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Ghana Society and Its Environment
Ghana - Unavailable
An akuaba (fertility doll)
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.
Data as of November 1994
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