Africa: History and Culture

4-11

Authors: Shuan Lin

Vestments transmit a sense of identity, status, and occasion. The vested body thus provides an ideal medium for investigating changing identities at the intersection of consumption and social status. This paper examines the vested body in the la Sape movement in Congo, Central Africa, by applying the model of ‘conspicuous consumption’ put forward by Thorstein Veblen. In so doing, the model of ‘conspicuous consumption’ illuminates how la Sape is more than an appropriation of western fashion, but rather a medium by which fashion is invested as a site for identity transformation in order to distinguish itself from the rest of the society. The analysis focuses particularly the development of this appropriation of western clothes from the pre-colonial era to the 1970s with the intention of illustrating the proliferation of la Sape with the expanding popularity of Congolese music at its fullest magnitude, and the complex consumption on clothing

23-32

Authors: Benedicta Incoom,Enoch Kwame Tham-Agyekum

The views of electorates in the Cape Coast Metropolis were solicited on political party vigilantism and electoral violence in Ghana. The descriptive survey method was used to select 200 electorates via the snowball sampling technique. A questionnaire was designed to collect the data and analysed using descriptive statistics. The main findings of the research indicate that the electorates do not have any knowledge of vigilante groups in their constituency. However, they knew about vigilante groups in other parts of the country. The greatest cause of vigilantism in Ghana according to the study is the quest for political power. The greatest effect found of political vigilantism in Ghana is death and injuries. Political party vigilantism activities are dominated by young men and it is spearheaded by party executives. However, they engage in campaign activities before the election, protect ballot boxes during elections, and are employed if their party wins. Their activities affect voter turn-out during elections. The majority of the electorates would not consider being members of a political party vigilante group for financial gain neither do they know how political party vigilante groups are funded. Electorates asserted that political party vigilante groups should be disbanded and that they would not vote for a party that sponsors and supports vigilantism.

37-40

Authors: Christopher Tawiah Narh

Labour force participation is an important component of a national and global development. As global populations keep increasing, it is important to explore the scope of Ghana’s labour force participation. In this paper, I briefly reviewed literature and other secondary evidence for gaps and opportunities for labour force participation. Though Ghana’s population has been increasing continuously like many countries worldwide, little is known about the impact of the rise in the number of people within the working age population. Ultimately, accurate information and empirical evidence are needed to support research, policy and practice in Ghana. It is therefore, useful to study and understand the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of the labour force in Ghana, and how these characteristics influence labour force participation, so as to guide government and other relevant bodies in designing and implementing policies to address the needs of this key segment of the population.