George Xorse Kumasenu

My doctoral thesis examines the relationship between Empire and colonial Gold Coast (Ghana) via the Second World War. The dissertation sits at the intersection of war, labor mobilization, social and urban transformations that took place in the Gold Coast during the war years. At the core of this dissertation, I seek to depart from traditional military narratives of battleground situations to unearth how the war impacted and transformed the lives of the colonized via the constraints it imposed, the possibilities it opened-up and how colonial Gold Coast citizens negotiated and circumnavigated these contours. In addition, I shall equally examine the gendered dimension of these war time experiences in the Gold Coast. In undertaking this study, I shall employ the use of archival sources, newspaper reportage, popular and cultural productions during the war years including propaganda materials, music, movies, night life, visual culture, as well as city and building plans during and in the immediate postwar years. And where possible, oral interviews with descendants of wartime veterans and individuals who lived through the war years shall also constitute integral sources for my dissertation.