GHANA, FORMERLY THE BRITISH COLONY of the Gold Coast, lies on the
West African coast, just north of the equator. Its warm, humid climate
is typical of the tropics. Ghana covers an area of approximately 239,000
square kilometers, much of it drained by the Volta River system. The
population speaks languages that belong to the Kwa and Gur subfamilies
of the Niger-Congo language group and is divided into more than 100
linguistic and cultural units. Ghana's population, as in most
sub-Saharan African countries, consists of urban and rural workers,
herders, traders, and fishermen. Matrilineal, patrilineal, and
double-descent systems of social organization as well as villages and
chiefdoms contribute to the national mosaic.
The precolonial social systems to which Ghanaians belonged consisted
of both non-stratified and highly stratified societies. Virtually
without exception, however, their organizing principles were based on
locality, kinship/family, and clan structures. This is still two true
today. Chiefs, who may be influential on the national level, were and
still are selected from senior members of the lineages that are
considered to have been among the founders of the community or ethnic
group. Membership in a chiefly lineage carries some prestige.
Ghana's precolonial social order, in which kinship, lineage, and
locality provided the framework of social, political, religious, and
economic organization, has been undergoing profound change since before
the colonial era. The modernization of Ghanaian economic, social, and
political life intensified with independence in 1957. Fundamental to
this change were improvements in communications and infrastructure,
urbanization, the growth of the export and cash-crop economy, and the
expansion of Western education. To accelerate the pace of modernization,
the Education Act of 1960 made formal instruction both free and
compulsory, but attitudes toward change varied from group to group. For
example, in certain areas, especially in the north, compulsory education
was not welcomed because it took children away from homes that depended
on their labor in the fields. Although the benefits of education are
understood today, the percentage of female enrollment in secondary and
tertiary institutions of higher learning has remained disproportionately
low in relation to the number of women in the general population. As
Ghana's population swelled from about 6.7 million in 1960 to 8.5 million
in 1970 to an estimated 17.2 million in 1994, the central government
found it increasingly difficult to bring about improvements in the
standard of living at the same time that population growth threatened to
outstrip food production and economic growth. The issue of effective
family planning also required attention and resources, and the presence
of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) alarmed the medical
community and the Ghanaian population alike. Although the ancestral
extended family served as an effective mutual aid group in the rural
areas, many village communities lacked modern amenities. In urban
centers, housing shortages continued to be a major problem. Women's
associations, such as the National Council on Women and Development,
became a force for change, demanding educational and economic
opportunities denied under indigenous and colonial rulers.
In the 1980s, the governing Provisional National Defence Council
tried to address the nation's education problems by introducing a system
that emphasized vocational and technical training for all students. A
rural electrification program was also initiated. At the same time,
village- and community-based primary care organizations enhanced
child-care and nutritional programs aimed at illiterate mothers and
those who held traditional notions about marital relations. Although it
is difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of these programs in the
short term, at least some major problems have been recognized and steps
have been taken to deal with them. The success of such programs,
however, depends on the extent to which indigenous and modern
institutions and cultural values are balanced and, especially, on the
manner in which conflict is resolved.
Ghana - Population
Ghana's first postindependence population census in 1960 counted
about 6.7 million inhabitants. By 1970 the national census registered
8.5 million people, about a 27 percent increase, while the most recent
official census in 1984 recorded a figure of 12.3 million--almost double
the 1960 figure. The nation's population was estimated to have
increased to about 15 million in 1990 and to an estimated 17.2 million
in mid-1994. With an annual growth rate of 2.2 percent for the period
between 1965 and 1980, a 3.4 percent growth rate for 1981 through 1989,
and a 1992 growth rate of 3.2 percent, the country's population is
projected to surpass 20 million by the year 2000 and 35 million by 2025.
Increasing population is reflected in other statistical
representations as well. Between 1965 and 1989, a constant 45 percent of
the nation's total female population was of childbearing age. The crude
birth rate of 47 per 1,000 population recorded for 1965 dropped to 44
per 1,000 population in 1992. Also, the crude death rate of 18 per 1,000
population in 1965 fell to 13 per 1,000 population in 1992, while life
expectancy rose from a 1970 to 1975 average of forty-two years for men
and forty-five years for women to fifty-two and fifty-six years,
respectively, in 1992. The 1965 infant mortality rate of 120 per 1,000
live births also improved to 86 per 1,000 live births in 1992. With the
fertility rate averaging about seven children per adult female and
expected to fall only to five children per adult female by the year
2000, the population projection of 35 million in 2025 becomes more
credible. A number of factors, including improved vaccination against
common diseases, and nutritional education through village and community
health-care systems, contributed to the expanding population. The rise
in the nation's population generated a corresponding rise in the demand
for schools, health facilities, and urban housing.
The gender ratio of the population, 97.3 males to 100 females, was
reflected in the 1984 figures of 6,063,848 males to 6,232,233 females.
This was slightly below the 1970 figure of 98 males to 100 females, but
a reversal of the 1960 ratio of 102.2 males to 100 females. The fall in
the proportion of males to females may be partly attributed to the fact
that men have left the country in pursuit of jobs.
Also significant in the 1984 census figures was the national age
distribution. About 58 percent of Ghana's population in 1984 was either
under the age of twenty or above sixty-five. Approximately 7 million
people were represented in this category, about 4 million of them under
the age of ten and, therefore, economically unproductive. The large
population of young, economically unproductive individuals appeared to
be growing rapidly. In the early 1990s, about half of Ghana's population
was under age fifteen. If the under-twenty group and those above the age
of sixty are regarded as a dependent group, the social, political, and
economic implications for the 1990s and beyond are as grave for Ghana as
they are for sub-Saharan Africa as a whole.
<>Population
Distribution
Population density increased steadily from thirty-six per square
kilometer in 1970 to fifty-two per square kilometer in 1984; in 1990
sixty-three persons per square kilometer was the estimate for Ghana's
overall population density. These averages, naturally, did not reflect
variations in population distribution. For example, while the Northern
Region, one of ten administrative regions, showed a density of seventeen
persons per square kilometer in 1984, in the same year Greater Accra
Region recorded nine times the national average of fifty-two per square
kilometer. As was the case in the 1960 and 1970 figures, the greatest
concentration of population in 1984 was to the south of the Kwahu
Plateau. The highest concentration of habitation continued to be within
the Accra-Kumasi-Takoradi triangle, largely because of the economic
productivity of the region. In fact, all of the country's mining
centers, timber-producing deciduous forests, and cocoa-growing lands lie
to the south of the Kwahu Plateau. The Accra-Kumasi- Takoradi triangle
also is conveniently linked to the coast by rail and road
systems--making this area an important magnet for investment and labor.
By contrast, a large part of the Volta Basin was sparsely populated.
The presence of tsetse flies, the relative infertility of the soil, and,
above all, the scarcity of water in the area during the harmattan season
affect habitation. The far north, on the other hand, was heavily
populated. The eighty-seven persons to a square kilometer recorded in
the 1984 census for the Upper East Region, for example, was well above
the national average. This may be explained in part by the somewhat
better soil found in some areas and the general absence of the tsetse
fly; however, onchocerciasis, or river blindness, a fly-borne disease,
is common in the north, causing abandonment of some land. With the
improvement of the water supply through well-drilling and the
introduction of intensive agricultural extension services as part of the
Global 2000 program since the mid-1980s, demographic figures for the far
north could be markedly different by the next census.
Another factor affecting Ghana's demography was refugees. At the end
of 1994, approximately 110,000 refugees resided in Ghana. About 90,000
were Togolese who had fled political violence in their homeland
beginning in early 1993. Most Togolese had settled in Volta Region among
their ethnic kinsmen. About 20,000 Liberians were also found in Ghana,
having fled the civil war in their country. Many were long-term
residents. As a result of ethnic fighting in northeastern Ghana in early
1994, at least 20,000 Ghanaians out of an original group of 150,000 were
still internally displaced at the end of the year. About 5,000 had taken
up residence in Togo because of the strife.
Ghana.
Localities of 5,000 persons and above have been classified as urban
since 1960. On this basis, the 1960 urban population totalled 1,551,174
persons, or 23.1 percent of total population. By 1970, the percentage of
the country's population residing in urban centers had increased to 28
percent. That percentage rose to 32 in 1984 and was estimated at 33
percent for 1992.
Like the population density figures, the rate of urbanization varied
from one administrative region to another. While the Greater Accra
Region showed an 83-percent urban residency, the Ashanti Region matched
the national average of 32 percent in 1984. The Upper West Region of the
country recorded only 10 percent of its population in urban centers that
year, which reflected internal migration to the south and the pattern of
development that favored the south, with its minerals and forest
resources, over the north. Urban areas in Ghana have customarily been
supplied with more amenities than rural locations. Consequently, Kumasi,
Accra, and many towns within the southern economic belt attracted more
people than the savanna regions of the north; only Tamale in the north
has been an exception. The linkage of the national electricity grid to
the northern areas of the country in the late 1980s may help to
stabilize the north-to-south flow of internal migration.
The growth of urban population notwithstanding, Ghana continued to be
a nation of rural communities. The 1984 enumeration showed that six of
the country's ten regions had rural populations of 5 percent or more
above the national average of 68 percent. Rural residency was estimated
to be 67 percent of the population in 1992. These figures, though
reflecting a trend toward urban residency, were not very different from
the 1970s when about 72 percent of the nation's population lived in
rural areas.
In an attempt to perpetuate this pattern of rural-urban residency and
thereby to lessen the consequent socioeconomic impact on urban
development, the "Rural Manifesto," which assessed the causes
of rural underdevelopment, was introduced in April 1984. Development
strategies were evaluated, and some were implemented to make rural
residency more attractive. As a result, the Bank of Ghana established
more than 120 rural banks to support rural entrepreneurs, and the rural
electrification program was intensified in the late 1980s. The
government, moreover, presented its plans for district assemblies as a
component of its strategy for rural improvement through decentralized
administration, a program designed to allow local people to become more
involved in planning development programs to meet local needs.
Ghana.
A survey carried out between 1962 and 1964 in rural areas of the
country and among the economically better-off urban population indicated
the nature of the problem with population control in Ghana. The survey
showed that rural families favored a total of seven or eight children
and that the actual number of children in the better-off urban family
ran between five and six. In neither case was there much interest in
limiting the size of the family, although the urban group stated that it
would recommend a maximum of three or four children to newly married
couples.
The Ghanaian government has long shown an active interest in the
population question. It was a cosponsor of a resolution on population
growth and economic development in the 1962-63 session of the United
Nations (UN) General Assembly and was the first subSaharan country to
sign the "World Leaders' Declaration on Population" in 1967
that called attention to the population question. In 1969 it issued a
general policy paper, "Population Planning for National Progress
and Prosperity," that included provisions for family planning
services. Subsequently, in 1969, it carried out a mass publicity and
education campaign on family planning and during late 1970 sponsored an
awareness week designed to encourage acceptance of family planning.
Some family planning services have been available since 1966, when
the Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana was formed. In the early
1990s, branch offices of the organization were still functioning in
regional capitals out of which field officers (usually women) organized
community awareness campaigns. In addition to the obvious family
planning activities, the Planned Parenthood Association and the United
States government furnished technical and financial support to the
government's effort to control population expansion. This support
included aid for the demographic unit of the Sociology Department of the
University of Ghana in the collection of data on attitudes toward
population control and on family planning practices during the 1970s.
The aid program also funded pilot projects that incorporated family
planning education into basic health services and that provided training
of medical and paramedical personnel.
Although many adult Ghanaians have at least some knowledge of family
planning, data from the 1980s suggest almost no change in attitudes and
practices from the 1960s. For example, most Ghanaian women still prefer
large families and probably see their childbearing abilities as a form
of social and economic security. In Africa, where the infant mortality
rate is generally high, large families ensure that some children will
survive. It is, therefore, not surprising that Ghana's population
continues to grow rapidly in the 1990s.
In an effort to regulate the effects of rapid population growth, the
government launched a substantial public education program for women in
the late 1980s that continued into the 1990s. In numerous newspaper
articles and at community health centers, the campaign stressed child
nutrition and immunization and the spacing of births. Although family
planning had been incorporated into basic women's health services, no
attention was given to the role of men in family planning until the
beginning of the 1990s when a campaign to control the spread of acquired
immune deficiency syndrome (AIDs) addressed male promiscuity and the
practice of polygamy. Because of government efforts and increased aid
from the United States, some increase in the use of contraceptives and
modern methods of birth control has occurred during the early 1990s. As
is to be expected, family planning is more likely to be practiced among
women who live in urban areas with greater access to family planning
services and whose level of education is junior secondary school or
above.
Ghana.
In 1960 roughly 100 linguistic and cultural groups were recorded in
Ghana. Although later censuses placed less emphasis on the ethnic and
cultural composition of the population, differences of course existed
and had not disappeared by the mid-1990s. The major ethnic groups in Ghana include the Akan, Ewe,
Mole-Dagbane, Guan, and Ga-Adangbe. The subdivisions of each group share
a common cultural heritage, history, language, and origin. These shared
attributes were among the variables that contributed to state formation
in the precolonial period. Competition to acquire land for cultivation,
to control trade routes, or to form alliances for protection also
promoted group solidarity and state formation. The creation of the union
that became the Asante confederacy in the late seventeenth century is a
good example of such processes at work in Ghana's past.
Ethnic rivalries of the precolonial era, variance in the impact of
colonialism upon different regions of the country, and the uneven
distribution of social and economic amenities in postindependence Ghana
have all contributed to present-day ethnic tensions. For example, in
February 1994, more than 1,000 persons were killed and 150,000 others
displaced in the northeastern part of Ghana in fighting between Konkomba
on one side and Nanumba, Dagomba, and Gonja on the other. The clashes
resulted from longstanding grievances over land ownership and the
prerogatives of chiefs. A military task force restored order, but a
state of emergency in the region remained in force until mid-August.
Although this violence was certainly evidence of ethnic tension in
the country, most observers agreed that the case in point was
exceptional. As one prolific writer on modern Ghana, Naomi Chazan, has
aptly observed, undifferentiated recourse to ethnic categories has
obscured the essential fluidity that lies at the core of shared ties in
the country. Evidence of this fluidity lies in the heterogeneous nature
of all administrative regions, in rural-urban migration that results in
interethnic mixing, in the shared concerns of professionals and trade
unionists that cut across ethnic lines, and in the multi-ethnic
composition of secondary school and university classes. Ethnicity,
nonetheless, continues to be one of the most potent factors affecting
political behavior in Ghana. For this reason, ethnically based political
parties are unconstitutional under the present Fourth Republic.
Despite the cultural differences among Ghana's various peoples,
linguists have placed Ghanaian languages in one or the other of only two
major linguistic subfamilies of the Niger-Congo language family, one of
the large language groups in Africa. These are the Kwa and Gur groups,
found to the south and north of the Volta River, respectively. The Kwa
group, which comprises about 75 percent of the country's population,
includes the Akan, Ga-Adangbe, and Ewe. The Akan are further divided
into the Asante, Fante, Akwapim, Akyem, Akwamu, Ahanta, Bono, Nzema,
Kwahu, and Safwi. The Ga-Adangbe people and language group include the
Ga, Adangbe, Ada, and Krobo or Kloli. Even the Ewe, who constitute a
single linguistic group, are divided into the Nkonya, Tafi, Logba,
Sontrokofi, Lolobi, and Likpe. North of the Volta River are the three
subdivisions of the Gur-speaking people. These are the Gurma, Grusi, and
Mole-Dagbane. Like the Kwa subfamilies, further divisions exist within
the principal Gur groups.
Any one group may be distinguished from others in the same
linguistically defined category or subcategory, even when the members of
the category are characterized by essentially the same social
institutions. Each has a historical tradition of group identity, if
nothingelse, and, usually, of political autonomy. In some cases,
however, what is considered a single unit for census and other purposes
may have been divided into identifiable separate groups before and
during much of the colonial period and, in some manner, may have
continued to be separate after independence.
No part of Ghana, however, is ethnically homogeneous. Urban centers
are the most ethnically mixed because of migration to towns and cities
by those in search of employment. Rural areas, with the exception of
cocoa-producing areas that have attracted migrant labor, tend to reflect
more traditional population distributions. One overriding feature of the
country's ethnic population is that groups to the south who are closer
to the Atlantic coast have long been influenced by the money economy,
Western education, and Christianity, whereas Gur-speakers to the north,
who have been less exposed to those influences, have came under Islamic
influence. These influences were not pervasive in the respective
regions, however, nor were they wholly restricted to them.
<>Language Diversity
More than 100 languages and dialects are spoken in Ghana. In view of
these linguistic and associated cultural differences, and, as a result
of the country's colonial past, English has become Ghana's official
language. It is used for all government affairs, large-scale business
transactions, educational instruction, and in national radio and
television broadcasts. In fact, the Constitution of 1969 required that
members of parliament speak, read, and understand English. In an effort
to increase "grassroots participation" in government and to
encourage non-English speakers to run for elective office, however, the
1992 Consultative Assembly on the Constitution recommended that the
ability to communicate in English no longer be required of future
members of parliament. In the mid-1980s, the Ministry of Education also
encouraged teachers to use local languages for instruction during the
first six years of formal education. These changes, however, have not
lessened the importance of English in Ghanaian society.
Although Fante-Twi (a major Akan language), Ga, and Ewe are the most
important Kwa languages spoken in the south, three subdivisions of the
Gur branch--Mole-Dagbane, Grusi, and Gurma-- dominate the northern
region. Hausa, a language of northern Nigeria which spread throughout
West Africa through trade, is also understood by some inhabitants in the
northeastern part of the country. In northwestern Ghana, among the
Dagari-speaking people and around frontier towns in western Brong-Ahafo,
various dialects of the Mande language are spoken. Akan, Ewe, Ga, Nzema,
Dagbane, and Hausa are the country's principal indigenous languages and
are used in radio and television programming.
The literary tradition of northern Ghana has its roots in Islam,
while the literature of the south was influenced by Christian
missionaries. As a result of European influence, a number of Ghanaian
groups have developed writing systems based on Latin script, and several
indigenous languages have produced a rich body of literature. The
principal written Ghanaian languages are the Twi dialects of Asante,
Akwapim, and Fante. Other written languages are Nzema, Ewe, Dagbane, Ga,
and Kasena (a Grusi language). Most publications in the country,
however, are written in English.
Ghana - Major Ethnic Groups
On the basis of language and culture, historical geographers and
cultural anthropologists classify the indigenous people of Ghana into
five major groups. These are the Akan, the Ewe, MoleDagbane , the Guan,
and the Ga-Adangbe.
The Akan Group
The Akan people occupy practically the whole of Ghana south and west
of the Black Volta. Historical accounts suggest that Akan groups
migrated from the north to occupy the forest and coastal areas of the
south as early as the thirteenth century. Some of the Akan ended up in
the eastern section of C�te d'Ivoire, where they created the Baule
community.
When Europeans arrived at the coast in the fifteenth century, the
Akan were established there. The typical political unit was the small
state under the headship of an elder from one of the seven or eight
clans that composed Akan society. From these units emerged several
powerful states, of which the oldest is thought to be Bono (also called
Brong). As a result of military conquests and partial assimilation of
weaker groups, well-known political entities, such as Akwamu, Asante,
Akyem, Denkyira, and Fante emerged before the close of the seventeenth
century. Asante, for example, continued to expand throughout the
eighteenth century and survived as an imperial power until the end of
the nineteenth century, when it succumbed to British rule.
The coastal Akan (Fante) were the first to have relations with
Europeans. As a result of long association, these groups absorbed
aspects of British culture and language. For example, it became
customary among these people to accept British names as family names.
The primary form of Akan social organization is the family or the abusu--the
basic unit in a society based on matriclans. Through the exogamous
matriclan system, local identity and individual status, inheritance,
succession to wealth and to political offices, and even basic relations
within the village community are determined. Every lineage is a
corporate group with its own identity, group solidarity, exclusive
property, and symbols. The ownership of a symbolic carved chair or
stool, usually named after the female founder of the matriclan, became
the means through which individuals traced their ancestry. These
lineages have segmented into branches, each led by an elder, headman, or
chief, but a branch, although it possesses a stool, is not an autonomous
political or social unit. Possession of the ritually important stool is
seen as vital, not only to the existence of the abusu but to
the group as a whole.
Despite the matrilineal focus of Akan societies, most traditional
leadership positions are held by men. Male succession to inherited
positions is, however, determined by relationship to mothers and
sisters. Consequently, a man's valuable property is passed on not to his
children, but to his brother or sister's son. A man may also be expected
to support the children of a maternal relative, whether deceased or
alive, an expectation that may conflict with the interests of his own
children. Matrilineal succession to property has been the cause of much litigation. There have
been instances of wives and children turning to the courts for redress.
In 1986 the government passed a number of laws that sought to bring the
traditions of inheritance in line with changes that had occurred in the
country. These laws, which included the Intestate Succession Law, the
Customary Marriage and Divorce (Registration) Law, the Administration of
Estate (Amendment) Law, and the Head of Family (Accountability) Law,
recognized the nuclear family as the prime economic unit. Provision was
made, however, for the identification of collective properties that
belonged to the extended family.
Notwithstanding the 1986 legislation, the matriclan system of the
Akan continued to be economically and politically important. Each
lineage controlled the land farmed by its members, functioned as a
religious unit in the veneration of its ancestors, supervised marriages,
and settled internal disputes among its members. It was from the lineages and the associations
they cultivated that the village, town, and even the state emerged. The
Akan state, therefore, comprehended several kinbased units, one of
which, usually the most prominent lineage, provided the paramount chief,
who exercised at least some authority over incorporated groups. Every
one of the incorporated groups, lineages, or territorial units had some
autonomy under its own headman, chief, or elders. In any case, all
chiefs were subject to removal from office if they acted in any manner
that alienated a substantial number of people, especially influential
ones.
The relative homogeneity of Akan cultures, languages, and authority
structures has not led to political unity; the most important conflicts
of the Akan in precolonial and colonial times, for example, were with
other Akan groups. This is understandable if the state is seen as the
arena of political life and as a set of institutions concerned with
power, especially for internal regulation, and for the defense of its
component members. The development of the Asante Empire, for example,
was largely at the expense of the independence of the surrounding Akan,
who were quick to reassert their autonomy, especially after 1896, when
Asante was defeated and its king, the asantehen (king of
Asante), was exiled to the Seychelles by the British. In the struggle
for independence and in the period since then, political alignments have
followed local interests rather than any conception of Akan ethnic
unity.
<>The Ewe
The Ewe occupy southeastern Ghana and the southern parts of
neighboring Togo and Benin. On the west, the Volta separates the Ewe
from the Ga-Adangbe, Ga, and Akan. Subdivisions of the Ewe include the
Anglo (Anlo), Bey (Be), and Gen on the coast, and the Peki, Ho, Kpando,
Tori, and Ave in the interior. Oral tradition suggests that the Ewe
immigrated into Ghana before the midfifteenth century. Although the Ewe
have been described as a single language group, there is considerable
dialectic variation. Some of these dialects are mutually intelligible,
but only with difficulty.
Unlike the political and social organization of the Akan, where
matrilineal rule prevails, the Ewe are essentially a patrilineal people.
The founder of a community became the chief and was usually succeeded by
his paternal relatives. The largest independent political unit was a
chiefdom, the head of which was essentially a ceremonial figure who was
assisted by a council of elders. Chiefdoms ranged in population from a
few hundred people in one or two villages to several thousand in a
chiefdom with a large number of villages and surrounding countryside.
Unlike the Asante among the Akan, no Ewe chiefdom gained hegemonic power
over its neighbor. The rise of Ewe nationalism in both Ghana and Togo
was more of a reaction to the May 1956 plebiscite that partitioned
Eweland between the Gold Coast and Togo than to any sense of overriding
ethnic unity.
Substantial differences in local economies were characteristic of the
Ewe. Most Ewe were farmers who kept some livestock, and there was some
craft specialization. On the coast and immediately inland, fishing was
important, and local variations in economic activities permitted a great
deal of trade between one community and another, carried out chiefly by
women.
Ghana - The Guan
The Guan are believed to have begun to migrate from the Mossi region
of modern Burkina around A.D. 1000. Moving gradually through the Volta
valley in a southerly direction, they created settlements along the
Black Volta, throughout the Afram Plains, in the Volta Gorge, and in the
Akwapim Hills before moving farther south onto the coastal plains. Some
scholars postulate that the wide distribution of the Guan suggests that
they were the Neolithic population of the region. Later migrations by
other groups such as the Akan, Ewe, and Ga-Adangbe into Guan-settled
areas would then have led to the development of Guan-speaking enclaves
along the Volta and within the coastal plains. The Guan have been
heavily influenced by their neighbors. The Efutu, a subgroup of the
Guan, for example, continue to speak Guan dialects, but have adopted
(with modifications) the Fante version of some Akan institutions and the
use of some Fante words in their rituals. As far as the other Guan
subgroups are concered, the Anum-Boso speak a local Ewe dialect, whereas
the Larteh and Kyerepong have customs similar to Akwapim groups.
Constituting about a quarter of the Guan, the Gonja to the north have
also been influenced by other groups. The Gonja are ruled by members of
a dynasty, probably Mande in origin. The area is peopled by a variety of
groups, some of which do not speak Guan. The ruling dynasty, however,
does speak Guan, as do substantial numbers of commoners. Although
neither the rulers nor most of the commoners are Muslims, a group of
Muslims accompanied the Mande invaders and have since occupied a special
position as scribes and traders.
The Gonja founded one of several northern kingdoms. In the eighteenth
century, they, like their neighbors, were defeated by the expanding
Asante Empire. Gonja became part of the British Northern Territories
after the fall of Asante. Even though long-distance commerce led to the
development of major markets, the Gonja continued to be subsistence
farmers and migrant workers.
Ghana - The Peoples of the North
Apart from the Guan-speaking Gonja, the Kyokosi or Chokosi (an
Akan-speaking fragment), and the Mande-speaking Busanga in the
northeasternmost part of Ghana, the ethnic groups to the north of the
Black Volta speak Gur or Voltaic languages of the Niger-Congo linguistic
family. Three subgroups of Gur languages--the MoleDagbane (sometimes
called Mossi-Grunshi), Gurma, and Grusi--are represented in this region.
Of the three Gur subfamilies, MoleDagbane is by far the largest, being
spoken by about 15 percent of the nation's population. Its speakers are
culturally the most varied; they include the Nanumba, Dagomba, Mamprusi,
Wala, Builsa, Frafra, Talensi, and Kusase.
For centuries, the area inhabited by the Gur has been the scene of
movements of people engaged in conquest, expansion, and northsouth and
east-west trade. For these reasons, a considerable degree of
heterogeneity, particularly of political structure, developed here.
The structure of many small groups, varied as they are, suggests that
most Gur-speakers once lived in small, autonomous communities and that
the links among these communities were provided by kin groups, which in
their larger extensions cut across community boundaries, and by
intermarriage. The salient figure was not political but ritual--it was
the priest (tendaan; a Mole-Dagbane term) of the earth cult and
shrine. Although primarily a religious figure, the tendaan's
influence was keenly felt in kin-group and community decision making.
In some cases (for example, that of the Talensi), an independent
community or chiefdom was aware that others like it shared the same
culture and social structure, and there were occasional common rituals
that brought independent communities together. In other cases (for
example, the Dagaba), political and cultural boundaries were not sharp,
and there was no sense that an ethnic group included some communities
and excluded others, although shifting distinctions were made based on
various cultural traits. In the case of the Dagaba, the most important
or recurrent of these distinctions seemed to be, and in the
mid-twentieth century continued to be, whether inheritance was
exclusively determined in the patrilineal line or, at least in part,
followed the matrilineal line.
In a few cases, some Mole-Dagbane people developed societies of
larger scale under a ruling dynasty. These included the Dagomba,
Mamprusi, and Gonja, who, like the Akan to the south, were known to have
founded centralized states. Rulers of the centralized MoleDagbane
societies were believed to be related to those of the Mossi kingdoms of
Burkina and the smaller Nanumba kingdoms of Ghana. Historical research
suggests that migrants imposed their rule on peoples already settled in
the area. In some cases, these migrants extended their rule to other
groups, at least for a time. Thus, many of the Gurma-speaking Konkomba
were subject to Dagomba control. The ruling groups still maintain a
clear sense of their own distinction and some cultural and linguistic
peculiarities, but in general they speak the local language.
Ghana - The Ga-Adangbe
The Ga-Adangbe people inhabit the Accra Plains. The Adangbe are found
to the east, the Ga groups, to the west of the Accra coastlands.
Although both languages are derived from a common proto-Ga-Adangbe
ancestral language, modern Ga and Adangbe are mutually unintelligible.
The modern Adangbe include the people of Shai, La, Ningo, Kpone,
Osudoku, Krobo, Gbugble, and Ada, who speak different dialects. The Ga
also include the Ga-Mashie groups occupying neighborhoods in the central
part of Accra, and other Gaspeakers who migrated from Akwamu, Anecho in
Togo, Akwapim, and surrounding areas.
Debates persist about the origins of the Ga-Adangbe people. One
school of thought suggests that the proto-Ga-Adangbe people came from
somewhere east of the Accra plains, while another suggests a distant
locale beyond the West African coast. In spite of such historical and
linguistic theories, it is agreed that the people were settled in the
plains by the thirteenth century. Both the Ga and the Adangbe were
influenced by their neighbors. For example, both borrowed some of their
vocabulary, especially words relating to economic activities and
statecraft, from the Guan. The Ewe are also believed to have influenced
the Adangbe.
Despite the archeological evidence that proto-Ga-Adangbe- speakers
relied on millet and yam cultivation, the modern Ga reside in what used
to be fishing communities. Today, such former Ga communities as Labadi
and Old Accra are neighborhoods of the national capital of Accra. This
explains why, in 1960, when the national enumeration figures showed the
ethnic composition of the country's population, more than 75 percent of
the Ga were described as living in urban centers. The presence of major
industrial, commercial, and governmental institutions in the city, as
well as increasing migration of other people into the area, had not
prevented the Ga people from maintaining aspects of their traditional
culture.
Ghana - The Central Togo
The extended family system is the hub around which traditional social
organization revolved. This unilineal descent group functions under
customary law. It is a corporate group with definite identity and
membership that controls property, the application of social sanctions,
and the practice of religious rituals. Many local varieties exist within
the general framework of the lineage system. In some ethnic groups, the
individual's loyalty to his or her lineage overrides all other
loyalties; in other groups, a person marrying into the group, though
never becoming a complete member of the spouse's lineage, adopts its
interests.
Among the matrilineal Akan, members of the extended family include
the man's mother, his maternal uncles and aunts, his sisters and their
children, and his brothers. A man's children and those of his brothers
belong to the families of their respective mothers. Family members may
occupy one or several houses in the same village. The wife and her
children traditionally reside at their maternal house where she prepares
her food, usually the late evening meal, to be carried to her husband at
his maternal house. Polygamy as a conjugal arrangement is on the decline
for economic reasons; but where it has been practiced, sleeping rosters
with the husband were planned for the wives.
For the patrilineal and double-descent peoples of the north, the
domestic group often consists of two or more brothers with their wives
and children who usually occupy a single homestead with a separate room
for each wife. Also, the largest household among the patrilineal Ewe
includes some or all of the sons and grandsons of one male ancestor
together with their wives, children, and unmarried sisters.
Irrespective of the composition of the family in either matrilineal
or patrilineal societies, each family unit is usually headed by a senior
male or headman who might either be the founding member of the family or
have inherited that position. He acts in council with other significant
members of the family in the management of the affairs of the unit.
Elderly female members of matrilineal descent groups may be consulted in
the decision-making process on issues affecting the family, but often
the men wield more influence.
Family elders supervise the allocation of land and function as
arbitrators in domestic quarrels; they also oversee naming ceremonies
for infants, supervise marriages, and arrange funerals. As custodians of
the political and spiritual authority of the unit, the headman and his
elders ensure the security of the family. These obligations that bind
the group together also grant its members the right of inheritance, the
privilege to receive capital (either in the form of cattle or fishing
nets) to begin new businesses, and the guarantee of a proper funeral and
burial upon death. The extended family, therefore, functions as a mutual
aid society in which each member has both the obligation to help others
and the right to receive assistance from it in case of need.
To ensure that such obligations and privileges are properly carried
out, the family also functions as a socializing agency. The moral and
ethical instruction of children is the responsibility of the extended
family. Traditional values may be transmitted to the young through
proverbs, songs, stories, rituals, and initiations associated with rites
of passage. Among the Krobo, Ga, and Akan, puberty rites for girls offer
important occasions for instructing young adults. These methods of
communication constitute the informal mode of education in the
traditional society. It is, therefore, through the family that the
individual acquires recognition and social status. As a result, the
general society sees the individual's actions as reflecting the moral
and ethical values of the family. Debts accrued by him are assumed by
the family upon a member's death, and, therefore, his material gains are
theirs to inherit.
Land is ordinarily the property of the lineage. Family land is
thought of as belonging to the ancestors or local deities and is held in
trust for them. As a result, such lands are administered by the lineage
elders, worked by the members of the kinship group, and inherited only
by members of that unit. Although sectors of such land may be leased to
others for seasonal agricultural production, the land remains within the
family and usually is not sold. However, it is not unusual for a man to
set aside a portion of his acquired property as "reasonable
gifts" for his children or wife, as has been the case,
particularly, among matrilineal groups. For such gifts to be recognized,
tradition requires that the presentation be made public during the
lifetime of the donor, allowing the recipient to hold the public as
witnesses should the gift be contested afterward, especially following
the death of the donor.
A network of mutual obligations also joins families to chiefs and
others in the general community. Traditional elders and chiefs act for
the ancestors as custodians of the community. Thus, in both patrilineal
and matrilineal societies, and from the small village to the large town,
the position of the chief and that of the queen mother are recognized.
The chief embodies traditional authority. Chiefs are usually selected
from the senior members of the lineage or several lineages that are
considered to be among the founders of the community or ethnic group.
Chiefs have extensive executive and judicial authority. Decisions on
critical issues, such as those made by family elders, are based on wide
discussions and consultations with adult representative groups of both
sexes. Traditionally, legislation has not been a primary issue, for the
rules of life are largely set by custom. Discussions are usually focused
on the expediency of concrete actions within the framework of customary
rules. Decisions, when taken by chiefs, are normally taken by
chiefs-in-council and not by lone dictatorial fiat. The legitimacy of
traditional authority, therefore, has usually been based on public
consensus sanctioned by custom.
Although chiefs or other authority figures might come from designated
families or clans, the interest of the common people is never ignored.
Where the process of selecting as well as of advising chiefs is not
given directly to the populace, it has often been vested in
representatives of kin or local residence groups, elders, or other types
of councils. Among the Akan, for example, the asaf (traditional
men's associations, originally fighting companies) have played important
roles as political action groups to protect the interests of the common
people. The priests of some local shrines also acquired substantial
authority that helped balance the powers of local chiefs. It was such
checks and balances within the traditional scheme of authority
relations, especially among the Akan, that led the British
anthropologist, Robert S. Rattray, to refer to the traditional political
structure as a "domestic democracy."
Ghana - Social Change
Needless to say, contact with Europeans, Christians, and Muslims as
well as colonialism greatly affected and modified indigenous customs,
institutions, and values. A good example of this process is the office
of local chief. British influence has been present for generations, and
by the time of independence in 1957, the British had exercised
substantial political authority over certain southern regions for more
than a century. The office of the chief, traditionally used to manage
the affairs of the village community and the ethnic group, was retained
by the British as one of the most important agencies through which the
populace received colonial instructions. As the architect of the British
colonial policy of indirect rule, Frederick Lugard argued in his Dual
Mandate in British Tropical Afric that the preservation of the
office of the traditional chief was cost- effective because it presented
the appearance of continuity in the changing political environment. As
was the case in many British colonies in Africa, traditional chiefs in
Ghana were allowed to hold court in matters relating to traditional
customs. They also controlled some local lands for agricultural
production, even when the timber and mineral resources were exploited by
the colonial government.
Chiefs continued to be appointed by their own people during colonial
times, but native administrators became increasingly accountable to the
colonial government. Inevitably, the presence of other colonial agents,
such as the small but effective colonial police and the resident
commissioners, influenced the power of chiefs. Also, with the abolition
of slavery, the imposition of colonial taxes, and the establishment of
bureaucratic and judicial procedures, the social relationships that had
existed in the precolonial period between chiefs and people were
altered--at times radically and always permanently. Some individuals and
groups lost power, while others gained influence as the British
abolished some traditional functions and established new ones.
A combination of factors affected customary notions about the
exercise of power--colonial rule, Christianity, the money economy, and
Western-style education. Christian missionaries established the first
Western schools. Products of this formal school system became the new elite
class of literate graduates who functioned as intermediaries between the
indigenous people and the colonial power and, later, the world at large.
Freed from lineage property as the sole means of attaining wealth and
social status, the new elite developed new forms of social institutions
and patterns of interaction. Such modes of behavior associated with
modernization and urbanization and acquired through formal education and
the formal market economy introduced certain value systems that were
distinctly different from those within the traditional culture.
Of course, Western knowledge, technology, and organizations were not
uniformly introduced throughout the country. They appeared first and in
most concentrated form on the coast or in the Gold Coast Colony, where
European influence was greatest and where many schools were established
compared with Asante and other northern regions. Consequently, the
coastal and southern peoples were the greatest beneficiaries of the new
economic and social opportunities and, conversely, suffered the greatest
social upheaval--especially in conflicts between the Western-educated
Africans and their traditional chiefs. Traditional society adapted with
particular swiftness to life in urban areas, in part because of the
concentration of economic development and social infrastructure in such
areas. The pace of change intensified in 1952 when Kwame Nkrumah, the
first African-born Prime Minister of the Gold Coast, introduced the
Accelerated Development Plan for Education.
The impact of the urban region on rural, traditional life has been
great. Migrations from the rural to urban centers, either in search of
work or for the pure enjoyment of urban conditions, greatly increased
after 1969. The result was a decline in rural agricultural productivity
and an increased dependence on urban wage-earners by extended family
relatives. What has been described as "rural dependency on the
urban wage-earner" was acceptable to those within the traditional
system, who saw the individual as socially important because he
continued to function in a matrix of kin and personal relationships and
obligations, because his social identity could not be separated from
that of his lineage, and because the wealth or positions attained could
be shared by, or would benefit all, members of the extended family. Such
a position, however, contradicted the Western view of the individual as
a free and separate social agent whose legal obligations were largely
contractual rather than kin-based and whose relationships with other
people depended on individual actions and interests. The very difficult
economic conditions of the 1970s brought even more pressure to bear on
the relationship between traditional and urban values; nonetheless, the
modern and the traditional societies continued to exist side by side,
and individuals continued to adapt themselves to the requirements of
each.
Ghana - Urban Society
In 1960, 23.1 percent of the population of Ghana resided in urban
centers. The figure rose to 28 percent in 1970, 32 percent according to
the 1984 census report, and an estimated 33 percent in 1994. The census
figures show that while a majority of Ghanaians still live in rural
areas, larger towns and cities continue to attract more immigrants than
small ones. There is a high correlation between both the economic
well-being of the individual and his or her educational level, and the
tendency to migrate. A large number of immigrants come from areas
immediately adjacent to urban areas. Urban populations are therefore
multiethnic in character. Even in this multiethnic urban environment,
however, ethnic associations play important social roles--from the
initial reception of new immigrants to the burial of urban residents.
Formed by people from the same village, district, region, or ethnic
background, ethnic associations in urban centers function like extended
families in which membership entails obligations and benefits. Apart
from the obvious assistance that such associations may render--such as
introducing new immigrants to the urban environment, organizing credit
unions, or helping with weddings and funeral activities--associations
may also contribute to the development of their home areas. For example,
urban residents from towns and villages in the Kwahu Plateau area are
known throughout Ghana for their mutual aid societies. Through their
fund-raising activities, Kwahu associations have contributed to school
building construction, rural electrification, and general beautification
projects in their villages.
In urban centers, the degree of traditionalism or modernism
demonstrated by an individual is determined to a large extent by the
length of residency in an urban setting; by the level of education and,
therefore, the degree of Westernization; by living habits; by the nature
of work; and, in some measure, by religious affiliation. For analytic
purposes, one scholar has divided Ghanaian urban residents, especially
those in the upper ranks of urban society, into groups according to
occupation. Within these groups are individuals who, on the basis of
their education, professional standing, and participation in the urban
milieu, are accorded high status. They include professionals in
economics, politics, education, administration, medicine, law, and
similar occupations who constitute the elite of their respective
groupings.
Taken as a whole, however, such elites do not compose an upper class.
The individuals who constitute the elites come from different social and
ethnic backgrounds and base their power and social status on different
cultural values. Most of them continue to participate in some aspects of
traditional society and socialize with members of their own or other
lineage groups. Most important, they do not regard themselves as an
elite group.
The working class constitutes the rank and file of the various trade
union groups. The majority of them have completed the Middle School
Leaving Certificate Examination. Some have secondary and technical
educations. Unions have been politically active in the country since the
1960s. During the 1970s, members of the Trade Union Congress, the
umbrella organization of workers, and the nation's university students
joined together to call for political changes. In the 1980s, however,
long-standing good relations with student organizations suffered when
certain trade union groups attacked demonstrating university students.
The primary function of the Trade Union Congress as a mutual aid group
is to conduct negotiations with the government in an effort to improve
the conditions and the wages of workers. Apart from such joint actions
within the unions, the lives of working people in urban centers, like
those of their elite counterparts, revolve around friends, family, and
other mutual-aid networks.
Family life in more affluent urban areas approximates Western
behavior in varying degrees. Decisions in the urban family are
increasingly made by both parents, not just one. As children spend
increasing amounts of time away from home, more of their values come
from their peers and from adults who are not members of their lineage.
Social activities organized by schools have become more important in the
life of urban children and have reduced sibling interaction. As a
result, a greater amount of socialization is taking place outside the
kin group and immediate family. This contrasts with rural society in
which family and lineage remain the most significant institutions.
As a result of weakening lineage ties in urban centers and of
population movements that separate more and more individuals from
kinsmen upon whom they would ordinarily depend for assistance,
companionship, and entertainment, many urban residents have turned to
voluntary-membership clubs and to organizations composed of people with
shared interests rather than inherited links. Popular examples of such
clubs are the Ghana Red Cross Society, the Accra Turf Club, and the
Kristo Asafo (Christian) Women's Club. Other organizations such as the
Ghana Bar Association, the Registered Nurses Association, the Ghana
Medical Association, and the Ghana National Association of Teachers
address professional concerns.
Ghana - The Position of Women
Women in premodern Ghanaian society were seen as bearers of children,
retailers of fish, and farmers. Within the traditional sphere, the
childbearing ability of women was explained as the means by which
lineage ancestors were allowed to be reborn. Barrenness was, therefore,
considered the greatest misfortune. In precolonial times, polygamy was
encouraged, especially for wealthy men. Anthropologists have explained
the practice as a traditional method for well-to-do men to procreate
additional labor. In patrilineal societies, dowry received from marrying
off daughters was also a traditional means for fathers to accumulate
additional wealth. Given the male dominance in traditional society, some
economic anthropologists have explained a female's ability to reproduce
as the most important means by which women ensured social and economic
security for themselves, especially if they bore male children.
In their Seven Roles of Women: Impact of Education, Migration,
and Employment on Ghanaian Mother (1987), Christine Oppong and
Katherine Abu recorded field interviews in Ghana that confirmed this
traditional view of procreation. Citing figures from the Ghana fertility
survey of 1983, the authors concluded that about 60 percent of women in
the country preferred to have large families of five or more children. A
statistical table accompanying the research showed that the largest
number of children per woman was found in the rural areas where the
traditional concept of family was strongest. Uneducated urban women also
had large families. On the average, urbanized, educated, and employed
women had fewer children. On the whole, however, all the interviewed
groups saw childbirth as an essential role for women in society, either
for the benefits it bestows upon the mother or for the honor it brings
to her family. The security that procreation provided was greater in the
case of rural and uneducated women. By contrast, the number of children
per mother declined for women with post- elementary education and
outside employment; with guaranteed incomes and little time at their
disposal in their combined roles as mothers and employees, the desire to
procreate declined.
In rural areas of Ghana where non-commercial agricultural production
was the main economic activity, women worked the land. Coastal women
also sold fish caught by men. Many of the financial benefits that
accrued to these women went into upkeep of the household, while those of
the man were reinvested in an enterprise that was often perceived as
belonging to his extended family. This traditional division of wealth
placed women in positions subordinate to men. The persistence of such
values in traditional Ghanaian society may explain some of the
resistance to female education in the past.
In traditional society, marriage under customary law was often
arranged or agreed upon by the fathers and other senior kinsmen of the
prospective bride and bridegroom. This type of marriage served to link
the two groups together in social relationships; hence, marriage within
the ethnic group and in the immediate locality was encouraged. The age
at which marriage was arranged varied among ethnic groups, but men
generally married women somewhat younger than they were. Some of the
marriages were even arranged by the families long before the girl
attained nubility. In these matters, family considerations outweighed
personal ones--a situation that further reinforced the subservient
position of the wife.
The alienation of women from the acquisition of wealth, even in
conjugal relationships, was strengthened by traditional living
arrangements. Among matrilineal groups, such as the Akan, married women
continued to reside at their maternal homes. Meals prepared by the wife
would be carried to the husband at his maternal house. In polygamous
situations, visitation schedules would be arranged. The separate living
patterns reinforced the idea that each spouse is subject to the
authority of a different household head, and because spouses are always
members of different lineages, each is ultimately subject to the
authority of the senior men of his or her lineage. The wife, as an
outsider in the husband's family, would not inherit any of his property,
other than that granted to her by her husband as gifts in token
appreciation of years of devotion. The children from this matrilineal
marriage would be expected to inherit from their mother's family.
The Ewe and the Dagomba, on the other hand, inherit from fathers. In
these patrilineal societies where the domestic group includes the man,
his wife or wives, their children, and perhaps several dependent
relatives, the wife was brought into closer proximity to the husband and
his paternal family. Her male children also assured her of more direct
access to wealth accumulated in the marriage with her husband.
The transition into the modern world has been slow for women. On the
one hand, the high rate of female fertility in Ghana in the 1980s showed
that women's primary role continued to be that of child-bearing. On the
other hand, current research supported the view that, notwithstanding
the Education Act of 1960, which expanded and required elementary
education, some parents were reluctant to send their daughters to school
because their labor was needed in the home and on farms. Resistance to
female education also stemmed from the conviction that women would be
supported by their husbands. In some circles, there was even the fear
that a girl's marriage prospects dimmed when she became educated.
Where girls went to school, most of them did not continue after
receiving the basic education certification. Others did not even
complete the elementary level of education. At numerous workshops
organized by the National Council on Women and Development (NCWD)
between 1989 and 1990, the alarming drop-out rate among girls at the
elementary school level caused great concern. For this reason, the
council called upon the government to find ways to remedy the situation.
The disparity between male and female education in Ghana was again
reflected in the 1984 national census. Although the ratio of male to
female registration in elementary schools was fifty-five to forty-five,
the percentage of girls at the secondary school level dropped
considerably, and only about 17 percent of them were registered in the
nation's universities in 1984. According to United Nations Educational,
Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) figures published in
1991, the percentage of the female population registered at various
levels of the nation's educational system in 1989 showed no improvement
over those recorded in 1984.
Despite what these figures might suggest, women have risen to
positions of professional importance in Ghana. Early 1990s data showed
that about 19 percent of the instructional staff at the nation's three
universities in 1990 was female. Of the teaching staff in specialized
and diploma-granting institutions, 20 percent was female; elsewhere,
corresponding figures were 21 percent at the secondary school level; 23
percent at the middle school level, and as high as 42 percent at the
primary school level. Women also dominated the secretarial and nursing
professions in Ghana. When women were employed in the same line of work
as men, they were paid equal wages, and they were granted maternity
leave with pay.
For women of little or no education who lived in urban centers,
commerce was the most common form of economic activity in the 1980s. At
urban market centers throughout the country, women from the rural areas
brought their goods to trade. Other women specialized in buying
agricultural produce at discounted prices at the rural farms and selling
it to retailers in the city. These economic activities were crucial in
sustaining the general urban population. From the mid-1970s through the
early 1980s, however, urban market women, especially those who
specialized in trading manufactured goods, gained reputations for
manipulating market conditions and were accused of exacerbating the
country's already difficult economic situation. With the introduction of
the Economic Recovery Program in 1983 and the consequent successes
reported throughout that decade, these accusations began to subside.
The overall impact of women on Ghanaian society cannot be
overemphasized. The social and economic well-being of women, who as
mothers, traders, farmers, and office workers compose slightly more than
half of the nation's population, cannot be taken for granted. This was
precisely the position taken by NCWD, which sponsored a number of
studies on women's work, education, and training, and on family issues
that are relevant in the design and execution of policies for the
improvement of the condition of women. Among these considerations the
NCWD stressed family planning, child care, and female education as
paramount.
Ghana - RELIGION
The religious composition of Ghana in the first postindependence
population census of 1960 was 41 percent Christian, 38 percent
traditionalist, 12 percent Muslim, and the rest (about 9 percent) no
religious affiliation. A breakdown of the 1960 population according to
Christian sects showed that 25 percent were Protestant
(non-Pentecostal); 13 percent, Roman Catholic; 2 percent, Protestant
(Pentecostal); and 1 percent, Independent African Churches. The 1970
population census did not present figures on the religious composition
of the nation.
The percentage of the general population considered to be Christian
rose sharply to 62 percent according to a 1985 estimate. Whereas the
Protestant (non-Pentecostal) sector remained at 25 percent, the
percentage of Catholics increased to 15 percent. A larger rise, however,
was recorded for Protestants (Pentecostals)-- 8 percent compared with
their 2 percent representation in 1960. From being the smallest
Christian sect, with a 1 percent representation among the general
population in 1960, membership in the Independent African Churches rose
the most--to about 14 percent by 1985. The 1985 estimate also showed
that the Muslim population of Ghana rose to 15 percent. Conversely, the
sector representing traditionalists and non-believers (38 and 9 percent,
respectively, in 1960), saw dramatic declines by 1985--to 21 and about 1
percent, respectively. This shift, especially the increase in favor of
the Independent African Churches, attests to the success of
denominations that have adjusted their doctrines to suit local beliefs.
Religious tolerance in Ghana is very high. The major Christian
celebrations of Christmas and Easter are recognized as national
holidays. In the past, vacation periods have been planned around these
occasions, thus permitting both Christians and others living away from
home to visit friends and family in the rural areas. Ramadan, the
Islamic month of fasting, is observed by Muslims across the country.
Important traditional occasions are celebrated by the respective ethnic
groups. These festivals include the Adae, which occur fortnightly, and
the annual Odwira festivals of the Akan. On these sacred occasions, the
Akan ancestors are venerated. There are also the annual Homowo
activities of the Ga-Adangbe, during which people return to their home
towns to gather together, to greet new members of the family, and to
remember the dead. The religious rituals associated with these
festivities are strictly observed by the traditional elders of the
respective ethic groups.
<>Christianity and
Islam in Ghana
The presence of Christian missionaries on the coast of Ghana has been
dated to the arrival of the Portuguese in the fifteenth century. It was
the Basel/Presbyterian and Wesleyan/Methodist missionaries, however,
who, in the nineteenth century, laid the foundation for the Christian
church in Ghana. Beginning their conversions in the coastal area and
among the Akwapim, these missionaries established schools as
"nurseries of the church" in which an educated African class
was trained. Almost all major secondary schools today, especially
exclusively boys and girls schools, are mission- or church-related
institutions. Although churches continue to influence the development of
education in the country, church schools have been opened to all since
the state assumed financial responsibility for formal instruction under
the Education Act of 1960.
Various Christian denominations are well represented in Ghana. The
Volta Region has a high concentration of Evangelical Presbyterians. Many
Akwapim are Presbyterians, and the Methodist denomination is strongly
represented among the Fante. The Roman Catholic Church is fairly well
represented in Central Region and Ashanti Region. Although no official
figures exist to reflect regional distribution of the various
denominations, it is generally agreed that the southern part of the
nation is more Christian, while the north is more Islamic.
The unifying organization of Christians in the country is the Ghana
Christian Council, founded in 1929. Representing the Methodist,
Anglican, Mennonite, Presbyterian, Evangelical Presbyterian, African
Methodist Episcopal Zionist, Christian Methodist, Evangelical Lutheran,
F'Eden, and Baptist churches, and the Society of Friends, the council
serves as the link with the World Council of Churches and other
ecumenical bodies. The National Catholic Secretariat, established in
1960, also coordinates the different in-country dioceses. These
Christian organizations, concerned primarily with the spiritual affairs
of their congregations, have occasionally acted in circumstances
described by the government as political. Such was the case in 1991 when
both the Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Ghana Christian Council
called on the military government of the Provisional National Defence
Council (PNDC) to return the country to constitutional rule. The Roman
Catholic newspaper, The Standar, was often critical of
government policies.
In the north, Islam predominates. Islam is based on what Muslims
believe are the divine revelations received in seventhcentury Arabia by
the Prophet Muhammad. His life is recounted as the early history of the
religion, beginning with his travels from the Arabian town of Mecca
about 610. His condemnation of the polytheistic practices of the people
of Mecca caused him to become an outcast. In 622 Muhammad was invited to
the town of Yathrib, which became known as Medina (the city) through its
association with him. The move, or hijra, known in the West as the
hegira, marks the beginning of the Islamic Era and the Islamic calendar,
as well as the inauguration of Islam as a powerful force in history. In
Medina, Muhammad continued his preaching, ultimately defeated his
detractors in battle, and consolidated his influence as both temporal
and spiritual leader of most Arabs before his death in 632.
After Muhammad's death, his followers compiled those of his words
that were regarded as coming directly from God into the Qura,
the holy scripture of Islam. Other sayings and teachings as well as
precedents of his behavior as recalled by those who knew him became the
hadith ("sayings"). From these sources, the faithful
constructed the Prophet's customary practice, or sunna, which they
endeavor to emulate. The Quran, hadith, and sunna form a comprehensive
guide to the spiritual, ethical, and social life of the faithful in most
Muslim countries.
The God preached by Muhammad was previously known to his countrymen.
Rather than introducing a new deity, Muhammad denied the existence of
the pantheon of gods and spirits worshipped before his prophethood and
declared the omnipotence of God, the unique creator. Muhammad is the
"Seal of the Prophets," the last of the prophetic line. His
revelations are said to complete for all time the series of revelations
that were given earlier to Jews and Christians. Islam reveres as sacred
only the message, not the Prophet. It accepts the concepts of guardian
angels, the Day of Judgment, resurrection, and the eternal life of the
soul.
The central requirement of Islam is submission to the will of God
(Allah), and, accordingly, a Muslim is a person who has submitted his
will to God. The most important demonstration of faith is the shahad
(profession of faith), which states that "There is no God but God
(Allah), and Muhammad is his prophet." Sala (daily
prayer), zaka (almsgiving), saw (fasting), and hajj
(pilgrimage to Mecca) are also required of all Muslims.
The spread of Islam into West Africa, beginning with ancient Ghana in
the ninth century, was mainly the result of the commercial activities of
North African Muslims. The empires of both Mali and Songhai
that followed ancient Ghana in the Western Sudan adopted the religion.
Islam made its entry into the northern territories of modern Ghana
around the fifteenth century. Mande or Wangara traders and clerics
carried the religion into the area. The northeastern sector of the
country was also influenced by Muslims who escaped the Hausa jihads of
northern Nigeria in the early nineteenth century.
Most Ghanaian Muslims are Sunni, following the Maliki version of
Islamic law. Sufism, involving the organization of mystical brotherhoods
(tariq) for the purification and spread of Islam, is not
widespread in Ghana. The Tijaniyah and the Qadiriyah brotherhoods,
however, are represented. The Ahmadiyah, a Shia sect originating in
nineteenth-century India, is the only non-Sunni order in the country.
Despite the spread of Islamism (popularly known as Islamic
fundamentalism) in the Middle East, North Africa, and even in Nigeria
since the mid-1970s, Ghanaian Muslims and Christians have had excellent
relations. Guided by the authority of the Muslim Representative Council,
religious, social, and economic matters affecting Muslims have often
been redressed through negotiations. The Muslim Council has also been
responsible for arranging pilgrimages to Mecca for believers who can
afford the journey. In spite of these achievements, the council has not
succeeded in taking initiatives for the upgrading of Islamic schools
beyond the provision of basic Quranic instruction. This may explain the
economic and technological gap between Muslims and non-Muslims. The
Ghanaian Ahmadiyah Movement, which has established a number of
vocational training centers, hospitals, and some secondary schools, is
an exception.
Ghana - Traditional Religion
Despite the presence of Islam and Christianity, traditional religions
in Ghana have retained their influence because of their intimate
relation to family loyalties and local mores. The traditional cosmology
expresses belief in a supreme being (referred to by the Akan as Nyame,
or by the Ewe as Mawu). The supreme being is usually thought of as
remote from daily religious life and is, therefore, not directly
worshipped. There are also the lesser gods that take
"residency" in streams, rivers, trees, and mountains. These
gods are generally perceived as intermediaries between the supreme being
and society. Ancestors and numerous other spirits are also recognized as
part of the cosmological order.
For all Ghanaian ethnic groups, the spirit world is considered to be
as real as the world of the living. The dual worlds of the mundane and
the sacred are linked by a network of mutual relationships and
responsibilities. The action of the living, for example, can affect the
gods or spirits of the departed, while the support of family or
"tribal" ancestors ensures prosperity of the lineage or state.
Neglect, it is believed, might spell doom.
Veneration of departed ancestors is a major characteristic of all
traditional religions. The ancestors are believed to be the most
immediate link with the spiritual world, and they are thought to be
constantly near, observing every thought and action of the living. Some
ancestors may even be reincarnated to replenish the lineage. Barrenness
is, therefore, considered a great misfortune because it prevents
ancestors from returning to life.
To ensure that a natural balance is maintained between the world of
the sacred and that of the profane, the roles of the chief within the
state, family elders in relation to the lineage, and the priest within
society, are crucial. The religious functions, especially of chiefs and
lineage heads, are clearly demonstrated during such periods as the
Odwira of the Akan, the Homowo of the Ga-Adangbe, or the Aboakyir of the
Efutu (coastal Guan), when the people are organized in activities that
renew and strengthen relations with their ancestors. Such activities
include the making of sacrifices and the pouring of libations.
The religious activities of chiefs and lineage heads are generally
limited to the more routine biweekly and annual festivities, but
traditional priests--given their association with specific shrines--are
regarded as specialized practitioners through whom the spirits of the
gods may grant directions. Priests undergo vigorous training in the arts
of medicine, divination, and other related disciplines and are,
therefore, consulted on a more regular basis by the public. Because many
diseases are believed to have spiritual causes, traditional priests
sometimes act as doctors or herbalists. Shrine visitation is strongest
among the uneducated and in rural communities. This fact, however, does
not necessarily suggest that the educated Ghanaian has totally abandoned
tradition; some educated and mission-trained individuals do consult
traditional oracles in times of crisis.
Ghana - Syncretic Religion
In precolonial Ghana, as in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa,
traditional priests were important in providing treatment for the sick.
The role of village priests in the medical sphere reflected the belief
that unexplained illness, misfortune, and premature death were caused by
supernatural agents. In the treatment of illness, therefore, the usual
process was for the priest to use divination to determine the source of
the malady and to suggest sacrifices to appease the causal agents before
herbal medicine was prescribed for the patient. Since the introduction
of Islam in Ghana in the fourteenth century, Muslim clerics have also
been known to provide spiritual treatment and protection in the form of
charms and amulets derived from the Quranic beliefs.
The role of the village priests, who provided medical advice and
sometimes treatment for the sick, has often been stressed over that of
the herbalists, who served their communities solely as dispensers of
medicinal herbs. Recent scholarship, however, has shown that villagers
in the premodern era understood illness and misfortune to originate from
both natural and supernatural sources. Even after a spiritually caused
ailment was identified and the proper rituals performed, the final cure
was usually via the application of medicinal herbs--a situation that
made knowledge of the medicinal value of plants and herbs important.
Herbal medicine was used in the treatment of diarrhea and stomach pains,
for dressing wounds, as an antidote for poisons, and to stabilize
pregnancies. Traditional healers continue to be relied upon, especially
in the rural areas where modern health services are limited.
The medical value of traditional remedies varies. While the medicinal
properties of herbs cannot be denied, in some cases herbs may be harmful
and may result in severe infections or even death. It was for this
reason that an association of traditional healers was formed in the
1960s with its headquarters at Nsawam in Greater Accra Region. The
Traditional Healers' Association has tried to preserve the integrity of
traditional medicinal practice. Its members have also attempted to
assure the government, through the Ministry of Health, that the
dispensation of herbal medicine has a role to play in modern medical
practice in Ghana.
Western medicine was first introduced into the Gold Coast by
Christian missionaries and missionary societies in the nineteenth
century. Missionaries were almost the sole providers of modern medicine
until after World War I. Important missionary medical facilities in
Ghana today include Catholic-affiliated hospitals in Sunyani and Tamale,
the Muslim Ahmadiyah facilities at EfiduasiAsokori , and a Presbyterian
hospital at Agogo in the Eastern Region.
Attempts by the central government to expand Western medical care in
the country were given serious consideration during the tenure of
Frederick Gordon Guggisberg (1919-27) as governor of the Gold Coast. As
part of his ten-year development program, Guggisberg proposed town
improvements, improved water supply, and the construction of hospitals.
It was during his era that Korle Bu, the first teaching hospital in the
Gold Coast, was completed in 1925.
Since the end of World War II, the World Health Organization (WHO)
and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) have provided financial
and technical assistance for the elimination of diseases and the
improvement of health standards. A shortage of medical specialists
exists, however, and local facilities for training medical personnel
need to be expanded and updated. As a consequence, many Ghanaians in the
immediate post-World War II period continued to rely on traditional
doctors and herbalists.
Despite efforts to improve medical conditions in the decades
following World War II, the first postindependence census of 1960 did
not provide data on the medical situation in Ghana. There was still no
regular system for gathering medical statistics by the mid-1960s and no
suggestion that one would be developed by 1970. During that period,
available figures were gathered from scattered samplings and were
collected on a haphazard basis or were the summation of hospital records
and United Nations projections. Thus, only partial information about the
total health situation was available. Records from the 1984 census and
newspaper reports on seminars conducted on health-related issues,
especially since the mid-1980s, now make it easier to evaluate national
health.
<>Health Care
Ghana has the full range of diseases endemic to a sub-Saharan
country. According to WHO, common diseases include cholera, typhoid,
pulmonary tuberculosis, anthrax, pertussis, tetanus, chicken pox, yellow
fever, measles, infectious hepatitis, trachoma, malaria, and
schistosomiasis. Others are guinea worm or dracunculiasi,
various kinds of dysentery, river blindness or onchocerciasis, several
kinds of pneumonia, dehydration, venereal diseases, and poliomyelitis.
According to a 1974 report, more than 75 percent of all preventable
diseases at that time were waterborne. In addition, malnutrition and
diseases acquired through insect bites continued to be common.
WHO lists malaria and measles as the leading causes of premature
death in Ghana. Among children under five years of age, 70 percent of
deaths are caused by infections compounded by malnutrition. Guinea worm
reached epidemic proportions, especially in the northern part of the
country, in 1988-89. Cerebral spinal meningitis also spread in the
country and claimed a number of victims in the late 1980s. All these
afflictions are either typical of tropical regions or common in
developing countries.
To improve health conditions in Ghana, the Ministry of Health
emphasized health services research in the 1970s. In addition, WHO and
the government worked closely in the early 1980s to control
schistosomiasis in man-made bodies of water. Efforts have been
intensified since 1980 to improve the nation's sanitation facilities and
access to safe water. The percentage of the national population that had
access to safe water rose from 49.2 in 1980 to 57.2 percent in 1987.
During that same period, the 25.6 percent of the population with access
to sanitation services (public latrines, rubbish disposal, etc.) rose to
30.3 percent. According to WHO, however, many of the reported sanitation
advances have been made in urban areas and not in rural communities
where the majority of the population lives.
On the whole, however, Ghana's health conditions are improving. The
result is reflected in the decline in infant mortality from 120 per
1,000 live births in 1965 to 86 per 1,000 live births in 1989, and a
rate of overall life expectancy that increased from an average of
forty-four years in 1970 to fifty-six years in 1993. To reduce the
country's infant mortality rate further, the government initiated the
Expanded Program on Immunization in February 1989 as part of a ten-year
Health Action Plan to improve the delivery of health services. The
government action was taken a step further by the Greater Accra
Municipal Council, which declared child immunization a prerequisite for
admission to public schools.
Modern medical services in Ghana are provided by the central
government, local institutions, Christian missions (private nonprofit
agencies), and a relatively small number of private forprofit
practitioners. According to the United Nations, about 60.2 percent of
the country's total population in 1975 depended on government or
quasi-government health centers for medical care. Of the available
health facilities represented in the 1984 census, about 62.9 percent
were still described as government and quasi-government institutions.
Mission hospitals represented a large percentage of the remainder, while
private hospitals constituted less than 2 percent of modern medical care
facilities.
The medical system in Ghana comes under the jurisdiction of the
Ministry of Health, which is also charged with the control of dangerous
drugs, narcotics, scientific research, and the professional
qualifications of medical personnel. Regional and district medical
matters fall under the jurisdiction of trained medical superintendents.
Members of the national Psychic and Healers' Association have also been
recognized by the government since 1969. Over the years, all
administrative branches of the Ministry of Health have worked closely
with city, town, and village councils in educating the population in
sanitation matters.
Many modern medical facilities exist in Ghana, but these are not
evenly distributed across the country. Ministry of Health figures for
1990 showed that there were 18,477 beds for the estimated national
population of 15 million. World
Bank figures showed that in 1965 there was one
physician to every 13,740 patients in Ghana. The ratio increased to one
to 20,460 in 1989. In neighboring Togo, the doctor-to-patient ratio of
one to 23,240 in 1965 improved to one to 8,700 in 1989; it was one to
29,530 in 1965 and one to 6,160 in 1989 for Nigeria, whereas in Burkina,
the ratio of one to 73,960 in 1965 worsened to one to 265,250 in 1989.
These figures show that while the doctor-patient ratio in Ghana
gradually became less favorable, the ratio in neighboring countries,
with the exception of Burkina, was rapidly improving.
The ratio of nurses to patients in Ghana (one to 3,730 in 1965),
however, improved to one to per 1,670 by 1989. Compared to Togo (one
nurse to 4,990 patients in 1965 and one to 1,240 in 1989) and Burkina
(one to 4,150 in 1965 and one to 1,680 in 1989), the rate of improvement
in Ghana was slow. Nigeria's nurse-to-patient ratio of one to 6,160 in
1965 and one to 1,900 in 1989 was exceptional. A rapidly growing
Ghanaian population was not the only reason for unfavorable ratios of
medical staff to patients; similar population growth was experienced in
neighboring West African countries. Insofar as the Ghana Medical
Association and the various nurses associations were concerned, better
salaries and working conditions in Nigeria, for example, were
significant variables in explaining the attraction of that country for
Ghanaian physicians and other medical personnel. This attraction was
especially true for male and, therefore, more mobile medical workers, as
shown by the arguments of various health workers' associations in 1990
during demonstrations in support of claims for pay raises and improved
working conditions.
Ghana adopted a number of policies to ensure an improved health
sector. These included the introduction of minimum fees paid by patients
to augment state funding for health services and a national insurance
plan introduced in 1989. Also in 1989, the construction of additional
health centers was intensified to expand primary health care to about 60
percent of the rural community. Hitherto, less than 40 percent of the
rural population had access to primary health care, and less than half
of Ghanaian children were immunized against various childhood diseases.
The training of village health workers, community health workers, and
traditional birth attendants was also intensified in the mid-1980s in
order to create a pool of personnel to educate the population about
preventive measures necessary for a healthy community.
Since 1986 efforts to improve health conditions in Ghana have been
strengthened through the efforts of Global 2000. Although primarily an
agricultural program, Global 2000 has also provided basic health
education, especially in the northern parts of the country where the
spread of guinea worm reached epidemic proportions in 1989. Reports on
the impact of Global 2000 have been positive. For example, participating
farmers have significantly increased their agricultural output--a
development that has contributed to a decline in malnutrition. Also, the
number of cases of guinea worm had dropped significantly by early 1993.
Ghana - AIDS
In March 1986, the first case of acquired immune deficiency syndrome
(AIDS) was reported in Ghana. In January 1991, a more detailed report on
AIDS in Ghana appeared in which 107 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
positive cases were said to have been recorded in 1987. Three hundred
thirty-three people were identified as HIV positive by the end of March
1988, and there was a further increase to 2,744 by the end of April
1990. Of the April 1990 number, 1,226 were reported to have contracted
AIDS. According to WHO annual reports, the disease continued to spread
in the country. During 1991 the Comfy Anokye Teaching Hospital reported
about fifty AIDS cases each month.
Although the reported figures were far below the number of known
cases in East Africa and Central Africa, they were still alarming for a
medical system already overburdened by traditional health problems.
Seminars and conferences held to discuss the disease include the 1990
annual conference of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences. The
conference theme was the impact of international prostitution and the
spread of AIDS. The Ministry of Health, with funding from WHO, had also
set up surveillance systems to track the AIDS virus as part of its
medium-term (1989-93) plan. According to the program, a countrywide
sample of both high- and low-risk groups had been identified for testing
at regular intervals to measure the prevalence of the disease. A
thirty-member National Advisory Council on AIDS was established in late
1989 to advise the government on policy matters relating to the control
and prevention of AIDS in the country. The Ministry of Health lacks
adequately trained personnel and information management systems to
combat the disease.
Because of continued spread of infection and improved reporting, the
country recorded 12,500 AIDS cases by the end of 1994, placing Ghana
second only to neighboring C�te d'Ivoire, where more than 16,600 cases
of AIDS were recorded, in the West Africa subregion. Of the Ghanaian
AIDs cases, about 8,000 were people aged fifteen to forty-five; the
remainder were mostly children aged five to ten. At the same time,
Ghanaian health officials estimated the number of HIV positive cases at
about 300,000. The incidence of HIV positive and AIDS cases was highest
in Ashanti Region.
The most-affected age-group in Ghana was young working adults. Some
70 percent of the total infected population was female; on the basis of
this finding, the Ministry of Health anticipated a significant increase
in HIV-positive births in the future. Considering the gravity of the
problem, in February 1994 the National Parliament recommended that a
select committee on education and health be established to study and
make recommendations for measures to control AIDS. In the meantime,
radio, television, and billboard advertisements are being used as part
of a national AIDS awareness program.
Ghana - SOCIAL WELFARE
In precolonial Ghanaian societies, it was normal for an individual to
receive economic assistance from members of his extended
family--including paternal and maternal uncles, aunts, grandparents, and
cousins. The practice of expecting assistance from family members grew
out of the understanding that the basis of family wealth derived from
land and labor, both inherited from common ancestors. Even as an
individual sought help from extended family members, he was in turn
required to fulfill certain responsibilities, such as contributing labor
when needed or participating in activities associated with rites of
passage of family members. It is because of this mutual interdependence
of the members of the family that anthropologist Robert S. Rattray
defined the extended family in Ghana as the primary political unit.
Today, the same system of welfare assistance prevails in rural areas
where more than two-thirds of the country's population resides.
Legislation for the provision of a modern national social security
system went into effect in 1965. Further legislation was passed in 1970
to convert the system into a pension plan to provide for sickness,
maternity, and work-related injury benefits. Government welfare programs
at the time were the responsibility of the Department of Social Welfare
under the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare (now the Ministry of
Mobilization and Social Welfare). As the national economy was reformed,
the Workers' Compensation Act of 1986 was passed to guarantee wages to
workers in the private sector while they were undergoing treatment for
work-related injuries.
These plans, however, applied only to individuals employed in the
formal sector of the economy. With about two-thirds of the country's
population residing in rural areas, and with most urban residents
engaged outside the formal economy, the traditional pattern of social
security based on kin obligations still functions. In rural areas,
individuals continue to turn to members of the extended family for
financial aid and guidance, and the family is expected to provide for
the welfare of every member. In villages, towns, and cities, this mutual
assistance system operates within the larger kinship units of lineage
and clan. In large urban areas, religious, social, and professionally
based mutual assistance groups have become popular as a way to address
professional and urban problems beyond the scope of the traditional
kinship social security system.
According to a 1988 newspaper report, housing has become a major
problem for city dwellers. The report indicated that former governments
have largely ignored the problem, thereby allowing the situation to
reach an alarming state. The result is an acute shortage of affordable
rental housing for urban workers and students who have to pay exorbitant
rents. This shortage in turn has resulted in working husbands' leaving
their families in their home villages and returning only when their work
schedules allow them time to visit.
The introduction of the "Rural Manifesto" of 1984 was an
attempt by the PNDC administration to address a general development
problem that included urban housing. According to the 1984 plan, many
services such as the provision of pipe-borne water, banking facilities,
and electricity, were to be introduced to the rural areas, thereby
making such locations attractive to workers and others who might
otherwise migrate to towns and cities. Because the implementation of
these services, especially rural electrification, began in earnest only
in the late 1980s, the plan's impact on rural-urban flow was as yet
uncertain in the early 1990s.
Ghana - EDUCATION
The dominant mode of transmitting knowledge in the precolonial
societies of the Guinea Coast was through apprenticeship as smiths,
drummers, or herbalists. By observing adult skills, or through proverbs,
songs, and stories, children learned proper roles and behavior. Also, at
various stages in life, especially during the puberty rites for young
adults, intensive moral and ethical instruction from family or societal
elders was given. The purpose of that "informal" education was
to ensure that the individual was able to satisfy the basic traditional
or communal needs, such as motherhood for women, and hunting,
long-distance trading, or farming for men. It was also important that
the religious sanctions associated with the various professions and
stages in life be understood, because the traditional society saw close
relationships between religious and mundane activities.
Western-style education was introduced into the Gold Coast by
missionaries as early as 1765. Many of these institutions, established
by Presbyterian and Methodist missionaries, were located in the south of
the country in what became the British Gold Coast Colony. In 1852 the British colonial
government instituted a poll tax to raise money to support public
schools, but the measure became unpopular and was abolished in 1861.
Mission schools continued to spread, however, and by 1881 more than 139
had been established with an enrollment of about 5,000 students.
A board of education was set up in the 1880s to inspect schools and
to standardize their management. Grants were established for private
schools that met government standards, and the government devised
regulations for the recognition of new schools. Primary education was
emphasized until limited secondary education was introduced in the early
1900s.
After World War I, the development of education was given additional
impetus under Governor Guggisberg. His education policies stressed the
need for improved teacher training, equal education for girls, a greater
emphasis on vocational training, and the establishment of secondary
schools. In the governor's ten-year development plan, which was
announced in 1919, education was given a special place, partly because
of his goal of replacing Europeans with educated Africans in many
administrative positions within the country. The policies were not fully
implemented, especially at the secondary and vocational levels, but the
Achimota School, a firstclass secondary school designed to train
Ghanaians for the lower levels of the civil service, was established in
1927. Although English remained the principal language of instruction in
the school system, vernacular languages were also allowed in the primary
schools, and the publication of textbooks in these languages began in
earnest.
Stimulated by nationalist ideas of political and economic
selfdetermination in the 1930s through the 1940s, popular demand for
education reached such proportions that the combined efforts of the
colonial government and the missions could not satisfy it. The result
was the opening of hundreds of schools by local groups and individuals.
The Convention People's Party (CPP) promise of free instruction during
the 1951 election campaign was made in response to an increasing demand
for education. Whereas some parents in the northern regions of the
country resisted enrollment of their children, many in the south
encouraged formal instruction because it was regarded as a virtual
guarantee of acquiring white-collar jobs and wage-earning positions.
Western education was accepted more readily in the southern sector of
the country because Christian missionaries had been in that area longer
than they had been in the north. The purpose of the CPP's free and
compulsory education policy was to make formal education available to
all at minimum cost.
In 1952 the CCP-led government drew up the Accelerated Development
Plan for Education. The program, which became a reality in 1961, was
designed to provide an education for every child aged six and above. To
achieve this goal, the central government took responsibility for
teacher training and funded schools through the Ministry of Education.
Since this time, a considerable portion of the national budget has been
spent on educating the population. Various attempts to shift the cost to
students and parents, especially at the university level, have met great
resistance.
<>The Education System
The country's education system at the beginning of the 1993-94
academic year comprised primary schools, junior secondary schools,
senior secondary schools, polytechnic (technical and vocational)
institutions, teacher training colleges, and university-level
institutions.
In 1990-91, the latest year for which preliminary government
statistics were available, 1.8 million pupils were attending more than
9,300 primary schools; 609,000 students were enrolled in about 5,200
junior secondary schools; and 200,000 students were enrolled in some 250
senior secondary schools. In the mid-1980s, teachers on each of these levels
numbered approximately 51,000, 25,000, and 8,800, respectively. In
addition, 1989-90 enrollment in Ghana's approximately twenty-six
polytechnic schools totalled almost 11,500 students; the teacher corps
for these schools numbered 422. Education is free, although students
have recently begun to pay textbook fees. The Education Act of 1960
foresaw universal education, but the constraints of economic
underdevelopment meant that by the early 1990s this goal had not been
realized. On the primary level, instruction is conducted in the local
vernacular, although English is taught as a second language. Beyond
primary school, however, English is the medium of instruction in an
education system that owes much to British models.
Before the introduction of reforms in the mid-1980s, students at what
was then the middle-school level took either the Middle School Leaving
Certificate Examination and terminated their studies, or, at any time
from seventh to tenth grade, the Common Entrance Examination, which
admitted them to secondary or technical study. With the traditional six
years of primary education, four years of middle schooling, and a
seven-year secondary education (five years of preparation toward the
Ordinary Level Certificate and two years of Advanced Level training)
before entering degreegranting institutions, the average age of the
first-year university student in Ghana was often about twenty-five.
Most students, however, did not continue formal instruction after the
first ten years of education. Of the 145,400 students completing middle
school in 1960, for example, only 14,000 sought secondary education. In
1970 only 9,300 of the more than 424,500 leaving middle school were
admitted into secondary schools. Ministry of Education data for the
1984-85 academic year showed that of the 1.8 million students completing
ten years of primary and middle schooling, only 125,600 continued into
secondary schools, while fewer than 20,000 entered vocational and
technical institutions. That same year, approximately 7,900 students
were enrolled in the universities.
Although the government provides free tuition to all children of
school age, and notwithstanding the fact that schools can be found all
across the country, 1989-90 government statistics showed that more males
continued to be enrolled in schools than females. In the first six
grades of the educational system, only 45 percent of the students
enrolled were female. The percentage of females in the school system
decreased to 33 percent at the secondary school level, to 27 percent in
polytechnical institutions, and to as low as 19 percent within the
universities. Disparities in the malefemale ratios found in the schools
had not improved significantly by 1990-91. The emphasis on male
education doubtless reflects traditional social values, which view the
reproductive abilities of women as their primary role in life, while men
are valued as breadwinners and, therefore, in need of education to
compete in the contemporary economy.
Despite a number of committee reports and proposals for educational
reform, until mid-1980 the education system continued to place emphasis
on traditional academic studies. Proponents of reform argued that the
country's development needs required an education system that, beginning
at the middle-school level, placed equal emphasis on training students
in vocational and technical skills. It was further suggested that
reforms could contribute to reducing the number of students who dropped
out of school for lack of interest in traditional academic studies.
Partly as a result of earlier proposals for reform and partly in
keeping with the government's economic reform program, fundamental
change in the educational structure of the country was undertaken in the
mid-1980s. The overall goals were to make curricula at all levels more
relevant to the economic needs of the country, to reduce the length of
pre-university instruction, and to improve the quality of teacher
preparation. Increased enrollment in primary schools and a reduction in
the rate of illiteracy were also to be pursued. The reforms were to be
implemented in two phases: those for primary and middle schools were to
be introduced in 1987- 89, and those for secondary schools and the
universities, in 1990- 93.
The much-discussed changes in education became a reality in 1987 when
all seventh-level students, who otherwise would have entered the
traditional first year of middle school, were instead admitted into new
junior secondary schools (JSS) to begin a threeyear combined training
program in vocational, technical, and academic studies. The JSS system
was a radical change in the structure of education in the country. It
replaced the four-year middle school and the first three years of the
traditional fiveyear secondary school system. After three years at the
JSS, three years further training would be available in senior secondary
schools (SSS), after which students could enter polytechnic institutions
or the universities.
Pioneers in the JSS system sat for the first Basic Certificate of
Education Examination in 1990. In this same year, seniors of the old
middle-school system took the last Middle School Leaving Certificate
Examination. Supporters of the JSS argued that the system would attract
more students into technical, vocational, business, and agricultural
institutions. It was also suggested that those students who did not gain
admission into the SSS would be better equipped to enter the job market.
Results of the first SSS certificate examination, announced in May 1994,
however, showed that only 3.9 percent of students received passing
marks. This poor showing was attributed to lack of textbooks, equipment,
and trained teachers, and to inadequate time to prepare for the
examination. Despite loud protests from students and parents, reform of
the education system remained on course.
In addition to revamping middle-school education, changes were also
introduced on all other educational levels. Fees for textbooks and
supplies were instituted, primary curricula were revised, and food and
housing subsidies were reduced or eliminated in secondary schools and
the universities. In the early 1990s, however, the government appeared
to be moving slowly in implementing further proposed reforms, such as
new curricula in secondary schools and restructuring of the
universities.
In the early 1990s, higher education was available at three
institutions--the University of Ghana (located principally at Legon
outside Accra), founded in 1948 as the University College of the Gold
Coast; the University of Science and Technology at Kumasi, opened
officially in 1952 as the Kumasi College of Technology; and the
University of Cape Coast at Cape Coast, founded in 1961. In 1989-90
enrollment at all three institutions totalled 9,251, of whom 19 percent
were female. In addition, large numbers of Ghanaians went abroad for
university education, as they had in the past.
In anticipation that the new JSS and SSS structures would increase
the number of students seeking advanced technical training, two more
universities were proposed. The specialist institutions or colleges at
Winneba, which offered post-secondary teacher training in such subjects
as art, music, and physical education, were to be upgraded into an
independent university college or were to be given associate relations
with the University of Cape Coast. In September 1993, the University of
Development Studies at Tamale opened. Designed initially to train
agricultural specialists, it will eventually also offer degrees in
health and development studies.
Ghana - Problems in Education
At least two major educational issues faced Ghana in the early
1990s--the effort to shift part of the expense of education onto
students, especially in the universities, and the future of the JSS
innovation. Since the introduction of the Accelerated Development Plan
for Education in 1952, the central government has shouldered much of the
financial burden of education. In 1972, for example, about 20.1 percent
of the total central government expenditure was spent on education. This
figure rose to 25.7 percent in 1989. Compared with Nigeria, where only
4.5 percent and 2.8 percent of the total government expenditure was
spent on education in 1972 and 1989, respectively, the Ghana figure was
high even among its peers.
Efforts by the central government to shift the cost of education onto
students, particularly at the university level, have been challenged.
But despite the many demonstrations that were organized by the various
student representative councils and the National Union of Ghanaian
Students, the government resolved in the latter part of the 1980s to
make university students pay for their boarding and lodging through
loans. This policy, among others, was the cause of the unsettled
relationship between university students and the government that
characterized the early 1990s. In March 1993, an especially serious
confrontation occurred in Accra between university students and police
over the proposed charges. Such protests notwithstanding, the Ministry
of Education proceeded with the changes for university funding on
grounds that they were in line with the nation's Economic Recovery
Program introduced in 1983.
The introduction of the JSS system was also problematic. It had been
agreed upon after the Dzobo Committee, chaired by N.K. Dzobo of the
University of Cape Coast, reported in 1974 that the nation's educational
establishment needed overhauling. In fact, this committee afforded
education specialists and the public the opportunity to respond to a
1972 Ministry of Education proposal for the introduction of junior
secondary schools. Despite the favorable evaluation of the Ministry of
Education proposal by the Dzobo Committee, the proposed changes in the
structure and content of primary and secondary education were never
implemented, perhaps because of the difficult economic situation of the
country in the mid-1970s.
When the JSS system was implemented in 1987, it was hailed by its
supporters as the answer to the country's educational, social, and
economic problems. Detractors, however, condemned it because of the
limited time allowed for the development of necessary infrastructure,
such as the provision of workshops, before the system went into effect.
As a community-sponsored program, the JSS became a source of endless
irritation to parents and guardians who had to contribute to building
and equipping JSS workshops. There was also the concern that the JSS
system would ultimately lead to an unfair distribution of educational
resources because wealthier communities were likely to provide better
facilities than those in poorer areas. Finally, it was argued that the
JSS program did not challenge students enough because, unlike the former
Middle School Leaving Certificate Examinations, all students writing the
Basic Certificate of Education Examination conducted for the JSS
received certificates of participation. The validity of these arguments,
as well as the long-term impact of the new structure and content of
education on the nation's development, remained to be demonstrated in
the early 1990s.
Ghana - Adult Education
A mass literacy campaign was started in 1951 as part of an overall
community development program. The primary aim was to teach adults to
read and write in their own languages as well as in English. Efforts
continued during the 1950s and the 1960s, and in the 1970s an extensive
literacy campaign was launched under the direction of the Ministry of
Labor and Social Welfare using mass education teams. Literacy classes
for adults were also conducted by local units of the Peoples' Education
Association, a voluntary organization founded in 1949. This group, which
included teachers, graduates, students, and interested persons, had
branches throughout the country. Despite such organizational efforts, it
was estimated by the United Nations in 1970 that about 70 percent of the
nation's inhabitants above the age of fifteen (57 percent of males and
82 percent of females) were illiterate. The 1970 figure was a 5 percent
improvement over an estimated 1960 adult literacy rate of 25 percent.
Responding to the continued high level of illiteracy in the country,
the government established the Institute of Adult Education in 1970 at
the University of Ghana. The Institute was to furnish resident tutorial
staff drawn from universities, colleges, and secondary schools to teach
a wide range of classes in different parts of the country. The Institute
also organized an annual New Year School attended by leading educators,
government officials, and numerous social welfare organizations. At such
times, the achievements of the Institute as well as the future direction
of adult education in Ghana were assessed.
During the 1989 New Year School held at the University of Ghana, for
example, the relationship between adult education and economic
development was emphasized in a speech read by Flight Lieutenant Jerry
John Rawlings, the head of state. Also in 1989, reliable press reports
held that the adult literacy rate in Ghana was about 40 percent of the
total population; of the 60 percent of the population that was
illiterate, 57 percent was female. Even though the 1989 figure was an
improvement over that of 1970, the National Council on Women and
Development still expressed concern and described the low percentage of
literate adult females as alarming. The council attributed female
illiteracy to high dropout rates in the elementary schools and called on
the government to find ways to enforce compulsory education in the
country.
As part of an effort to improve the overall awareness of women's
education, various nursing and para-medical associations organized drama
troupes as a means of instructing illiterate as well as rural women
about the importance of nutrition, of child care, of family planning,
and of sending their children to school. In the early 1990s, the impact
of such activities on the nation's literacy rate could not yet be
assessed.
