Includes bibliographical references.

Contents: Introduction -- The Humanities and the idea of national identity -- Empiricalism: The Empirical character of an African philosophy -- Metaphors of death in akan -- Political nicknaming in Ghana: social representations of democracy achieved through conceptual blending -- "Do not rob us of ourselves": language and nationalism in colonial Ghana -- Language use in education in minority language areas: the case of Logba -- The Dilemma of identity for African American English: a case of African language influence? -- Constructing a national language as a vehicle for national identity -- Material culture and ethnic identity: the case of the Krobo, Ghana -- Negotiating pre- colonial history and future democracy: Kwasi Wiredu and his critics -- Identity crises: constructions of national identity in the poetry of equatorial Guinea -- 'No sweetness here' for 'our sister', La Noire? Gender empowerment in the short stories of sembene Ousmane and Ama Ata Aidoo -- Constructing national consciousness in Russian literature: some lessons for the African milieu -- Africa's renaissance and the challenge of culture: the failures of NEPAD -- The music of Ephraim Amu and Isaac Daniel Riverson: 'the known ' and 'the not known' Ghanaian composers -- The Performing arts: identity and the new social paradigm.