Politicization of chieftaincy in Africa: A Case Study of Bono Kyempim, Ghana

Abstract

This paper examines the active participation of some Bono chiefs in partisan politics in Ghana in the 1950s. Using interviews, archival data and books as the main sources of information and a qualitative approach, the research reveals that Asante’s administrative strategies thwarted Bono chiefs’ efforts to assert their autonomy from Asante rule in the pre-1950 era. The original aim of the Bono Kyempim Federation, formed in 1949, was to unite the chiefs’ ranks to rebuild the Bono Manso kingdom, destroyed by Asante in the eighteenth century. However, the chiefs eventually associated themselves with politicians and by 1959, a Bono-Ahafo Region had been created by the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), the political party that the chiefs supported. How far-reaching, was the chiefs’ relations with politicians?

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