African Journal of Social Sciences Education

Introduction: Cultural Change in Ghana

Kwabena O Akurang-Parry, Charles Prempeh — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In this Special Issue of the African Journal of Social Sciences Education
(AJSSE), our focus is to interpolate in critical pan-Africanizing and decolonializing
analyses of current cultural undulations with their peaks and valleys in Ghana.
These are framed around the praxes of what was, what has been modified, and
the holistic results of the interlocking of change and continuity within specific
joints of Ghanaian culture and heritage. In sum, we argue that Ghanaian culture
has demonstrated both resilience and adaptability in the face of gripping
cultic of ‘Modernisation,’ Globalisation, Afropolitanism, Cosmopolitanism,
Transnationalism, and Cyber-Worldism. We conclude, among others, that cultural
change and continuity in Ghana have succeeded in accelerating human creativity
hence imaginatively blended cultural ethos and idioms. Thus, we assert that from
critical standpoints, considerable aspects of Ghanaian culture and heritage, like
those of other parts of the globe, are adrift in pursuit of ontological anchoring
and aesthetical cosmopolitanizing. In sum, we harness material and temporal
fellowship of variables to alchemize cultural change and continuity in Ghana that
are syntheses rather than antitheses.

Old wine in new bottles: changes in dirge performance among the Akpini of Ghana

Evelyn Aku Adjandeh, Kofi Semanu Atsu Adzei — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Death is a necessary end to human life! It is a painful experience for bereaved families. It causes shock, pain, destabilization, confusion and anger. It separates families from their loved ones. It sends people to the other world. Indeed, the pain of losing a loved one to death is difficult to bear. To ease this pain, dirges play a key role. The performance of dirges has been part of funeral rites in many Ghanaian societies, including the Akpini of the Volta Region. Dirges comfort bereaved families for losing their loved ones; inform the audience about the deceased’s new status; and give hope that the deceased is resting in the afterlife. More importantly, dirges are a means of understanding how a people perceive life and death. This paper explores the performance of dirges among the Akpini of the Volta Region. It examines the nature and importance of dirges among the people. It particularly examines various changes that have occurred in the performance of dirges from the earliest times to the present. Certain aspects of the performance, including the performers, instrumentation and song texts have undergone transformation. The paper argues that such changes have become imminent since the Akpini people continue to interact with the outside environment, and have also been affected by such factors as colonization, Christianity and globalization. At the same time, certain aspects of the performance have resisted change. The dirge performers have been able to adapt to the changes to create a genre that differs from the original form. They believe, however, that the new genre still performs the functions of the original form. The paper concludes that while these changes will continue, some aspects of the performance will persist for a long time, if not forever.

At the Interstices of the (Post)-Colonial: Mapping Tradition and Transformation in Ghanaian Maritality from Marita to Changes

P. Kwame Adika, David A Odoi — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The idea of modern postcolonial Ghana as a complex polity forged at the interstices of colonial Encounter, and also one that has a tangible basis in millennia-old traditional African cultural values embedded in institutions that are subject to transformations over time has been argued or suggested by many scholars, prominent amongst whom are Angmor (1996), Anyidoho (2000), Larbi Korang (2009), and Konadu and Campbell (2016). On no other cultural institution have those critical lenses been more focused than the institution of marriage which, for obvious reasons, has tended to be seen as a critical cultural barometer that measures both societal health and the gendered power relations which delicately scaffold it. Not surprisingly, in the field of creative arts, successive generations of Ghanaian writers have attempted to investigate and represent the conjugal union as both the micro-site of the communal essence that ultimately enlarges itself into the nation-state, and also one whose gender-based relational compromises are constantly complicated by the interpellating external ideological forces of colonization, modernization, trans-nationalization and their suffocating necropolitical logic. Our article proposes to investigate the changing representations of marriage in Ghanaian prose fiction with emphasis on transformations in gender relations, and how these are in turn informed by transnationally motivated forces such as colonization, modernization and globalization. More specifically, we shall attempt to map paradigmatic shifts in gender relations within the institution of marriage as represented in two canonical and epoch-defining Ghanaian novels; namely, Marita and Changes while at the same time isolating what, if any, Ghanaian values have survived and can teased out as the enduring markers of gender relations in the institution of marriage, and therefore be counted as part of a blueprint for a future prolegomena of Ghanaian values.

Back to whose “Eden”?: Social Evolution of Akan Marriage and Pentecostal Enforcement of Pre-Nuptial Ethical Boundaries

Charles Prempeh — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Since independence in the 1950s, several Africans have engaged in a counter-hegemonic use of the camera to turn the gaze of the equipment from the colonial objectification of women to the postcolonial empowerment of women. The goal of this paper is to contextually discuss the social evolution of marriage practices among the Pentecostal youthful constituency, focusing on how young men and women in the Church of Pentecost (CoP), Ghana’s largest protestant denomination, are re-deploying a counter-hegemonic use of photography to stage their autonomy, choreograph their nuptial choices, as well as secure their marriages. I argue that since the CoP embarked on theological and cultural reforms in 2010 that offered significant “freedom” to women to determine their sartorial preferences, the church has more recently, in 2019 sought to recalibrate its control over how its youthful constituency engages in pre-nuptial practices. Framed as a return to “Eden” to reflect the “naked but unashamed innocent life of Adam and Eve,” these women interpret their actions as showcasing “nakedness” as a signification for transparency in marriage - in the social media world of invisibility, impersonation, and duplicities. The CoP interprets all this as youths’ violations of the church’s pre-nuptial ethical boundaries. I interrogate the question: “What are the complex engagements between the CoP and its youthful constituency, as the CoP seeks to control its nuptial ethical boundaries, as opposed to the “freedoms” the youth are seeking to enforce? The data for the study is based on ethnographical in-depth interviews, and my positionality as a member of the CoP and Akan, and it also draws from church archives and circulars.

THE EVOLUTION OF HEALTH CARE IN GHANA, THE CASE OF TEMA, 1945-2008

Seth Frimpong — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I set out to do this work because from my research there seems to be no comprehensive historical writing on healthcare in Tema. Tema started as a small farming village where the people engaged in the cultivation of gourds used in making calabashes, water bottle and preservation of items. The name Tema is an adulterated version of the Gã name “TORMAN” which literally means “town of gourds.” Overtime a section of the population in Tema embarked on small-scale fishing in the Kpeshie and the Chemu lagoons. As the economy of Tema grew, both the colonial government and private individuals established businesses in the community, and thus the farming activities diminished. By 1957, Tema had shown itself to be a potential industrial enclave and a beacon for Ghana’s social and economic development due to the springing up of different businesses both private and state owned. In the era of social and economic growth the colonial government established healthcare facilities that offered western medical care to the people. Prior to the introduction of western medicine, the people of Tema relied on herbal medicine. However, the outbreak of strange diseases rendered herbal medicine ineffective and therefore the need for western medicine. This paper has established that healthcare was among factors such as the harbour, education, trade and industry that contributed to the development and the transformation of Tema from a small farming community to a metropolis in 2008.

Taming the Multiverse of Capitalist Crisis with the Universe of African Totemic Ancestorhood: A Radical Afro-optimist Proposal

Nene-Lomotey Kuditchar — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This paper advances the position that the ontology and praxis of African totems, rooted in harmonious relations, are superior to the materialistic ethos of capitalism, which, in contemporary times, has debased the human condition and environment in its most mature centres. African totemic ancestorhood, emphasizing sacred and secular interconnectedness, perceives the human station as an integral part of a balanced universal whole. On the other hand, the paradigm of capitalism, anchored on materialist acquisitiveness, avarice, and full-spectrum alienation, underpins inequality, exploitation, and environmental degradation in the quest for personal pecuniary profit. Hence, the ontology and praxis of the African totemic is anathema to capitalism. The lived history of African thought serving as a guiding principle of trans-generational ethical conduct and enacted, for example, through rituals and ancestral reverence, are as relevant in contemporary times as in aeons gone by when Africans were architects of civilizations. As nations such as China, India, and Russia seek to resurge in contemporary times by reconnecting with their ancestral roots to navigate modern challenges, Africans must take a cue and similarly recover and leverage the (re)constructive power of ancestral ontology and praxis and thereby develop a uniquely Afrocentric governance model to attenuate the disruptions of capitalist crises. This imperative, apart from exposing the vileness of materialistic (social) relations, will grant Africans the agency to chart an organic, dignified path of cohesive resurgence and avoid the ultimate fatal consequences of capitalism.

Small-Scale Wars in the Northern Parts of Ghana: A Case Study of the Forced Migration during 1994 Nanumba-Konkomba Wars and its Effects on Women

Kwabena O Akurang-Parry, Samuel N Nkumbaan, Albert Larbi Appiah — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This study is a part of an on-going research project on violence against women in Ghana. It is based on the Ghanaian newspapers’ coverage of the 1994 Nanumba-Konkomba ethnic conflict and small war in the Northern Region of Ghana. Additionally, the study benefits from oral history collected from female victims of the war. Framed as a case study and defined by the 1994 Nanumba-Konkomba ethnic clash, the most violent and tragic to date, the study illustrates that the intermittent ethnic conflicts, their consequent wars, and forced migrations adversely impact women in the region the most. Overall, the principal subject matter of the study, which is the adverse effects of the ethnic wars on women, fills a major gap in the emerging historiography on ethnic conflicts in northern Ghana and contributes to our understanding of gender and wars in postcolonial Africa as a whole.