Tracing ecological agents that shaped African history

Ishmael Annang traces his love of history to his childhood. Growing up in Kpone, a coastal town outside Accra, Ghana, he played in a dilapidated colonial-era fort by the shore. Years later, as a college student learning about the transatlantic slave trade, Annang realized the historical significance of the fort (Isengram) built by the Dutch in 1787.

“That little fort in my small village was part of an international system of trade, the Atlantic slave trade,” Annang said. His passion for history and teaching was also born out of an appreciation for how Africans such as Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana, “used education as a tool to resist colonial intrusion.”

Annang moved to the United States in 2019 to begin his Ph.D. program at Georgetown University. This fall, Mount Holyoke students will have the chance to learn about Africa’s modern and precolonial history in courses taught by him. Today, he specializes in the history of the African Atlantic and Africa’s environmental history, with a focus on the Gold Coast (as Ghana was known during the colonial era) between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries. Annang’s current research explores how healing rituals integrated into agricultural festivals focusing on foods such as maize, rice and cassava helped African communities address food insecurity and the violence of the transatlantic slave trade.

“I’m trying to show that through these festivals, we see how Africans work together with Indigenous spirit beings to, sort of, cure issues of drought, famine and the violence of the slave trade,” he said. His research examines festival rituals in terms of health and wellness and environmental history, rather than through a religious or anthropological lens that academics in other disciplines might bring.

“Environmental history is basically the study of how non-human environmental elements work with humans to change society,” Annang said. “I’m studying spirit beings as any other non-human beings to show how these ecological agents were key for how African people addressed major societal challenges.”

Studying them requires considering a wider array of source materials than the texts that have been the traditional focus of historical methodology. “I’m a historian who uses a multiplicity of sources — not just written, but oral and material sources,” he said. “The core of the sources I use are oral traditions, folk songs and folklore, as well as some archeological evidence.”

Annang was attracted to Mount Holyoke College because he sensed that, although he was hired as an African historian, the Department of History would support his growth without straitjacketing his interests. “There’s a structure in place to mentor you, to give you what you need to become the best version of yourself,” he said.

During his initial campus visits, he was also struck by how curious and engaged Mount Holyoke students are. Most academic job talks center on the candidate and faculty — “but students in the room didn’t just listen, they had questions and they pushed me on ideas,” Annang said. That experience made him excited to be on a campus where research and teaching are valued equally.

Having taught courses at Georgetown University, Annang describes his teaching approach as “student-focused.” He tries to decenter any focus on grades and instead emphasizes group assignments and projects, as well as peer reviews.

“One of the important things I tell my students is that an excellent student in my classroom is one that not only looks out for themselves but also looks out for others,” he says. “I do not believe that the true value of a student’s work is worth basing on an A or a B or a C.”

Outside of work, Annang enjoys getting moving through his love for Zumba. After five years of weekly Zumba classes, his partner is now encouraging him to earn a certification. “I hope to do that at some point, which would allow me to become an instructor. But at the moment, I just enjoy the fun of being in the midst of other dance lovers.”