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Accepted Paper:
Compiling a Bibliography of Traditional Religion(s) in Ghana: A Lab Report
Benedikt Pontzen
(Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient Berlin)
Mariam Goshadze
(Leipzig University)
We introduce a collaborative project aimed at compiling an online bibliography of works on traditional religions in Ghana. We cover the project’s genesis, details of the collaboration, initial findings, challenges of organizing the collection, and the added value for research on religion in Africa.
Paper long abstract:
Taking stock of the existing literature is an important but all too neglected part of research when it comes to African religious traditions. In a joint effort to change this, an interdisciplinary group of scholars, including researchers based in Europe, Ghana, and the United States, has come together to compile a bibliography of academic publications on traditional religions in Ghana. This bibliography is to be launched in 2025. It will be published online, open, and freely accessible. In this presentation, we introduce the project and report on our work in progress. In the first part of the presentation, we trace the genesis of our joint venture and discuss the details of our international cooperations, including the technicalities that facilitate our exchanges and the challenges faced in the process. In the second part, we report directly from the lab, showcasing our bibliography, presenting initial findings, and reflecting on the next steps. As with other bibliographic projects, collecting and systematizing data are but two sides of the same coin. As such, we discuss the work that goes into tagging and organizing our collection to make it searchable and usable. The bibliography will be an important resource for researchers working on traditional religion(s) in Ghana and elsewhere. We conclude by reflecting on how to expand the collection to include other African regions and discussing the added value of this project for research on religion in Africa in theory and practice.