Department of History

Daniel is interested in studying West African environmental history. This passion led him to focus his master’s thesis on forest management in the Gold Coast titled “'Dual System': Forest Management in the Gold Coast 1920s-1940s.” In this work, Daniel examined the politics of forest management highlighting how forests were managed by a dual system through colonial policies and Native Authorities. His work shows how forest management was negotiated and incorporated indigenous forestry practices alongside western methods introduced by the Colonial Authorities. And by examining this dual system, Daniel’s work extends the discourse on Ghanaian forest history beyond the dominant theme of a simple resistance narrative. Building on this foundation, his upcoming Ph.D. dissertation intends to show how forest management was deployed as a tool to respond to the colonial perception of West Africa as a “diseased environment.” With this, he aims to show the interplay between forest management and public health interventions in the Gold Coast.