Life in Ghana

SOCIAL CLASSES/GROUPS IN GHANA• Like every country, Ghana has its fair share of rich people, poor people, and middle

income people living in the cities and the villages. It is the most hospitable country in the world and nobody visits Ghana once. Anyone who has visited Ghana only once has either decided to stay or is desperately trying to get back there!

Life in the Ghanaian Village

• There are less people in the villages

• Life here looks more organized

• People know each other so well

• People take care of each other’s properties and their children

• No sense of time – people tell the time by the position of the sun and the sound of animals

• Life is connected to nature

• Major economic activity is farming and marketing of farm produce

• Children wake up at 6.00 am or sometimes 5.30 am

• We wake up with sunrise and to the sound of birds and the rooster - ***

• Usually the first born girl sweeps the compound while the next girl washes the dishes

• The boys feed the family animals and waters the family garden

• The common family animals are birds, goats, sheep, turkey, ducks and rabbits

• After that we all take our buckets and go to the stream or borehole to fetch water

• On the way to the stream we break sticks with which we brush our teeth

The Life of a Child in the Village

The Life of a Child in the Village• The family goat, sheep, the

rooster, and the rabbit

The Life of a Child in the Village• Children usually walk in groups when

they go to school• Schools serve 6 or 7 villages• Distances range between few

hundreds of meters to 1 or 1 ½ miles• School starts at 8 am and ends at

2.00pm or 3.00pm• We usually have two break periods of

15 or 20 minutes each• Schools have big time celebrations on

Independence days and other holidays

• ***

The Life of a Child in the Village• ***• Kids play outside

when they return from school

The Life of a Child in the Village• Around 4.00pm the kids go

home to help prepare the food

The Life of a Child in the Village• After the evening

meal which finishes around 6.00pm the kids go outside to play

• Some games include, brao – bey, chaskelen, stay, kwaakwaa

• Older men and women tell the kids folk tales and anase stories by the fire side – it always ends with drumming and dancing

The Life of a Child in the Village• Drumming and dancing is very

important in the lives of Ghanaians

• Music is the food of the soul• The talking drums in the

durbar of chiefs• There is always some

drumming and dancing somewhere and kids love it

Drumming & Dancing

The Life of a Child in the Coastal Village• The lives of kids in the

coastal village revolves around fishing

• After school the major source of entertainment is around the sea

• Kids pick up left over fishes and resell them to their friends or bring them into the villages to sell

• The coastal village kids are the best wave surfers, divers and swimmers one can find

Life on the Coasts

In the Northern Villages

Life in the Ghanaian City

• A Ghanaian city is virtually a place of business

• It is usually densely populated

• People are there to buy and sell

• Life here is different from life in the village

The Child in the Inner City• They wake up earlier

than the village kids because they spend long hours to wait their turn to fetch the water

• Kids mostly eat from food sellers right outside their houses

• When the kids return from school, its all business

• They sell everything from sachet water to coconuts

• In the evenings most of the kids watch televisions together while they talk about their sales experiences during the day

Life in the City• In the evenings most kids • sow clothes, • weave kente, • or make other crafts• These activities occur in

the village settings as well

• There are 64 different languages in Ghana

• To survive in the inner city as a child you have to speak or understand at least 4 languages.

• How you doing- MpO mu te sEn – MpO mu yE

…..Asante- TEE yOO Teh – Me yE odjo

gbaa …..Ga- Birika Naba – birika naba

Farefare- Tooma tooma – aanhah

Dagbani- Efoah – eeh … EwEPlease- Me pa wo akyew – Asante- OfaanyE – Ga- Nii ban nzo akana - Frafra- Me te pkE gboloo – EwE- Nkadjoh – Dagbani

Languages in Ghana

Chieftaincy and Inheritance• Many ethnic groups• An ethnic group• Matrilineal and patrilineal

forms of inheritance• 70 % of Ghana’s ethnic

groups are matrilineal• Women are responsible for

the women so they own the land

• This is Nana Afia Kobi – She enstools the Asantehene – The King of the Ashantes

• The Ashante kingdom gave the British the strongest resistance

• She veto who the next king is – The queenmother is not the chief or kings wife, she is th Kings mother

Religion and Children

• Religion is very important in the lives Ghanaian children

• Christianity, Islam, traditionalists, some traces of Eastern religions

• Drama and plays about morals, anase folk tales, social issues like drug abuse, HIV – AIDS, domestic violence, parenting etc

Andrea & PPP AfricaAndrea has taken a STEP to HELP people to grow themselves out of

poverty

PPP Africa’s Goals

PPPAFRICA.ORG• We are asking for donations of used shoes…used shoes• We are taking it easy - one family at a time• We ask the families what prosperity and wealth means

to them and what they NEED to achieve it• We give them their request and provide them with

technical assistance to grow themselves out of poverty