Both host and guest acknowledge the complexities and intellectual risks involved in writing national histories today, while celebrating the possibilities such projects open up when they push against received paradigms. The episode concludes with mutual enthusiasm for Ahlman’s next research directions.

Summary prepared for those who wish to engage deeply with the key themes, methods, and arguments of Jeffrey Ahlman’s "Ghana: A Political and Social History" and its place in debates over African, national, and global history.