Honors and Dishonors: Table Tennis Champions Representing Ghana Abroad

Livre Chapitre de livre Honors and Dishonors: Table Tennis Champions Representing Ghana Abroad eng 2024-11-25 2025-11-01 author Nicolas Claire 0000-0003-3429-5209 418385 Département d'histoire générale (ISTG1) 160-177 9781647124984 This chapter argues that table tennis players, even from a marginal position—far from the state apparatus and the diplomatic sphere—played their part in Ghana’s diplomacy by partaking in a minor sport, as they displayed new definitions of citizenship and nationhood at domestic and international levels. They were involved in the government’s aim to “exert power in the international arena through attraction and persuasion, rather than force,” seeking to exercise soft power. Furthermore, socialist solidarity was a key feature of table tennis diplomacy (in contrast with postimperial events such as the Commonwealth Games, the men’s soccer World Cup, and the Olympic Games), which opens up new perspectives when examining Ghana’s multifaceted soft power as the country turned its eyes away from Europe. This chapter thus assesses how Ghana’s changing diplomatic relationships framed athletes as cultural emissaries, mediators between Ghana’s government and its target audiences abroad. Unpacking sports diplomacy from below, this research discusses the role played by table tennis players themselves in their positions as informal ambassadors who were carefully—albeit only partially—monitored by politicians, journalists, and sports administrators. Ghana Ping pong Sport Kwame Nkrumah Dewey 900 Georgetown University Press Washington 90 Département d'histoire générale 3H false Soft Power Beyond the Nation Sylvia Dummer Scheel, Charlotte Faucher, and Camila Gatica Mizala 8e17c016-f437-418e-8d82-704f4d2517a5 Book chapter (Published version) Public Nicolas_-_Honors_and_Dishonors.pdf 1536127 application/pdf CC BY-NC-ND 0e7d124ba04b710e47898cbd633573fb1824851023149221598f2f5e525344ff openAccess Faculté des lettres / Département d'histoire générale

Title	Published in	Access level	OA Policy	Year	Views	Downloads

Honors and Dishonors: Table Tennis Champions Representing Ghana Abroad	Soft Power Beyond the Nation			2025	112	1,939

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