Arguably the most marginalized of all the regions of Ghana, Northern Ghana, while accounting for only 20% of the national population, is home to over 80% of the poorest tenth of that population. Its main contribution to the national economy is unskilled labor. The critical essays assembled in this collection explain how the region acquired this status and why its underdevelopment persists. The contributors trace the genesis of this unfortunate situation in the North to the pattern of neglect set by policymakers in the early colonial period.