Pawnship or Debt Bondage in the Gold Coast (Modern Ghana): Reknitting its Interstices

Abstract

This study, based on a variety of eclectic sources, deals with the institution of pawnship or debt-bondage in the Gold Coast, operationalized as the Eastern, Central, and Western Provinces. The topic spans the mid-nineteenth century and the early-twentieth century. It looks at pawnship in the centripetal conduits of continuity and change, shaped by the transformations in the Gold Coast economy as well as social change and social formations in flux. In sum, it reknits compendium modules of sources on pawnship in the Gold Coast into a concise and restorative tome. Overall, the study’s foci are complementary themes, though with concentric forces, that drive the hands of continuity and change in shaping the political economy of pawnshi