The “Craft of Bruising” and the Life of Azumah “Professor of the Ring” Nelson – A Social History of Ghanaian Boxing (Volume One)

Abstract

This thesis explores how boxing emerged in Ghana from both indigenous and foreign (British) inventiveness, how it has shaped aspects of Ghana’s popular culture, and also examines boxing’s social meaning and impact in the colonial and postcolonial milieux. “culture of the underprivileged” to embrace its vital significance as a stimulus to social mobility. On that trajectory, this work rethinks another socio-cultural meaning of boxing as a “sado-masochist” manifestation, which is counterproductive to “civilized” human culture,1 by intellectualising it as a positive shaper of personal and national identities. Additionally, this study discusses how boxing was resourcefully used by the Ga-Mashie ethnie of Ghana, for cultural and economic empowerment, the roles that its boxers, especially Azumah Nelson, have played in shaping the history and form of Ghana’s “popular culture.” and it uses Bourdieu’s concept of Habitus to investigate the proverbial gravitation of the ethnie to boxing. Moreover, the thesis interrogates the “ghetto” beginnings and legendary career of ex-champion and the International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee, Azumah Nelson, and highlights how “ghetto” boxers can internationalise Ghana, and transcend social obscurity to affluence and fame. The work empowerment through the popular culture of sports.