"We agree to disagree" : a Study of Ghanaian University Students' National Self-Images

Abstract: This thesis is based on a field study conducted in Ghana's capital Accra between September and November 2010 where data, in the form of inter alia interviews with Ghanaian university students, was collected. The underlying aim for the study is to gain a deeper understanding for the many times troublesome nation-building process in the African context. The thesis' objective then is to gain a deeper understanding of a part of the "successful" Ghanaian nation-building process and the national identification in Ghana via the concept of national self-images: the affective and cognitive views of the own nation and people. The Ghanaian national identification is explored via the concept which here is divided into two wide dimensions (the Temporal and Relational - primarily based on the works by Bo Petersson and Noel Kaplowitz) and the data is then organised and analysed according to these. The national self-images are further divided into positive respective negative images with presumably disitnct influences on national and political stability. The result from this study is is that the interviewed university students hold predominantely positive images of their own nation, people and polity which may indicate a continued support for the nation-building process. Howeer also osome negative images exist which could hold the potential threat of weakening the support and trust for the national project among the students.