Franz Kröger: Who on Earth is Interested in the Bulsa?

Franz Kröger

Who on Earth is Interested in the Bulsa?

State of events: March 1, 2023

This article about visitors to the two internet editions of our journal has appeared three times so far: in BULUK 11 (2018), BULUK 12 (2019) and BULUK 13 (2020). Some trends have remained unchanged during this time:

1. Most visits are from the USA, Germany, Great Britain and Ghana.
2. Occasionally, some countries start making up a relatively large proportion (for example Russia and Indonesia in 2018), but this begins decreasing again after a few years.
3. In the 2020 BULUK edition (no. 13), the number of visits from Iran to Bulsa websites (and at the same time to “komaland.com”) suddenly rose sharply.
It is noticeable that all articles in BULUK 13 (except some administrative short articles) have more than 350 visits, i.e. the visits are distributed rather evenly across all contributions. The average number of visits per article is 536. Articles that were uploaded onto the web early naturally have a better chance of reaching a large readership than those uploaded a short time before the deadline for printing.
A question that is extremely important for the editors and authors cannot be answered so far: What share of the total number of visitors are actually Bulsa? For authors, for example, it is important to know whether terms used such as “TZ”, “compound” or northern Ghana place names (e.g. Navrongo, Bolgatanga, Tamale, etc.) are known to all readers or whether they have to be explained anew each time.
However, thanks to a new site counter (Matomo), it is possible to determine which articles in the last issues were visited most frequently:

BULUK 13

1. Basko Kante and M. Apen: “Letter to the President…” (3043 visits)
2. F. Kröger: “The Koma and the Bulsa of Northern Ghana” (830)
3. F. A. Azognab: “Should Christians Attend Traditional Funeral Celebrations?” (685)
4. Patrick Seidu aka Saala-Biik Soakatoa: “My Life and Career” (634)
5. S. Azundem: “Exploring the Jewish Concept…” (560)
6. F. Kröger (Obituary): “Sylvester Ateteng” (519)
7. J. Aduedem: “The Second Funeral Celebration” (497)
8. J. Aduedem: “The Art of Shepherding…” (485)
9. F. Kröger: “Eric Anaadem – Photographer and Artist” (480)
10. M. Akandawen: “Year of Return – Three African Americans…. (467)
11. J. A. Agandin: “Korona vairosiba tugurika: The Battle of Corona” (467)
12 Various Authors and Sources: Events (466)
13. Chr. Arnheim: “Dental Health – the Next Liftetime Crisis? (465)

The articles of BULUK 14 (until March 2023) were visited less frequently than those of BULUK 13, because most of them have been uploaded only recently or were still under construction.
BULUK 14 (visitors until March 1, 2023)

1. Kwesi Amoak: Review of Dr. Caesar Atuiri’s Philosophical Underspinnings (488)
2. Various Authors: Events (180)
3. Abdul-Rauf Akan-mwanatechaab: Brothers in Skirts (165)
4. Augustine A. Atano: The Duration of the Feok Festival (155)
5. J. Aduedem: A Stranger in Her Own Land – The Position of Women… (154)
6. J. Aduedem: Kisuta (taboos): Their Origins and Significance among the Bulsa (146)
7. F. Kröger: The Parliamentary and Presidential Elections 2020 (146)

As mentioned in the last issues, the articles with the highest number of visits do not appear in the serial numbers of BULUK (1-14) but can be found in buluk.de/new as special issues. Popular articles, for example, are “Bulsa History” with 4,791 visits and the “Bulsa Bibliography” with 4,348 visits (March 1,2023). The chapter “Brautwerbung und Ehe” (Bridal Courtship and Marriage) in the revised edition of “Übergangsriten im Wandel” (“Changing Rites of Transition”), which has not yet been translated into English and is still under construction, had 5,169 visits (buluk.de/new, section “Publikationen”).
The number of visits to the old website has become much smaller compared to the number of visits to the new one. Since the establishment of the site counter (2018?), the new website has been visited over 208,477 times (March 2023). I have no exact numbers for the overall number of visits/visitors since the founding of our BULUK journal in 1999.

Countries 2020 – 2023
Column 1: BULUK old: August 8, 2020 until March 2023
Column 2: Visitors Buluk.de/new, Jan. 2022 until March 1, 2023

	BULUK old: August 8, 2020 until March 2023	visitors Buluk.de/new Jan. 2022-March 1, 2023
not available	744	?
Australia		17 (0.45%)
Barbados	3
Belgium	1
Brasilia		6
Canada	17	60 (15.8%)
China	45	4 (0.1%)
Côte d’Ivoire		1 (0.03%)
Croatia		1 (0.03%)
Czechia		6 (0.16%)
Denmark	5
Finland	8
France	13	23 (0.6%)
Great Britain	34	714 (0.18.8%)
Germany	60	1127 (19.6%)
Ghana	110	52 (31.7%)
Hongkong	2
India	25	5 (0.13%)
Indonesia		2 (0.05%)
Iran	213
Italy		5 (0.13%)
Japan		2 (0.11%)
Korea, South	3
Mauritius	1
Nepal		1 (0.03%)
New Zealand	1	4 (0.1%)
Netherlands	15	4 (0.1%)
Nigeria	7
Norway		6 (0.16)
Philippines	6	6 (0.16%)
Poland		1 (0.03%)
Qatar		3 (0.08%)
Russia	13	36 (0.95%)
South Africa		3 (0.08%)
Spain	2	4 (0.1%)
Taiwan		2 (0.1%)
Thailand		1 (0.1%)
Turkey	1
Ukraine	1
United Arab. Emirats	1
USA	717	1704 (44.8%)
Vietnam		1 (0.03%)
Total	2047	3807 (visitors)

In contrast to previous editions, the following map includes all countries with visits to BULUK (old and new) from 2018 to March 2023.