Are Ghanaian values actually holding back Ghana?

[Graham]

Ghana’s society seems quite cohesive because things are done as they
have always been done. In one respect history has finished: the
ancestors have already done, made, and said everything there is to be
done, made and said. If you want to know how to do something, then you
look to how it is already being done – the answer is already there. As
a result of this, there is respect for elders as the repositories of
knowledge gained through their years on earth, and an acute sense of
history. Ghanaians know what they have to live up to by looking back
at their lineage. It gives a strong sense of identity and firm
cultural values.

But there is another side to all this.

The knowledge of the elders – the transmission of cultural values,
traditions and customs – is no longer the only form of knowledge.
Ghana has been thrust into the modern economy and an urban environment
has been planted onto it. The type of knowledge this contemporary
society needs is technological and scientific knowledge obtainable
mostly from learning and academia, not from grandparents. In fact, the
elders have been left behind and have difficulty comprehending the
fact that their world has radically changed. Where there is
recognition, they cannot accept that methods of doing things need to
be changed.

This respect for MBA - Ma ba ya achie (I’ve been here long) - within
the culture has the effect that you do not challenge your elders. This
extends into education. It almost seems that it is not the knowledge
you gain from the education system that is important but merely the
process of going through it. It is a system that teaches the youth not
to question; that explanations (for example why you got a D for your
paper) are not required by you; that you are there just to receive
information but not to process or question it; that the youth cannot
have anything useful to say because they are too new to the earth -
what insights could they possibly offer? So you have an academic MBA
gained through your years of study but you find that no one wants to
hear what you have learnt: that another type of MBA is seen as more
important.

So the young, radical youth soon learns that the way to get ahead is
not to be ‘arrogant’ by expressing ideas that differ from those held
by everyone else, or to suggest new (and possibly better) ways of
doing things, but instead to shut up and submit to the System.

The root of this problem is deeply imbedded within the notion of
Ghanaian identity. To divert from this is to be seen to be ‘Western’ –
an expression designed to silence the dissenter. It seems to me that
there is no way forwards. We can all imagine one - a new world where
not only the voices of the old but also the young are respected and
listened to. But how can this ever be possible? The System is stuck
there like an obstinate piece of dull metal in the ground that refuses
to be uprooted. You need help to shift it but when you ask your
friends they also side with the System. They tell you not to cause
trouble; they ask “who are you?” (a way of saying that no individual
can challenge or make change); they tell you they just want to live
their lives peacefully and you should stop pretending you know more
than everyone else. In other words – SHUT UP AND CONFORM!

The System is all powerful. It seems to be outside of anyone’s
control. It just exists. There is an alliance between the System and
traditional Ghanaian values. They work together to ensure that neither
can be destroyed or challenged. It ensures a selfish individualism so
that people do not unite for change. It labels any attempt to
challenge them as foreign or as individual arrogance. Ghanaian values
may have worked in the past. But Ghanaian society has changed and I
would now argue that these values, the very core of Ghanaian identity,
are now preventing Ghana society from operating effectively and
efficiently. And there is nothing we can do about it.

[Please correct any wrong notions I have. As I’m a foreigner I’m
looking in from the outside. I hope I have not misrepresented anything
but if I have, argue with me, tell me I’m wrong and correct me!]

[Rodney Nkrumah-Boateng]

Graham,

 

I think that is a very good point you have made ( and no, I am not simply agreeing with you because of my Ghanaian education...lol).

 

In a way, I think that Africa has to make up its mind what it wants. If we want 'development' as perceived by western thought, then we are being held back as you said, by our belief systems. You cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs-something has to give. Ghana would never elect an Obama or a Clinton or a Blair as president for the simple reason that they are/ 'small' boys at the time of their election. And it is really our loss. The interesting thing is that Europe has had its fair share of traditional values of respect for the old, extended family, sexual moral strictures and a whole host of them. Yet as their societies evolved, some of these were cast aside-admittedly at some social cost, but then there has been a trade off in terms of improved economic standards of living.

 

In other spheres our traditional values hold us back- 'fa ma Nyame' means 'give it to God' and that is what you are encouraged to do when someone wrongs you, even where as a matter of principle the person ought to be punished. In a big way, our extended family system,whatever its benefits; does sometime lead to corruption as there is the pressure to 'take care' of your nephew or niece inlooking for work etc.

 

Other examples abound: and I think if we want to be a part of the world order and not just a basket case depending on crumbs from the powers that be, then we ought to move from our Dark Ages into our Ages of Enlightenment and Reason. We must, in my view, learn to challenge and topple some of the institutions and views that hold us back, instead of preserving them under the guise of 'culture'.

On a personal note, I always squirm when foreign visitors arrive in Ghana on official visits and smiling dancers are assembled on the tarmac to welcome them, wriggling and contorting their torsoes like babboons on heat. For God's sake!!  It gives the impression of a paternalistic Great White Man observing a performance by the natives. And yet we argue that it is in line with our 'culture' of hospitality. What tosh

 

Anyway it is 3am and I have let off enough steam.....

 

Regards

Rodney

 

 

 

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From: Graham <grah...@gmail.com>
To: AfricanTalks <africa...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tue, 16 February, 2010 9:21:38
Subject: Are Ghanaian values actually holding back Ghana?

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