Summary: Knowing and believing in contemporary African settings involves negotiating traditional, religious, and scientific influences. This study will investigate narratives about knowing and believing inherent in proverbs of the Akan of Ghana (West Africa). The analysis will be informed by psychological perspectives about knowledge and belief.

Using a compendium of 7015 Akan proverbs- the largest collection of Akan proverbs to date, I will conduct a thematic analysis of the proverbs to identity narratives and/or patterns of knowledge-seeking and believing inherent (both implicitly and explicitly) in Akan proverbs. Some of the questions that will be used to drive this exploratory analysis are: what forms of knowing, believing, etc are inherent in Akan proverbs? Given the importance of communal values, to what extent are social ways of knowing addressed in Akan proverbs? What psychological principles related to knowledge and cognition are highlighted in Akan proverbs? This project will contribute to the literature on science and belief in the African context.

Project deliverables will be: a research article, a conference presentation, a seminar hosted at Virginia Commonwealth University, and a blog post.