J. Grischow, Corruptions of development in the countryside of the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast, 1927-57, J PEASANT S, 26(1), 1998, pp. 139-158
Much current development literature equates civil society with community an
d invokes both in the name of development. Using Northern Ghana as a case s
tudy, this essay argues that the colonial state considered civil society an
tithetical to community. That is, for colonial administrators African civil
society represented the corruption of development. Driven by forces of pol
itical and economic change, civil society pressed against the colonial proj
ect of preserving community in the African countryside. In response, the co
lonial state invoked the idea of community, not to encourage civil society
but rather to block its emergence in the Northern Territories of the Gold C
oast.