University of Cape Coast Journals
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Of Divination Tray and the Search for Utopia: A Postcolonial Reading of Okinba Launko’s Selected Poems
Get PDFPrimordial oral literary forms have always been very central to the evolution of modern African literature. Arguably, these forms have impacted on modern African poetry, not only on account of their recurrence in the works of poets, but also as important indices in current poetry studies and criticism. Contemporary African poets have since stretched the limits and aesthetics of these forms to emphasize their relevance in the postcolonial space, following after the Negritude poets who set the antecedent in the use of Africa’s primordial forms,. This paper, using selected poems from Okinba Launko’s Dream-Seeker on Divining Chain (1993), Commemorations (2007) Seven Stations Up the Trays Way (2013), discusses the different tropes and manifestations of oral forms in modern African poetry. The writers isolate the poet’s use of Ifa, the Yoruba divinity muse, to comment on the dilemmas of the postcolonial space. The paper concludes that the dialectic prism of Okinba Launko’s poetry exteriorizes a neo-negritude template that sustains the relevance of primordial forms in African poetry.
The religious market in Ghana today: Is there legal basis to tax the church?
Get PDFThis paper is a rehash of the existing debate on whether or not the church should be subject to tax. Unlike many others, the paper approaches the issue from a legal perspective and explores the relevant principles of taxation as established by statutes and case law in Ghana. In the main, this paper argues that given that majority of the churches in Ghana engage in transactions which may be properly classified as business, the Commissioner of Income Tax is empowered by law to demand tax from the church in respect of the income accruing therefrom. Thus, using the interpretive paradigm mainly through interviews, observation as well as reliance on statutes and case law, the paper concludes that transactions such as the taking of service fees, sale of anointing oil and other religious products constitute trade and the income arising thereto must be subject to tax
Influence of programme of study on the adjustment challenges faced by Colleges of Education Students in Eastern region, Ghana
Get PDFThe purpose of the study was to explore the influence of the programme of study on the adjustment challenges faced by colleges of education students in the Eastern Region of Ghana. Using the descriptive research survey design, data were collected from 320 students through an online questionnaire. The Validity of the research instrument was ascertained through a pilot study carried out at Foso College of Education. The reliability coefficient for the questionnaire, estimated through Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, was 0.872. The collected data were analysed using ANOVA. The study found that the programme of study had a significant influence on the adjustment challenges faced by colleges of education students in Eastern Region of Ghana. The B.Ed. JHS programme respondents’ adjustment challenges differed significantly from those of the other two programmes (B.Ed. Primary and B.Ed. Early Childhood). The researchers suggested that college counsellors/administrators assess the frequency and intensity of adjustment problems among students, JHS major students especially, so as to assist relevant bodies at colleges of education in Eastern Region in designing appropriate orientation programmes and peer mentoring programmes
Elements of Working Conditions and Retention of Course Tutors in Distance Education in Ghana
Get PDFThis study examined the relationship between elements of working conditions and retention of course tutors facilitating distance academic programmes in Ghana. The descriptive cross-sectional survey design from the quantitative approach was adopted for the study. A sample of 612 tutors was drawn with the help of simple random and stratified sampling techniques from a study population of 2,700 from two public universities in Ghana—the University of Cape Coast and the University of Education, Winneba. The study adopted the Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling technique for the analysis of the results. It was found that elements of working conditions, such as compensation, workload and welfare, had a statistically and significant relationship with retention of course tutors. In conclusion, compensation, workload and welfare influence retention of part-time academic staff in distance education programmes in Ghana. Therefore, it was recommended that the management of the two universities should introduce attractive compensation and welfare packages for their course tutors facilitating their distance education programmes. It was also suggested that tutors assist in the enrolment drive for students, since more students lead to better working conditions through the workload as an element of working conditions. 
Development Tools of Parasitic Paradigm: An African Perspective of Western Theories of Development and Reforms
Get PDFThe orthodox conceptualisation of development and its reforms which are rooted in Western schools of thought recognizes the existence of three categories of polities, viz: developed, developing and underdeveloped states. But the major questions that are of concern are: on what grounds do we submit that a country is developed, and the other is either developing or underdeveloped? Using a historical method of research and utilising mainly secondary sources of data, the paper attempts to answer these salient issues by critiquing the orthodox western development theories and reforms, citing a wide range of instances of faulty development reforms imposed on the global south by the West. The study found that the western driven ̳development reforms or policies‘ for the governments of the global North are incompatible with the dynamics and interests of the South. It also found that the western driven ̳development reforms or policies‘ were never intended to sustain the economies of the global south or worsen the North-South dichotomy. The paper concludes that every society has its own sense of development and that the orthodox conception of development, and its reforms are not sacrosanct given the peculiarities of the global South. The paper also posits that western driven ̳development reforms or policies‘ are ̳neo-colonial schemes‘ targeted at strengthening the core-periphery arrangements between the global North and the global South
Akan grammatical relations revisited
Get PDFMorphological case languages do not necessarily depend on word order to determine their grammatical relations. However, structural case languages depend largely on word order to determine the various grammatical relations. For most configurational languages, the agent/experiencer usually precedes the patient/theme in a simple clause (in the active voice). In the passive voice, the patient/theme occupies the subject position while the agent becomes an object of a preposition (oblique) or omitted as evident in English. Akan, a Kwa language of the Niger-Congo family, being a nominative-accusative language, allows the agent/experiencer to precede the patient/theme in the active construction. In the passive- like construction, however, unlike a language like English, an impersonal pronounoccupies the subject position while the patient or theme remains at the object position. This implies that agents/experiencers do not occur at the oblique position in Akan; neither dopatients/ themes occur at the subject position. Certain verbs (symmetrical verbs), however, may allow the experiencer and the theme arguments to switch positions in the active construction without affecting the meaning of the sentence in the language. This paper seeks to highlight these marked grammatical relations in Akan within the framework of Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG)
Corpus Assisted Approach To Armah’s The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born
Get PDFArmah’s The Beautyful Ones are not yet Born is a novel known for its extensive portrayal of the ills and anomalies in the Ghanaian society right after independence. The majority of studies on the novel have overwhelmingly concluded that corruption is the preoccupation of the text. This view appears skewed in many respects. This paper argues that the corpus assisted approach can contribute methodologies to support objective investigation of the subject matters of the text. This study, adopting the corpus-assisted approach in a mix of numerical data and qualitative description of Armah’s The Beautyful Ones are not yet Born, used frequencies of the occurrence of pejorative terms in the text to determine the dominant subject matters in the novel. The approach reveals that “rot” and “decay” are the most dominant motifs used, followed by “filth”, “corruption”, and “bribery”. It suggests that clusters, i.e., recurrence of words, characters’ association with the words, and context of use serve as textual cues in thematic exploration. The approach aids in revealing that the real intent of The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born is that the total breakdown of the society rests on seemingly insignificant characters. The paper has implications for methodological approaches to thematic analysis of literary texts, particularly, the novel
Corporate Social Responsibility and Access to Finance: A Study of Firms on the Ghana Stock Exchange
Get PDFThis study investigates the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and access to finance, using data from companies listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE). The study adopted multiple regression in investigating the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) in terms of profitability (measured by return on equity – ROE) and philanthropy (measured by corporate social responsibility disclosures – CSRED), and access to finance (measured by growth in equity, retained earnings, debt and working capital). Economic responsibility and access to finance measured by growth in retain earnings are negatively and insignificantly associated. Discretionary responsibility has positive and significantly relationship with growth in equity capital. Again, economic responsibility is negatively and insignificantly related to growth in debt stock, while discretionary responsibility is positively and significantly associated with growth in debt stock. Finally, economic responsibility is negatively related to growth in working capital, while discretionary responsibility is positively related to growth in working capital, but both cases are significant. The study encourages firms to embark on higher-level social responsibility since that can alleviate access to finance challenges faced by firms
Firm-Level Determinants of Corporate Social Responsibility: Evidence from Small and Medium- sized Enterprises in Ghana
Get PDFThis paper examined firm-level determinants of social performance among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana, using specific traits, such as firm age, firm size, financial performance, leverage and managerial competence. It contributes to our knowledge on how firm-level characteristics influence the corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives among SMEs. The study analysed primary data of 423 SMEs, using regression analysis. It documented positive relationships between managerial competence, financial performance and CSR, and a negative relationship between leverage and CSR. The thrust of the study is that, besides managerial competence, financial performance variables were far more important determinants of the social performance of SMEs than non-financial ones. Therefore, it recommended that policy makers that desire active participation of the SME sector in addressing societal problems should institute measures that will improve their financial performance. These could include providing cheaper alternatives to accessing funds and maintaining a sustainable macroeconomic environment that support the financial prosperity of this sector. Finally, since it has been proven that managerial competence improves social performance, SME owner/managers are being encouraged to invest a lot of time and resources in sharpening their managerial competencies
Banks’ Governance, Capital Structure and Performance in Ghana
Get PDFThe paper explores the mechanisms through which banks rely on good governance to attract more equity capital towards the improvement of their profitability. The study employed a panel data for twenty-nine commercial banks in Ghana between the years from 2003 to 2015, using the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM), Fixed Effects and Random Effects estimators. The results are robust notwithstanding the estimation method employed, that bank governance affects banks’ performance in Ghana. Larger board size improves return on the banks’ equity just as large proportion of directors with finance expertise induces bank performance. All estimates also show that equity funding has a negative and significant effect on bank performance. The paper also found evidence that good bank governance attracts equity capital which, in turn, induces greater profitability. The study recommends for managers and policymakers of banks to adopt policies that will position the banks to improve governance structure, to improve managerial expertise to drive bank performance. Admonitions to expand bank capitalisation should not be encouraged without recourse to the improvement in bank governance effectiveness