Ghana Study Abroad Program

  Elon’s winter term Ghana Abroad course is designed to introduce students to the history and culture of Ghana.  Students hear lectures by Ghanaian professors and travel to a variety of sites throughout the country.  The course had been led by Professor of History and Director of International Studies Dr. Brian Digre for more than ten years and is Elon’s oldest winter term program in Africa .  Another Elon faculty or staff member accompanies Dr. Digre on the course each year.

 Dr. Digre is known as ‘Togbe Dake I’ in Ghana because he is an honorary chief in the village of Sokode in the Volta region. The course itinerary changes slightly each year but generally program participants can expect the following…

 In the more urban and densely populated southern coastal zone the Ghana Abroad program spends time in:

• Accra (arts center and craft markets, Nkrumah mausoleum, lectures, University of Ghana—Legon, Western-style restaurants and internet access available)
• Aburi (botanical gardens and nearby woodcarvers village)
• Elmina (slave fortress visit)
• Cape Coast area (slave fortress, Kakum N.P., beach time, lecture)

In the drier Islamic north it visits:

• Mole National Park (wildlife viewing)
• Mole (soccer games with local teams)
• Larabanga (visit village, see mosque and sacred stone)

In the rural, agriculturally-oriented east it visits:

• Sokode (family home stays, durbar, and church service)
• Wli (hike to waterfall)
• Kpetoe (view kente weavers in action)

In the country’s central region it visits:

• Kumasi (shop at the cultural center, central market, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology lecture, museum/palace)

Many thanks to Dr. Brian Digre:

Much of what the Periclean Scholars have been able to achieve stems from the fact that the Ghana Abroad program was already in place and that Dr. Digre had a tradition of combining socio-economic development in Ghana with the Ghana Abroad course.  A notable example is the approximately $247,000 grant received in 2007 from Heifer International which was co-authored by Dr. Digre and the people of Sokode, Ghana.  The 2010 Periclean Scholars first fundraiser, the Kpoeta Campaign to build a rural health center in Kpoeta , Ghana could not have happened without Dr. Digre’s efforts.  Dr. Digre worked with the Elon and the University of Cape Coast in Ghana to enable Dr. Francis Amedahe to spend the 2006-07 academic year teaching at Elon University .  Kpoeta is Dr. Amedahe’s home area.