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Ghana Traditional Patterns of Social Relations
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
(see Traditional Religion
, this ch.).
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--see Glossary) 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."
Data as of November 1994
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