Welcome to the Frontpage

The Historical Society of Ghana was founded in 1951 under the auspices of leading scholars and nationalists such as John D. Fage, A. A. Kwapong, Albert Adu Boahen, J. B. Danquah, Kobina Sekyi, Nana Kobina Nketsia and others. Membership of the society is drawn from historians, archaeologists, linguists and ancillary disciplines, and includes university lecturers and Students from the five public Universities- University of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, University of Cape Coast, University of Education , Winneba, the University of Development Studies , Tamale and teachers in Secondary Schools and Training Colleges . The society ran a journal, Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana, which was the leading journal on Ghanaian history. It also published the Ghana Notes and Queries and Teachers Journal, which also served as a scholarly forum for secondary school history teachers. The society became defunct in 1983 in the general decline of scholarship due to economic decay. It was only revived in 2001. The revived Historical Society of Ghana has since then resumed publication of the Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana. It has also held widely publicized annual conferences under the themes:
 
- Abolition Conference in association with the Omohundhro Institute - 2007
- Roundtable Conference on Ghana's 50 years celebration - 2006
- Linking the Present to the Past: Reflections on a half Century of Independence - 2005
- Tradition and Modernity in Ghanaian Urbanization – 2004
- Chieftaincy in Africa : Culture, Governance and Development – 2003
- History, our Heritage and National Development – 2002
 
Opening the 2004 annual conference, the Hon. Minister for Tourism and Modernization of the Capital, Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, encouraged the society to lend its expertise to the development of a viable tourist industry. At the Society’s 2005 annual conference the Hon. Minister in-charge of Tertiary Education, Ms. Elizabeth Ohene challenged the Society to play a more active role in documenting, preserving and interpreting the history of Ghana and Africa for the benefit of posterity.
 

HSG Vision and Mission

Vision

To deepen national appreciation of the relevance of history to understanding Ghana ’s past and present; to highlight the centrality of history to the production of knowledge in general; and to reveal history’s influence in everyday life.

 

Mission

To strengthen the discipline of history at the university, secondary and basic levels and to inculcate an interest in history in the wider Ghanaian public. To this end, the Historical Society of Ghana sponsors research, assists in the training of historians in universities and secondary schools, offers scholarships, runs an annual conference open to the general public, and publishes journals, books, theses and documentaries.

 

HSG Programmes

The Society organizes workshops for post graduate history students from the public universities to critique their work and to equip them with computer skills. The Historical Society of Ghana has also initiated a programme for history teachers to upgrade teaching in schools and introduce them to new trends in historiography. Assessment of the state of records in public institutions is another task taken up by the Society. Surveys have been conducted in the castle, the Attorney General’s office and the Supreme Court. These would be extended to other institutions. We hope to start the cleaning and preservation exercise very soon.

Read more: HSG Programmes