Anita K. Pobi

Beyond the Colonial Archive: Women's Voices and the Abolition of Slavery in the Gold Coast, 1874–1940s

This project examines the overlooked contributions of Ghanaian women to the abolition of slavery in the Gold Coast between 1874 and the 1940s, utilising alternative archives, oral histories, traditions, symbols, and songs as primary sources. While colonial records, missionary reports, and court proceedings have long shaped the historiography of abolition, these sources often silence or marginalise the voices of women.

By contrast, oral traditions and communal memory provide invaluable insights into women’s lived experiences and their roles in the struggle against slavery. The study asks: how can these alternative archives reshape our understanding of women’s agency in abolitionist movements?

Methodologically, the project will combine oral and archival research in Ghana and the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies at the University of Bonn in Germany. This approach acknowledges that African societies preserved memory not only in written documents but also through performance, ritual, and symbolic language, taboos, myths, proverbs, oral traditions, and folklore.

By privileging these alternative archives, the project contributes to African Studies and global slavery scholarship in three key ways: it restores women to the centre of abolitionist narratives; it challenges the dominance of colonial archives; and it demonstrates the methodological value of oral and cultural memory in reconstructing histories of slavery and emancipation. In doing so, the research advances a decolonial approach to history, one rooted in African epistemologies and community knowledge.

2025
Master of Philosophy in History, University of Cape Coast, Ghana

10–11/2023
Summer School on Methodological Sources on Slavery in Africa, University of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

01–06/2019
Exchange Program (NORPART), Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway

2017 
Bachelor of Arts in English and History, University of Cape Coast, Ghana

Present
Organizer, African Voices Against Slavery and the Slave Trade International Research Workshop, University of Cape Coast

Present
Collaborative Partner, Partnership for Atlantic Slavery Scholarship, Archiving and Global Exchange (PASSAGE), funded by Lloyds Register Foundation (2026–2028)

2024–Present
Research Assistant, Indigenous African Games Project, USA

2023–Present
Research Assistant, African Abolitionism: The Rise and Transformation of Anti-Slavery in Africa (University College London-based AFRAB Project), Ghana Team

2022–Present
Course Tutor, College of Distance Education, University of Cape Coast

01–09/2025 
Demonstrator, Centre for African and International Studies, University of Cape Coast

2022–2024
Teaching Assistant, Centre for African and International Studies, University of Cape Coast

2017–2018
Teaching Assistant, Department of History and Diplomacy, University of Cape Coast