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Ghana ETHNIC GROUPS AND LANGUAGES
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Figure 6. Principal Ethnolinguistic Groups
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
(see
fig. 6). 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
(see The Precolonial Period
, ch. 1).
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.
Data as of November 1994
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