Ethnicized boxing: the tale of Ghana's boxing roots in local martial art

Abstract

This essay focuses on the myth of the origin of boxing in Gold Coast/Ghana. Located in the old centre of Accra, this myth is bound to the ethnically marked particularity of the local martial art of asafo atwele. This paper aims to show how the close entanglement between the concept of a local ethnic identity in Accra and the internationally widespread game of boxing came into being. While ethnicized concepts of manliness might have enabled the easy adaptation of boxing in Accra, reducing the particular implementation of the game to a preceding local martial tradition neglects the diversity of the sports origin in Gold Coast/Ghana. Moreover, the localized tale of Gold Coast/Ghana's boxing roots was not disseminated before the early 1950s, i.e. at a time when boxing was already well established. The myth was less elucidating Gold Coast/Ghana's boxing history but rather supporting the localization of the game in general and enhancing the political intentions of the local ethnic identity group, the Ga-Mashie, in particular.

Acknowledgement

As always, I am grateful to Katharina Schramm for her invaluable help throughout the writing of this paper.

Notes

^1.The Fighting Spirit, produced and directed by George Amponsah, 2007.

^2. Bukom is a neighbourhood in the district of Asere that belongs to the quarter of Ussher Town, which lies in the former centre of the city Accra.

^3. Gadzekpo, ‘Women's Engagement with Gold Coast Print Culture’, 75.

^4.Hill, ‘Anecdotal Evidence’, 121.

^5.Werron, Der Weltsport und sein Publikum, 64–71.

^6. Ibid., 220–1.

^7.Plageman, ‘Accra is Changing’, 141–2.

^8.Chick, ‘Cecil King, the Press’, 388.

^9.Lane, ‘Living for the City’, 153.

^10. Ibid., 3.

^11.Plageman, ‘Accra is Changing’, 148.

^12.Drum GH, September 1957, 23.

^13.Dunzendorfer, ‘Early Days of Boxing’, 2145–7.

^14.Gold Coast Independent, October 2, 1937.

^15.Gold Coast Independent, October 25, 1930.

^16.African Morning Post, June 10, 1936.

^17.Gold Coast Independent, September 23, 1933.

^18.Gold Coast Independent, September 23, 1933 and December 22, 1934.

^19.Gold Coast Independent, December 22, 1934; March 30, 1935; April 13, 1935; and October 16, 1937.

^20.Gadzekpo, ‘Women's Engagement with Gold Coast Print Culture’, 37–40.

^21.Prais, ‘Imperial Travelers’, 128–44.

^22.Runstedtler, ‘In Sport the Best Man Wins’, 48; Sugden, Boxing and Society, 37.

^23.Parker, Making the Town, 47–53.

^24.Akyeampong, ‘Bukom and the Social History’, 52.

^25.Coquery-Vidrovitch, ‘Process of Urbanization in Africa’, 33–5.

^26.Parker, Making the Town, 195.

^27.King, Colonial Urban Development, 33; Pellow, ‘Cultural Differences and Urban Spatial Forms’, 61.

^28.Pellow, ‘Cultural Differences and Urban Spatial Forms’, 62; Quarcoopome, ‘Urbanisation, Land Alienation and Politics’, 41; and Robertson, Sharing the Same Bowl, 27.

^29.Robertson, Sharing the Same Bowl, 32.

^30. Ibid., 35.

^31.Quarcoopome, ‘Urbanisation, Land Alienation and Politics’, 41; Robertson, Sharing the Same Bowl, 32.

^32.Pellow, ‘Cultural Differences and Urban Spatial Forms’, 62; Quarcoopome, ‘Urbanisation, Land Alienation and Politics’, 41.

^33.Quarcoopome, ‘Urbanisation, Land Alienation and Politics’, 42.

^34. Ibid., 46.

^35.Parker, Making the Town, 200.

^36.Asabere, ‘Determinants of Land Value’, 388–9.

^37.Robertson, Sharing the Same Bowl, 33–4.

^38.Quarcoopome, ‘Urbanisation, Land Alienation and Politics’, 47.

^39.Josiah-Aryeh, Inside Ghana's Democracy, 16–17.

^40. Nkrumah, ‘Sports and African Unity’, 26–7.

^41.Plageman, ‘Accra is Changing’, 138–9.

^42.Abbary, ‘Traditional Poetry of the Ga of Ghana’, 496.

^43. Ibid., 495–6; Akyeampong records a similar song, see Akyeampong, ‘Bukom and the Social History’, 57.

^44.Sunday Mirror, September 26, 1954, 15.

^45.Sunday Mirror, August 21, 1960, 15.

^46.Daily Graphic, January 10, 1951, 3.

^47.Sunday Mirror, September 26, 1954, 15.

^48.Akyeampong, ‘Bukom and the Social History’, 49–51.

^49.Parker, Making the Town, 47.

^50. Ibid., 47–50.

^51.Sunday Mirror, August 30, 1953, 15.

^52.Sunday Mirror, August 16, 1953, 16 and August 30, 1953, 15.

^53.Quarcoopome, ‘Urbanisation, Land Alienation and Politics’, 49.

^54.Drum GH, October 1959, 33–5.

^55.Salm, “Bukom Boys”, x.

^56.Abbary, ‘Traditional Poetry of the Ga of Ghana’, 497.

^57.Apter, ‘Ghana’, 279.

^58.Daily Graphic, August 3, 1957, 14.

^59. Interview with Teddy Lamptey, October 28, 2010; Interview with J. Attoh Quarshie, November 2, 2010.

^60.Apter, ‘Ghana’, 276.

^61.Daily Graphic, October 1, 1951, 3.

^62.http://www.sportscouncil.com.gh/maincat_select_discipline.cfm?disciplineID = 5 (accessed September 18, 2012).