Nkudzedze: Africanizing Tastes and Consumer Power in 19th-20th Century Amedeka, Southeastern Ghana

Abstract

The 19th and early 20th centuries in Ghana (formerly the Gold Coast) marked a period of extended trade following the 1807 abolition of the Atlantic Slave trade, yet the internal trade of enslaved people persisted until approximately the 1850s. This era of trade was characterized by the increased demand and export of botanical commodities (e.g., palm oil, palm kernel oil, and cocoa). However, an often silenced aspect of these global markets was the central roles that hinterland people and their domestic economies played in shaping the networks of trade. This research examines the complex relationships between daily practices, consumption, and (re)production of regional and imported goods in Amedeka. Using diagnostic and Neutron Activation analyses of archaeological ceramics recovered from midden contexts, coupled with historical, ethnographic, and intergenerational knowledge, I investigate the materiality of colonial interactions in relation to Amedeka’s domestic economies. The results of this study demonstrate that local people and consumers responded to the trade through acts of discriminatory consumption motivated by Indigenous ideas and practices of taste. In other words, the local performance of tastes – nkudzedze – ultimately shaped the commercial and industrial practices of the 19th – 20th-century trade and other socioeconomic structures. In centering the active participation of local people and their consumer practices, these findings clearly show how Africa’s long-distance economic connections and broader political contexts conditioned life, production, and consumption in Western economies.