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This article examines the trans/formation of a memorial landscape of slavery and the slave trade in Ghana's Upper East Region. It focuses on a former slave camp (Pikworo), which is closely associated with late-nineteenth-century slave raids that play an important role in local memorial and ritual practices. Recently, however, Pikworo has been represented as part of the transatlantic slave route, so as to attract an African American audience. Here, the emphasis is less on social relationships than on victimhood and resurrection. The two colliding narratives correspond to two notions of sacralization which can be translated into the idioms of continuity and closure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, diaspora has become one of the key terms of social analysis in various fields. Emphasizing the multiple trajectories out of which present identities - inasmuch as political or economic realities - are forged, the concept forces us to reconsider the scope of classical area studies (and associated disciplinary boundaries) in radical terms. The article looks at the colonial foundations of African Studies as area studies and examines some ways by which to overcome enduring colonial epistemologies. The author suggests a theoretical framework in which Africa herself is considered as diasporic. Moreover, she calls for a critical perspective that will facilitate the comparative analysis of different diasporic discourses and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]