Linking Ghana and the Caribbean: Legacies, Memories and Belongings

University of Cape Coast, Ghana

Papers are invited for presentation at a conference focusing broadly on the historical and contemporary connections between Ghana and the Caribbean. Using the Atlantic Slave trade as the progenitor of this link we seek papers which explore the memories of displacement and loss, the rituals of reconnection, and the claims for belonging on both sides of the Atlantic. The conference aims at bringing together scholars who are working on the archived as well as the lived and/or imagined connections between those Africans who were deported from the general area known as Ghana (the Gold Coast) and their descendants in the African Diasporas of the Caribbean. A major scholarly concern of this conference is the examination of the ways in which these connections have shaped ideas of historical belonging and contemporary citizenship. The conference is wide ranging in scope and invites the participation of those scholars who are working in a variety of disciplines which attempt to illuminate this historical and contemporary connection.

The following themes are suggested but are not exclusive:

• Establishing the Link: Histories of Departure and Arrival
• Cultural Production and the African Diasporic Imagination
• Spirits across the waters: Connections in the religious sphere
• Reproducing History and Memory in diurnal ritual 
• The political strategies of Decolonization 
• Reconnecting: Historical and contemporary repatriations and reconnections

Registration for the conference (includes meals, receptions, and field trips) is:

• North American/European participants: US$200 (faculty) and US$100 (Graduate Students)
• African/Caribbean/Latin American: US$100 (faculty) and US$50 (graduate Students)

The conference is organized by the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples, York University, Canada through its MCRI Project (“Memory, Slavery and Citizenship”) and The University of Cape Coast, Ghana.

For further enquiries, please contact:
The Ghanaian-Caribbean Diasporas Conference Organizers at [email protected]