Friday Seminar: Space and Power in West Africa

Presentation 1:

Gendered Dynamics and Economic Opportunities for Female Traders in Lomé

By Nadia Lovell, Uppsala University’s Forum for Africa Studies

Email: Nadia.lovell@antro.uu.se

Abstract:

Female traders have long dominated the Grand Marché in Lomé, Togo. As their commercial engagements flourished, so did their socio-political standing. Today the market women of Lomé find themselves exercising their trade in increasingly precarious conditions, where marginalisation and poverty have increased with global trade. The research proposes to focus on how women traders today cope and adapt to changing conditions. The aim is to include the traders in a dialogue with policy-makers, and increase their instrumentality in governance. At the same time, the harbour situated a little outside of Lomé is being hailed as an important investment and instrument in the development of the city. To this end, local small-scale industries and workshops have been encouraged to set up shop near the harbour, and the government is implementing training programmes for youths in an effort to provide both training and future economic viability. However, these programmes are aimed at male youths primarily, thus creating not only a gendered divide, but also a gendered spatial arrangement of the city which impacts on livelihoods.

Presentation 2:

Hybridized Power, Spirituality and Symbolism in African Politics: What’s in President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s Chair?

By George M. Bob-Milliar, Nordic Africa Institute

Email: george.bob-milliar@nai.uu.se/gbobmilliar.cass@knust.edu.gh

Abstract:

The exercise of political power in the post-colonial state has been the subject of much scholarly analysis. The ‘imperial presidency’ of the one-party state embodied power, spirituality, and symbolic mechanisms through which leaders governed. The return of constitutionalism with the ingrained checks and oversight mechanisms over the exercise of executive power appeared to have diluted the influence of African leaders. Ghana’s Fourth Republican politicians have maintained the protocols enjoyed by former governments. Why did President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo depart from established state protocols and had a specially made chair accompany him for state functions within Ghana? This paper examines the exercise of political power during Akufo-Addo’s administration (2017-2025). Akufo-Addo’s reign broke formal and traditional protocols when the president’s chair accompanied him wherever he went, including visits to chief palaces, radio stations, and private homes. I argue that the hybridization of political power in Africa manifests itself in two registers – formal and informal settings. The president must display the state’s power so that the citizens can appreciate it. The manifestation of political power accompanied by symbolism appears to confer legitimacy on the office holder. President Akufo-Addo was socialized to appreciate the symbolism associated with exercising state power. While the chair may not contain any spiritual powers, the presidency enabled public perception of the spiritual protection it offered the president. A covered chair with a guard behind it, before the president takes to the podium shows hybridized executive power’s symbolic nature in an African setting.