Sankofa: Disability and the Door of Return

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dc.contributor.advisorda Silveira Gorman, Rachel
dc.contributor.authorKissi, Evelyn Folake
dc.date.accessioned2020-11-13T13:49:24Z
dc.date.available2020-11-13T13:49:24Z
dc.date.copyright2020-08
dc.date.issued2020-11-13
dc.date.updated2020-11-13T13:49:24Z
dc.degree.disciplineCritical Disability Studies
dc.degree.levelDoctoral
dc.degree.namePhD - Doctor of Philosophy
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation is organized as sets of related essays that explore the concept of Sankofa (return to the source) as a method to revisit, resurge and reclaim Nkrumah's ideology to better understand the structures that continue to create disablement in Ghana. Disability studies as a field has come to acknowledge that the majority of disabled individuals live in the global south, however, the field does not yet account for how Europe underdeveloped Africa, how it continues to do so, and the impact it has on Her children. African Indigenous studies scholars such as Nana George Dei, charges new scholars to revisit the past in order to design the future of Africa for Africans. Heeding this call, I returned to the revolutionary anti-colonial ideologies of Julius Nyerere, Amilcar Cabral, Kwame Nkrumah and Frantz Fanon in order to center their approaches within the discourse of disability. Applying their ideologies, this dissertation draws particularly on Nkrumahism as a framework to engage and critique western biomedical approaches to disability and disablement. I argue for a Nkrumahist resurgence that views disability and disablement from a cultural-social-political-economic perspective, and examine their pre- and post-colonial historiographic contexts which allow for a critical engagement and a space to write Akan spirituality into critical disability studies. Through creative theorization this dissertation creates a Door of Return to Indigenizing African/Ghanaian ways of knowing and rewriting the histories which includes ancestors who were silenced due to several complex relationships; therefore, this dissertation partially concludes that, it is not our culture to stigmatize against persons with disabilities particularly those who are classified as insane; instead they should be viewed as being one with the spirit world, interpreting messages from ancestors which in itself is a gift that the Akans hold with pride. It also concluded the main argument of this dissertation that institutionalization of the Indigenes due to their African spirituality led to an increase in formalized confinement of Indigenous bodies. To further interrogate this inconclusiveness from the European archive, I propose further research that will allow the Indigenes themselves to speak on how, why and if those considered insane/mad and not able were banished or erased during pre-colonial Ghana.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10315/37901
dc.languageen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subjectEarly childhood education
dc.subject.keywordsAkan Epistemology
dc.subject.keywordsMadness
dc.subject.keywordsMaddening
dc.subject.keywordsCritical Disability Studies
dc.subject.keywordsSouthern Disability Justice
dc.subject.keywordsPre-Colonial Gulf of Guinea
dc.subject.keywordsInsanity
dc.subject.keywordsPan-Africanism
dc.subject.keywordsNkrumahism
dc.subject.keywordsArchive
dc.subject.keywordsAnti-Colonial
dc.subject.keywordsPost-Colonial Ghana
dc.subject.keywordsSilence
dc.subject.keywordsErasure
dc.subject.keywordsAkan Spiritual System
dc.subject.keywordsDoor of Return
dc.subject.keywordsChild Development
dc.subject.keywordsBlack Studies
dc.subject.keywordsMental Health
dc.subject.keywordsChristian Religion
dc.subject.keywordsMissionaries
dc.subject.keywordsSocial Structures
dc.subject.keywordsAkan Personhood
dc.subject.keywordsUndisciplined Methodology
dc.subject.keywordsMulti-Scalar Framework
dc.subject.keywordsDisablement
dc.subject.keywordsDisabling
dc.subject.keywordsColonization
dc.subject.keywordsCriminal Lunatic
dc.subject.keywordsPre-formation Ghana
dc.subject.keywordsPre-Colonial 1600 Ghana
dc.subject.keywordsSankofa
dc.subject.keywordsPathologizing African Spirituality
dc.subject.keywordsDestabilizing Critical Disability Studies
dc.subject.keywordsAfrican Indigenous
dc.subject.keywordsArchive as Subject
dc.subject.keywordsAncestors
dc.subject.keywordsInterlopers
dc.subject.keywordsCritical Development Studies
dc.subject.keywordsHistory
dc.subject.keywordsCriminalization
dc.subject.keywordsInstitutionalization
dc.subject.keywordsDiaspora and Transnational Studies
dc.subject.keywordsAnti-Black Racism
dc.titleSankofa: Disability and the Door of Return
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

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