Ghanaian Culture -- MIchael

Here are some initial impressions on my limited exposure to Ghanaians and their way of life.  Ghanaian culture is loud and open – little privacy.  I hear music from some vendor some hundreds of yards away in Ayikuma that plays generally all night on the weekends.  When we go down the street, usually every time, there is some vehicle blaring some kind of broadcast that I can’t understand.  The school where I work has constant noise from the younger children while I’m attempting to teach.  Ghanaians are not afraid of speaking their minds with some volume and force (though I’ve never encountered a rude or belligerent person – though I have seen them interacting on the road one with another), and frequently there are more chiefs than braves (sometimes it’s very difficult getting anything done because everyone has their own idea of how to do something, and rather than persuading you toward their ideas, they just restate them over and over again (usually with more force each time) – it’s very common for a Ghanaian to repeat a sentence or phrase to you, and it has nothing to do with me being a foreigner).  It’s not uncommon to drive down the road and see a 10 year old taking a “shower” alongside the road (they stand in a metal bowl, pour water over themselves, lather up with soap, and wash off).  Breast feeding in public is a normal occurrence, and women tend to appear rather exposed, though I’ve never detected any attempt to be provocative with their dress (unlike entertainers such as J Lo – if I’ve spelled that correctly), it’s something more of a garden of Eden innocence, though I would prefer more modesty.

Having said that Ghanaian culture is loud and public, I’ve found Ghanaians quiet when conversing with me as an individual.  I don’t know if that comes from me being a foreigner and father-in-law to the school CEO, and the difficulty in communicating in our different forms of English, but I suspect it’s some kind of combination of those factors.  But then the same thing happens in Sunday School – I can’t the individual comments nearly at all, and even some of the Ghanaians ask others to speak up.

I find Ghanaian’s somewhat frustrated with life, but willing to go along with things rather than revolt.  That’s a positive (no overturning of the government in decades), but a negative also, no rising from poverty unlike what has happened to S. Korea (they and Ghana were very similar at the end of the 50s when Ghana became independent from UK and S. Korea came into existence from the Korean war).  It seems hard to light a fire under a Ghanaian to get things to happen.  Whenever I go to a shop to buy something, there is a palatable lack of enthusiasm by the employee.  Natasha says that’s because the person is generally not the shop owner, but if you meet the shop owner that capitalist enthusiasm comes forward very readily, unlike the beaten-down socialist go-along-to-get-along behavior that I have seen so far.  That’s not to say that Ghanaians are lazy; I’ve seen them work hard, but have a propensity to not work smarter – there is so much of manual labor here (what I wouldn’t do with my tiller on the Ayikuma farm land, nearly all carpentry is hand saws, etc.).  I find that there’s a plethora (okay, that means a lot) of vendors all selling the same thing with the same lackluster response to a customer, and all selling at the same prices (The one exception are the road vendors who walk between cars when they are stopped for traffic or those waiting at the toll booth – they have energy).  No one is interested in “getting ahead.”  In fact, the economy is comprised mostly of retail with little actually being produced.  Where is the value added to simply selling something, rather than producing something of value?  So with so many vendors all selling the same thing in such close proximity, lots of sellers simply sit during the day waiting for a few customers.  And yet, if you want to buy a few things of similar nature, you, the customer have to go to multiple vendors since each vendor just sells one thing (not very customer friendly – what I wouldn’t do if a Lowe’s were here).  Some of this might come from the political turmoil that occurred in the 60s and 70s (one leader was assassinated, and a coup took place during another time period).  I would say that the rule of law hasn’t really taken hold here (the police act very arbitrary here rather than following law – “tips” to the police are common to avoid further hassle from them, land has been arbitrarily taken from law abiding, private property-holding citizens only because the government wanted the land for some purpose – eminent domain run wild).  So most people just keep quiet and stay under the radar – just survive.

However, there is quite a tendency to use dictatorial communications (public humiliation, yelling, talking down to others, rather than less emotional corrections) among superior/subordinate relationships, in particular between teacher and student.  In other words, section 121 isn’t used much (persuasion, long-suffering, patience, etc.).  I suspect it comes from the heavy-handed government/military past and a frustration from a lack of rule of law.  It’s a reliance on authority rather than reason.  It reminds me of passive/aggressive behavior between parent and child (there’s some personal experiences!!).

I’ve also picked up on a trend regarding space and community.  If you leave something out, it can often grow legs.  This isn’t the usual petty thievery that is common in most societies (America in particular), but a kind of squatter mentality.  You see it with partially completed homes (quite common place here – reminds me of Italy); if you don’t steadily work on your home or have it completed and secured (barbed wire, etc.), squatters will come in and live in the home.  If you have some land with trees on it and you don’t fence or otherwise show that you own it, others will come in, and harvest the trees for charcoal.  Now in the school setting, I don’t have any real place to put my materials, so I viewed some other teachers taking a portion of a classroom (the science lab), and I did the same, only to find things disappearing from my area or being broken which is something of a tragedy, these were items I brought over to help instruct the students (little physics demos).  How sad.  I don’t know if this is all similar to the “common” holding that many indigenous cultures adhere to – we all just “borrow” from each other, or more of a survival thing, but it’s definitely different from back home.

Having said all that, I’m under the impression that Ghanaians are a happy people though they may not show it directly in public interactions (you do see it in their music and dance).  As I meet Ghanaians along the way, they appear non-engaged (probably something like people passing on the streets of New York City), but if I say “good morning,” they brighten up and reply with a smile and a greeting.  In fact, many of their daily greetings (in particular the first greeting in the morning) carry with it the outline of a hand salute accompanying the “good morning.”  The hand salute harks back to the British military salute (palm forward or up instead of the American military salute with the palm facing rearward or down).

Ghanaians wear their religion on their sleeves.  The majority of the country is Christian, but there is a significant minority of Muslims.  From what I can see, everyone gets along without problems (We just had a national holiday – Muslim prayer day; I asked one of my Muslim students what was done on that day to celebrate and he said prayer and eating – fine by me).  Religion is part of the public square as opposed to the current American culture of flocking toward a lack of religious liberty.  It’s amazing to see the number of roadside advertisements for churches and even better yet, the religious names of the businesses (photos to follow soon).  There are many Jehovah’s Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists so many go to church on Saturday, and since they are nicely dressed up (although Ghanaians enjoy dressing nicely in public most any time), there are many on Saturday and Sunday who are dressed up in public.

Ghanaians are very much a family oriented society – children are still appreciated as a society, and the goal for a young person is to get married, raise a family, and leave a legacy rather than the gay lifestyle of selfish pursuits.  As a developing country, Ghana bucks the tide of smoking; I think I‘ve seen one person smoking since I’ve been here, what a nice change.  Anytime I’ve gone to other developing countries around the world, smoking was the norm (while it’s been vilified in America, the tobacco companies do extremely well in the developing world), so somehow, Ghana has avoided that trend.  I’ve been told that alcohol abuse is a problem in Ghana, but I haven’t seen its use or effects, but then I’m not exactly a party animal.

In summary, I find Ghana a culture of extremes or opposites – the person sweeping the dirt area around their kiosk, and yet garbage piles up a few feet away in the public arena; the taxi drivers who will nearly beg you to get a ride from them, and the employee of a kiosk who shows no enterprise at all.  Maybe that’s the transition that a developing country goes through as it changes.  For me the question is will Ghanaians see themselves strongly enough as Ghanaians first, a nation, to work together or will old tribal ties keep them as separate but peaceful groups.  Will the rule of law become the dominate culture or the current survivalist?