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.
