From 31 July, 2011
My British friend Hazel bought me a Culture Smart!
Essential Guide to Customs & Culture: Ghana. I haven’t been able to
put down this handy dandy little book since I got it. While doing my daily reading I have also been doing my
typical underlining, circling, highlighting, and annotating. As I sit in the Frankfurt airport
awaiting my connecting flight to Accra, I feel compelled to share some of the
beautiful things I have learned about my future home.
CULTURE
“It is primarily the people of Ghana who make the biggest
impression. It is due to their
incredible hospitality and love of peace that Ghana has a claim to be the
safest and friendliest country in Africa.
Ghanaians are very welcoming to foreign guests, respectful to each
other, strong followers of tradition, and have deep familial and communal
values”, (Utley, 8).
“For visitors coming from developed countries with their
associated problems of crime, antisocial behavior, family breakdown,
disrespectful children, unfriendliness, loneliness, high cost of living, and
terrible weather, Ghana comes as a wonderfully refreshing change, with valuable
lessons to teach the outside world”, (Utley, 8).
“Positive character traits inculcated in Ghanaians include
probity, patience, fairness, humility, gratitude, temperance, perseverance,
trustworthiness, chastity before marriage, and faithfulness in marriage”
(50).
“Westerners are generally viewed as having lower moral
standards than Ghanaians. Social
breakdown, warmongering, sexual depravity, marginalization of the older
generation, and disrespectful standards of dressing and behavior all contribute
to this view” (52).
GEOGRAPHY, FLORA & FAUNA
“Ghana is a very fertile and rich land, particularly in the
south, and is noted for its plentiful supply of yams, cassava, cocoa, rubber,
maize, palm products, pineapples, oranges, papayas, avocados, plantains,
bananas, and pepper to name but a few”, (Utley, 15).
“[The Ghanaian flag] consists of red, gold, and green
horizontal stripes with a black star in the middle. Red signifies the blood of those who died in the country’s
struggle for independence. Gold
represents Ghana’s great mineral wealth, and green denotes its lush forests and
farmland”, (Utley, 21).
ECONOMY
“Ghana’s main exports are cocoa and cocoa products (highest
in Africa), aluminum, gold (second highest in Africa), diamonds, manganese,
bauxite, fruits and fruit juices, and timber… Tourism is the third highest
earner of foreign exchange and is a rapidly growing industry. Other major industries include hydroelectricity,
brewing, aluminum smelting, furniture making, tuna canning, and chemicals
production, but most of the population relies on subsistence agriculture”
(38).
“Major imported materials are machinery and transport
equipment, fuel, manufactured goods, chemicals, and food items” (38).
HISTORY
“Unfortunately, the economic desires of the Europeans did
not allow Africa to develop along its own lines, and what we see now is modern
African countries that were simply carved out by Europeans (24)… Ghana’s rich
natural resources and ease of access for ships meant that the vast majority of
[European] forts on the West African coast were built there”, (Utley, 25).
“The transatlantic slave trade made fortunes for the white
slave traders and plantation owners, while brutally stripping Africa of its
human resources… Four hundred years and more than 50 million souls suggest…
[that] the lucrative triangular trade was lining somebody’s pockets. It is remarkable that the full story of
this horrific trade is only just starting to be told in Western schools. Worse still, there appears to be no
room in the curriculum for this era to be studied at all in Ghanaian schools”
(Utley, 26).
“It is true that it was Africans themselves who sold their
countrymen into slavery by trading captives of war, that many (especially the
Ashantis) grew rich on this trade, and that local chiefs allowed the Europeans
to build their slave castles on the coast”, (Utley, 26).
“One Ghanaian language even has eight different words for
different sorts of slave, showing that slavery was an existing practice before
the arrival of the Europeans.
However, these ‘slaves’ were more akin to ‘househelps’ who retained
their human rights and ability to become free. Maltreatment of these servants was not allowed (27). [Thus], Ghanaians accept the role their
own forefathers played in the trade, but some maintain that they would have
never participated to such an extent, had they known the terrible fate of the
captives”, (Utley, 26).
[During and after colonization], “Africa was divided up,
with no thought given to existing tribal groups, into an unnatural jigsaw with
pieces belonging to Britain, France, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, Germany and
Italy. Even after independence,
these artificial divisions remain and are the cause of many of modern Africa’s
problems” (28).
[Yet], “It cannot be argued that the colonial administration
did not do anything to help the local people. Roads, schools, hospitals, and infrastructure were built,
agriculture and industry were developed, opportunities for overseas study were
given, and a legacy of economic structures was left in place” (32).
“Ghana was the first black African country to achieve
independence” (33).
COMMUNAL VALUES AND ATTITUDES
“The secret to Ghana’s peace and friendliness lies in the
moral values of its people. These
values derive from the importance they set on social harmony and the well being
of others, not just of the individual.
This is manifested in the Ghanaian virtues of hospitality, kindness,
compassion, generosity, faithfulness, and truthfulness, and their quest for
peace, justice, dignity, and self-respect” (40).
“Ghanaians recognize the dignity of their fellow human
beings and have a deep and abiding concern for human welfare and
happiness. Human relationships are
considered the most valuable of possessions. The human being is more beautiful than gold. Mutual
help, collective responsibility, and reciprocal obligations are regarded as
important” (41).
FAMILY
“A child’s family is much more important than his or her
parents and siblings. As part of a
huge extended family, a child has the opportunity to learn from, and be cared
for by, dozens of near relatives” (46).
“A family in Ghana… is far more than the typical Western
unit of parent(s) and two children… The language used to describe the family
relations describes this strong bond; your sibling’s children can be referred
to as your children, your uncle as your father, and your cousins as your
brothers and sisters. So don’t be
confused when your friend introduces you to two or more of his fathers!”
(91).
“Parents cherish their children and bring them up to be
virtuous, respectful, and responsible” (44).
“Tradition, religion, and strong familial and communal bonds
all work together to give a Ghanaian clear moral guidelines, and the
development of a good character is considered vital. Moral values are instilled in a Ghanaian from birth, and can
be divided into those values affecting other people, and those pertaining to
oneself. The ethic of
responsibility for others is always put above an individual’s rights. If you trample on somebody else’s
things while looking to find your own, you will never find them” (49).
More Proverbs:
If one person eats all the honey, he is sure to get a
stomach ache (50).
If you don’t allow your neighbor to count to nine, you
will not be able to count to ten (50).
The person who goes to fetch water does not drink mud
(51).
When someone is crying, your crying helps him (64).
Just as someone has looked after you when you were
growing your teeth, so should you look after them when they are losing theirs
(53).
RESPECT FOR ELDERS
“Older people are accorded massive respect in Ghana. It is believed that they have reached
old age thorough living in harmony both with the ancestral spirits and with
natural forces” (52).
MAKING FRIENDS
“In the friendliest country on the planet, making friends is
unavoidable” (72).
“Social interaction, communality, and friendship are
fundamental principles guiding Ghanaian’s lives, and this helps to create a
culture of warmth, safety, and peace” (72).
SOCIALIZING AND TIME OUT
“Ghanaians have a lot of leisure time, love socializing, and
do this in a very relaxed and informal way, often just sitting by the roadside
and watching life to by, without feeling the need to ‘go out and do something
together’ ” (100).
“Very often, the most enlightening experiences don’t require
huge expenditure and travel; it can all happen just on your doorstep”
(100).
“On the whole, Ghanaians are intelligent, well-educated, and
sociable people and almost everyone you meet, especially in the professional
capacity, will speak very good English” (156).
CONCLUSION
“Ghana is rapidly developing an excellent reputation among
travelers who are looking for a genuine African experience without fear of
crime, hassle, underdevelopment, or lack of facilities” (163).
“It is a beacon of democracy and stability on the
continent. This development is
continuing apace, and all the right wheels are in motion in order for it to
achieve its goal of becoming a middle-income country with decent education,
good health and jobs for all” (163).
“We have seen that it is the Ghanaians themselves who are
responsible for making Ghana the gem that it is. They have, with reason, been described as the friendliest
people in the world” (164).
Utley, Ian.
Culture Smart! Ghana.
Kuperart publishing of Bravo Ltd. Great Britain, (2011).
