Manifestations of Colonial Modernity in Asante: Kumase Public Parks and Town Hall as Symbols of "Civic Pride," 1901-1960*.

Transforming Africa's urban environment became the preoccupation of colonial administrators from the 1920s onwards. Ceremonial grounds, sports parks, and town halls emerged within the context of modernizing postconquest Asante society. Kumase's public spaces and buildings enabled the colonial regime and traditional authorities to ritualize power and legitimatize the aspirations of colonialism. We argue that public spaces were instruments of subtle social control through which colonial elites consciously cultivated meanings and ideas meant to sprout in Asante society desirable Western values. Based on the theoretical conceptions of place, social space, and social memory, we contend that Kumase public spaces were instruments of political control. The public events staged by colonial officials were advertised as social and leisurely. The Asante officeholders embraced the social configurations engineered through colonialism because a rich context of public performance of power and grandeur existed in Asante's past. We use the cases of the Prince of Wales Park, Sir Francis Jackson Park, and the Prempeh Assembly Hall to validate our claims. The involvement of Asante society in social and leisure activities of the colonial state raised "Britishness" to respectable levels in Kumase. The ceremonial and sports parks became sites where the colonial administration celebrated its power and where African nationalists re-asserted their self-determination. These places were also where civic leaders delivered speeches, and politicians sought votes. The transformation of public spaces for the benefit of the city's inhabitants provided legitimacy for the colonial administration. British control over Asante society remained tenuous and fragile. Therefore, the colonizers and the colonized had different understandings and appreciations of colonial modernity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]