Franz Kröger, PhD,

born March 11, 1937 in Braunsberg (East Prussia), studied Social Anthropology, English, History, and Geography at the universities of Münster (Germany) and Vienna (Austria). His doctoral thesis analyses the 'rites de passage' of the Bulsa. From 1972-1974 he was a lecturer at the University of Cape Coast (Ghana), after which he lectured at the Institute of Ethnology of the University of Münster and at the same time taught at the Aldegrever Gymnasium in Soest (Westphalia).  His numerous research activities focus on the religion, language, education, material culture, history and social life of the Bulsa, among whom he stayed in 1978, 1979, 1981, 1984, 1986, 1988-89, 1994, 1997, 2001, 2002-03, 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2011. After a visit to the Koma, who are linguistically and culturally closely related to the Bulsa, he instigated the excavations of ancient sites with hundreds of so-called Koma-Bulsa terracottas (Anquandah 1998) through Prof. James Anquandah (Department of Archaeology, University of Ghana, Legon). In 1995 he acted as scientific adviser to two television productions for the Südwestfunk (Germany). One of these ("Die Regenmacher" - "The Rain-Makers") deals with the Tallensi groups who regularly visit the Bulsa-country before the beginning of the rainy season. At the Institute of Ethnology (Münster) Franz Kröger has assembled a collection of more than 500 Bulsa material objects as they are used today in traditional compounds. In 2005 they were shown in a big exhibition of the Natural Museum Münster.

Book-publications on the Bulsa by Franz Kröger

(Apart from these books he published numerous papers and contributions to anthropological journals and anthologies; cf. also Bulsa Bibliography)

1978  Übergangsriten im Wandel. Kindheit, Reife und Heirat bei den Bulsa in Nord-Ghana.   Hohenschäftlarn bei München: Klaus Renner Verlag (440 pp.)

1982  Ancestor Worship among the Bulsa of Northern Ghana. Religious, Social and Economic Aspects. Hohenschäftlarn bei München: Klaus Renner Verlag (120 pp.).

1992  Buli-English Dictionary. Münster and Hamburg: Lit-Verlag (584 pp.) .

2001 Materielle Kultur and traditionelles Handwerk bei den Bulsa (Nordghana). 2 volumes,  Münster, Hamburg and London: Lit-Verlag (1141 pp.).

2003 Franz Kröger / Barbara Meier (eds.) Ghana's North. Research on Culture, Religion, and Politics of Societies in Transition. Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Wien: Peter Lang Verlag (342 pp.).