The family is a strong unit in Ghanaian society and is held together by very deep bonds. All family members have roles to play within the family and also in their contacts with the neighbors and other townsfolk. Despite the many societal links, there is also private time within a nuclear family in which outsiders will not find it easy to take part.
A family in Ghana, however, is far more than the typical Western unit of parent(s) and two children. Everybody is part of a huge extended family, who, if not living together in a big compound house, meet regularly and take interest in each other’s affairs. Accept a friend’s offer to visit their home and you’ll meet all kinds of aunties, brothers-in-law, grandparents, nephews, etc. The language used to describe the family relations demonstrates 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! Beyond the huge extended family, everybody also has their place in a tribe or clan with similar bonds. The Akan society is matrilineal, and some other tribes are patrilineal.
Housing in Ghana is just as varied as the people, and it’s impossible to describe a “typical” house. The proverbial mud huts are numerous in the villages. Some have wattle and daub walls, propped up with sticks, and leaf roofs. Other people can afford to use sun-dried mud bricks and corrugated iron. In the cities, certain areas are notorious for their slums. At the other end of the scale, you can see some magnificent, three-story mansions with ten or more bedrooms, a swimming pool, and all the modern conveniences. One family will go to the river for their water and the forest for their firewood, while another will simply turn on the hot and cold taps and cook in the microwave or gas oven. By and large, town houses all have running water and electricity, if intermittently. “Light off” (power outages) remains a common annoyance.
In the traditional compound house, various nuclear families, individuals, or nonrelated tenants will live together. Most nuclear families (with an average size of five people) now live in their own homes, which are inherited, rented, or owned. Other relatives may also stay with them, either when the relative is in need, such as an elderly parent, or is offering help, for instance an aunt moving in to help look after her nephews and nieces. An older girl, not from the immediate family, may also be a live-in househelp. The frequent Western answers to these situations—nursing homes and babysitters—are unknown in Ghana and go completely against the values of respect for the elderly, responsibility for others, and communal living.
Children from previous relationships may also stay with their stepparents (a term not used in Ghana), and children from neighboring houses are free to play together or go outside. Half of all Ghanaians are children, and for the visitor, there’s no escaping them when visiting a house. All older people are responsible for children in their midst:
It takes a whole village to raise a child.
A father is the undisputed head of the family and his is the final word. It is his duty to work and provide money for the family, making sure his wife has enough for all the food and household bills. If the family owns a farm, the husband does much of the physical work. A father’s relationship with his children, especially his sons, is strong and well disciplined. The male family members often eat in the main room without the females. The raising of children is a particular specialty of Ghanaians, favorably remarked upon by visitors, especially the love and attention given by fathers.
A husband is also expected to show interest in the affairs of his wife’s family and to provide her with sufficient resources always to be looking at her best.
The beauty of a woman is due to her husband.
A wife’s major role in a marriage is to bring forth children. Childless marriages can be seen as a curse, and a childless marriage is seen as the joining of two incompatible souls, and is not recognized as a “real” marriage. A wife’s second role is to take care of these children, her husband, and the household affairs, and a Ghanaian housewife has more than her fair share of cooking and cleaning. A mother is expected to teach all these skills to her daughters.
This is not to say that the wife is always stuck in the house: many married women work outside the home as well. Familiar female occupations are hairdresser, seamstress, and trader, although there is no shortage of female lawyers, politicians, head teachers, and professors as well. Nor do women take a back seat in the nation’s affairs. Queenmothers are highly influential figures in the chiefs’ palaces, and 80 percent of the trading activities in the country are controlled by the jolly, business-savvy “Market Mammies.”
Children are raised to be respectful to their parents, hardworking, and serious about their education. It sometimes seems that all their out of school hours are spent helping in the home or family business, or out on the streets selling things. An eldest daughter is expected to be able to do all the same chores as her mother by her early teens. There is time for play, though, and kids fill this time with football, television, board games, and dancing games such as ampe. The time-honored entertainment for children is to sit round the elders in the evening and be enthralled and educated by traditional folktales, especially about the cunning but greedy spiderman, Kwaku Ananse (see this page). The elders take the care and upbringing of children very seriously.
When the old woman is hungry, she says,
“Cook something for the children to eat.”
There is never the problem of a shortage of playmates, or of parents not allowing their children to play outdoors. Unfortunately, reading and writing for pleasure do not figure highly on a Ghanaian child’s agenda.
When a yam doesn’t grow well, we don’t blame it: it is because of the soil.
Education in Ghana is highly valued and students are diligent and immaculately well behaved, but the system has one big problem: children are not taught to think for themselves, but are rather taught in a didactic, rote-learning fashion that does nothing to help develop inquiring young minds. There is an emphasis only on remembering by heart the “correct” answer, to be regurgitated upon the teacher’s command. Learning is evaluated by the teacher asking, “Understand?” followed by a chorus of “Yes, Sir!” or “Yes, Miss!” whether the pupils understand or not. A typical example is that of a schoolboy who was asked what he had learned today. “We did addition,” came the answer. “OK, what’s twelve plus fifteen?” “I don’t know—our teacher didn’t tell us that one.” A teacher’s lesson plan looks more like a play script, consisting of a long list of “teacher’s questions” and “pupils’ expected responses.”
Even in secondary and higher education, students can be found whose sole desire is to memorize as much “big English” as possible in order to write it down verbatim in exams, without necessarily understanding or being able to apply it. Also, education in Ghana still owes much to its colonial roots, and some teaching resources have not changed since colonial times, so children can be found reading about the British seasons, studying British maps, and learning about British animals that they have never encountered.
To its credit, the Ghana Education Service has recognized these drawbacks and comprehensive education reforms were put in place in 2008, in order to offer a more relevant curriculum with increased pupil participation. Teachers’ poor salaries, however, continue to give the profession a low status. Many schools have very limited resources. A recent survey suggested that more than 50 percent of teachers regularly fail to show up at their classrooms; many of them are working in second jobs.
Primary education (which is compulsory, mainly free, and available to all) lasts for six years. Children then enter a junior high school for four years and a senior high school for four years. The option then for the lucky few is to enter a university, a technical college, or a teacher training college. Graduates are required to perform at least one year of National Service in a government institution.
Sunrise in Ghana is always just before 6:00 a.m., but households up and down the country are awakening, cocks crowing, and gospel music playing well before then. Visitors living with a host family or in a built-up area should not expect to sleep in. Early morning is the best time to get things done before the sun gets too fierce. Sweeping the compound and washing clothes by hand are early morning chores for women or older children. Schools can start by 7:00 a.m., so children have to be fed, bathed, and dressed in good time.
Traditionally, the man leaves for work and the woman takes care of the housework for some time before eating a late breakfast or an early lunch. The hot afternoon often gives time for a siesta before continuing work when the sun’s heat has died down. Going to the market and preparing the evening meal can take some hours. Daily shopping for fresh produce is usually done at an open-air market, with larger supermarkets and smaller kiosks stocking other nonperishable goods. A great example of the modernization of shopping in Ghana is the huge Accra Mall, opened in 2007. The day is also, of course, filled with many visits and greetings.
The sun falls out of the sky just after 6:00 p.m., and it is around this time that the main meal is served. Television, church, or going out for a walk or a drink occupy the last few hours before an early bedtime. People tend to bathe twice a day. Bucket baths are the norm, using a “sponge” that isn’t a sponge but a long strip of netting. Saturdays can be taken over by funerals, and Sundays by church.
Most big towns have hospitals or clinics for serious cases of illness. Hospital treatment used to be an expensive affair beyond the means of many townsfolk, but the government is now being highly praised for the introduction in 2004 of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). Now, for an annual payment of around US $10, patients receive all required health care under the scheme. This should be borne in mind if you are contacted by “scammers” claiming they need hundreds of dollars for their sick mother’s hospital fees.
For lesser complaints, Ghanaians self-prescribe and pick up medicines at smaller drugstores (not covered by the NHIS), or go down the route of spiritual or traditional healing. Examples of natural remedies are tea made from the leaves of the neem tree and pepper soup (nkrakra) to alleviate fevers.