Beverly J. Stoeltje
Weatherhead Resident Scholar 1997-1998
Queen Mothers
in Contemporary Ghana
Along with a cluster of neighbors, Sister Ataa waits respectfully one morning
to register a complaint with the queen mother of her neighborhood. She glances
at the man across the room, who figures prominently in her story: with his
connections and her money, they had together set up a booth in the market to
sell timber scraps, but she believes now he has cheated her. The local queen
mother will consider the complaint and determine what should be done. What
Sister Ataa does not know is that the man has come to court with a plan to
invoke a curse on her and will threaten to kill her himself. She would have
to take this problem to the formal court of the Asantehemaa—the Asante
queen mother.
With the support of a Fulbright grant, Beverly Stoeltje spent
many months in Ghana observing such disputes and resolutions in the queen mother's
formal court. Her book, Asante Queen Mothers: Female Leaders in Contemporary
Ghana, will be the first study of these important figures and their
role in the ancient system of custom and chieftancy. The Asante are the most
studied people of Ghana, one of the Akan groups, known especially for Kente cloth,
gold, and brass weights. Ghana was the first African country to gain its independence,
in 1957.
Queen mothers are female authorities whose position parallels
that of the chief in the indigenous political system known as chieftancy. Chiefs
and queen mothers are never married to one another, but each has his or her own
stool, the symbol of authority among the Akan. Queen mothers are responsible
for selecting and advising the chief and for the welfare of women in their domain.
They are especially important in settling disputes and resolving conflicts—their
legislative domain could be compared to that of a small claims court.
Stoeltje describes her ethnographic study as "an attempt
to bring together perspectives of power and authority with those of performance
and discourse to demonstrate the actual practices of custom and the politics
of chieftancy." In contemporary Ghana, she explains, the influence of the
International Monetary Fund and the World Bank mixes with the forces of traditional
authority, creating a complex and layered society in dynamic transition.
"My approach argues for a theory that recognizes the
significance of the dual gender political system among the Asante and Akan peoples
and the importance of viewing the political system, the legal system, the kinship
system, and gender relations as one integrated system. Chieftancy provides a
political as well as social foundation for the institutional practices of everyday
life in Ghana today, bringing the modern state into conjunction with local affairs.
"My research on specific queen mothers in their local
settings addresses the point at which cultural identity and modern politics intersect
and identifies the significance of queen mothers in today's Ghana."
A native Texan who grew up barrel racing in the rodeo, Stoeltje
began her anthropological career by studying American culture, specifically rodeos,
cowgirls, and festival queens. She has coauthored a book, Beauty Queens
on the Global Stage, with Colleen Ballerino Cohen and Richard Wilk. "My
continuing interest in festivals was revived once again in Santa Fe by the fiesta
and the burning of Zozobra," she said.
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