Noise Silence Makes - Secularity and Ghana''s Drum Wars

Mariam Goshadze traces the history of noise regulation in Accra, Ghana, showing how the 1990s and 2000s conflicts between the Ga people and Pentecostal/Charismatic churches during the annual city-wide ban on drumming illuminates the innerworkings of Ghanaian secularity and the importance of “traditional religions” to African urbanity.

List of contents

A Note on Orthography  ix
A Note on Pronunciation  xi
Introduction: Altered Ontologies and Reversed Paradigms  1
1. Jumping on the Anti-Noise Bandwagon: Drumming Permits for Accra’s Residents  25
2. Winds of Change: The Ban on Drumming Enters the Public Sphere  46
3. The Power of Sound: Cross-World Sonic Theologies  69
4. When the Deities Visit: Translating Religion into the Language of the Secular  87
5. Sacred Acoustic Inspectors: The Ghanian State and Noise Abatement during the H¿M¿W¿ Festival  108
6. Let Us Offer Thanks for the Nation of Ghana: H¿m¿w¿ as a Civil Ceremony of Thanksgiving  133
Conclusion: Layered Epistemologies of Contemporary Accra  153
Acknowledgments  159
Glossary  161
Notes  163
References  177
Index  193

About the author

Mariam Goshadze

Product details

• Authors: Mariam Goshadze
• Publisher: Duke University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 27.05.2025
• EAN: 9781478031413
• ISBN: 978-1-4780-3141-3
• No. of pages: 216
• Series: Religious Cultures of African and African Diaspora People
• Subject: Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Religion: general, reference works