Smugglers, Secessionists and Loyal Citizens on the Ghana-Togo Frontier: The Lie of the Borderlands Since 1914

The first integrated history of the Ghana-Togo borderlands. The current border between Ghana and Togo is usually regarded as a classically arbitrary European construct, resisted by Ewe irredentism. Paul Nugent challenges this conventional wisdom, contending that whatever the origins of partition, border peoples quickly became knowing and active participants in the shaping of this international boundary. This book straddles the conventional divide between social and political history. It offers a reconstructionof a long-range history of smuggling and a reappraisal of Ewe identity. It should be of interest to African historians, political scientists, anthropologists, comparative borderlands scholars and others concerned with issues of criminality, identity and the state. North America: Ohio U Press