African Studies
Utafiti: Journal of African Perspectives
Call for Papers: Utafiti is inviting you to submit your manuscript – any topic in the humanities - for consideration in the next issues.
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Robin Attfield talks about how Africa finds itself vulnerable to drought but also the flooding of its coastline, among other untoward environmental effects of climate change and civil war.
Ghana marked the thirtieth anniversary of the promulgation of the 1992 Constitution in 2022. Nevertheless, there were few celebrations of the occasion, because successive civilian governments since 1993 have not followed the constitution’s letter and spirit in managing the national economy. At the beginning of the year, Ghana faced one of its worst economic crises. The country had to deal with the consequences of several years of macroeconomic indiscipline characterised by massive borrowing and huge public expenditures on vanity projects. Despite experts’ warnings and the signs that the country was headed for trouble, the government was still preaching self-reliance, saying that Ghana did not need an imf programme to restructure the economy. In January, the public debt stood at 351,800 bn cedi (gh¢); this had increased to gh¢ 575,700 bn by the end of the year. In addition to the external shocks, poor policy choices, mismanagement, corruption, and leadership paralysis compounded the already precarious situation. Ghana’s addiction to Eurobonds was forcefully ended when all international credit rating agencies declared the country bankrupt and not creditworthy. Several human rights violations were recorded, and the destruction of the environment through unauthorised mining attracted greater public attention. Indeed, the country’s experiences in 2022 can be likened to those of 1982 and 1983.