By Ishmael Junourgh 
Prof. Owusu is on the right. The one wearing black
By Emmanuel Amo-Otu
Maxwell Owusu’s landmark donation strengthens Ghana’s academic resources and bridges scholarship between Ghana and the United States
ACCRA, GHANA — Distinguished Professor Emeritus Maxwell Owusu, a renowned Ghanaian-American scholar and former Research Scientist at the Center for Research on Economic Development at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, has donated approximately 6,000 academic books and journals to the Institute of African Studies (IAS) of the University of Ghana, Legon.
The landmark donation, comprising scholarly materials in African Studies, history, political science, anthropology, sociology and economics, is expected to strengthen the Institute’s library holdings and enhance the teaching, research and publication capacity of students and faculty.
The books were shipped from the United States to Ghana with financial support from the School of Literature, Science and the Arts (LSA) of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, following a request from Professor Kelly Askew, Chair of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Michigan and a distinguished Africanist.
The initiative provides a striking example of how international academic networks and the African scholarly diaspora can contribute to strengthening higher education and knowledge production on the continent.
A lifetime of scholarship returns home
Professor Owusu has a long and distinguished association with the University of Ghana.
During the 1980–1981 academic year, he served as a Visiting Professor of Political Science at the University, teaching Comparative Politics and team-teaching Politics in Ghana with Professor K. A. Ninsin, now retired.
His academic training includes the London School of Economics and Political Science, Harvard University and the University of Chicago in the United States.
His scholarship has focused extensively on African societies and cultures, democratisation, politics and development. He is the author of numerous scholarly publications, including the widely acclaimed Uses and Abuses of Political Power: A Case Study of Continuity and Change in the Politics of Ghana.
Professor Owusu has also contributed to Ghana’s constitutional development. He served as a consulting member of the Constitutional Experts Committee chaired by Dr S. K. B. Asante, which prepared proposals for Ghana’s 1992 Constitution.
A recipient of several prestigious pre-doctoral and post-doctoral research awards, including a United States Institute of Peace Grant, Professor Owusu has built a scholarly career that has connected African intellectual inquiry with major academic institutions in the United States.
From Michigan to Legon
The transportation of the books from the United States to Ghana was facilitated through a generous grant from the University of Michigan’s School of Literature, Science and the Arts to its Department of Anthropology.
The support followed a request by Professor Kelly Askew, a respected colleague and friend of Professor Owusu. Professor Askew is herself a distinguished Africanist and former Director of the University of Michigan’s Institute for International Studies.
The collaboration demonstrates the importance of international academic partnerships in supporting African institutions and ensuring that valuable scholarly resources remain accessible to students and researchers on the continent.
Professor Owusu calls for stronger African scholarship
At a short ceremony to hand over the books to the Institute, Professor Owusu delivered a lecture titled “Advancing Inter-disciplinary African Studies in Ghana’s Higher Education through Resource Donations.”
He explained that the donation was intended to help address the shortage of academic materials available to students and faculty.
“I hope that this unprecedented personal gift to the Institute of African Studies, and the University of Ghana’s bibliographical resources helps improve the local and often unavailable wide-ranging academic publications sorely needed for students and faculty study, research and publication often missing on our campuses,” Professor Owusu said.
His remarks highlighted a continuing challenge for higher education institutions across Africa: access to adequate and diverse academic literature.
For researchers working in African history, politics, anthropology, culture, development and related disciplines, access to scholarly books and journals remains fundamental to producing rigorous research and expanding knowledge from within the continent.
IAS Director: ‘The reading culture needs to be revived‘
Receiving the donation, the Director of the Institute of African Studies, Professor Samuel Aniegye Ntewusu, expressed gratitude to Professor Owusu and all those who contributed towards the shipment of the books to Ghana.
Professor Ntewusu described the donation as “timely, extraordinary, unprecedented, generous and thoughtful”, noting that it adds significantly to the academic resources that the Institute and the University of Ghana have been seeking.
He also raised cncerns about the state of education in Ghana and the need to restore a strong culture of reading and scholarship.
“For a country whose education system some time in history was considered the best in tropical Africa, academic resources such as those donated by Professor Owusu play a very critical role,” Professor Ntewusu said.
He expressed concern about declining educational standards and stressed the need for collective action to reverse the trend.
“The reading culture needs to be revived,” he said.
Both Professors Owusu and Ntewusu emphasised the transformative potential of books in strengthening Ghana’s higher education system.
Building an intellectual bridge across the Atlantic
The significance of Professor Owusu’s donation extends beyond the 6,000 books and journals now available to students and researchers at the Institute of African Studies.
The initiative demonstrates how members of the African scholarly diaspora can contribute to knowledge development in Africa while maintaining meaningful intellectual connections with institutions on the continent.
The journey of the collection — from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor to the University of Ghana in Legon — represents an intellectual bridge between Ghana and the United States.
At a time when African universities are under increasing pressure to strengthen research capacity, improve academic standards and produce knowledge capable of influencing global debates, Professor Owusu’s gesture offers an important model of scholarly giving and institutional partnership.
The donation is therefore not simply a contribution of books.
It is an investment in African scholarship, interdisciplinary research, academic excellence and the next generation of Ghanaian scholars. And for students who will encounter these books in the years ahead, Professor Owusu’s lifetime of scholarship will continue to speak long after the ceremony has ended.