The Ethnicities of Ghana
It wasn't until we started exploring outside of the big cities, Accra and Kumasi, that we understood the extent of Ghana's multiethnicity. Over 70 ethnic groups make up the cultural fabric of the country, each with their own language and customs. Get your notepads out, there will be a quiz on this later.
Source: Library Of Congress
Despite the wide variety of people present in Ghana, it would be wrong to consider the country a great mixing pot. With the possible exception of Accra, where everyone comes to study and work, ethnic groups generally stick to their traditional homelands. In Kumasi, you're definitely in Ashanti-land, and can reasonably assume that the person you're talking to is Akan. In Paga, good luck meeting anyone who isn't Kassena.
Akans are the largest ethnic group in Ghana, making up 47.5% of the country's total population. But referring collectively to an "Akan" people obscures the fact that this is a general grouping linking many specific sub-ethnicities. There are the Twi-speaking Ashanti (or Asante) of Kumasi, and then there are the Fante of Cape Coast. Twi speakers might be able to understand the Fante dialect, but I wouldn't make the mistake of suggesting they're the same tribe.
The next major ethnic group in Ghana are the Mole-Dagbon people of the north, who comprise 16.6% of the country's population, and are centered around Tamale. The Dagbon Kingdom no longer operates as an independent force in the Sahelian region, but the people have maintained their language and traditions, with their own chief, or Yaa Naa, who's based in Yendi.
The third largest group in Ghana are the Ewe of the eastern Volta region. Though the bulk of the 7-million strong ethnicity lives in Ghana, a huge number of Ewe also reside in neighboring Togo. Their history is one of struggle against both the Akans and the colonial European powers. Fiercely independent by nature, the various Ewe tribes never coalesced into a powerful kingdom, as did the Ashanti. Today, they're known for their complex drumming and dancing... sadly, this is a group we wouldn't get a chance to meet.
It's far beyond the scope of our blog to list out all the ethnicities of Ghana... and actually too big a task to even list those we met while traveling across the country. In every town, we'd learn the name of the people we were visiting, along with how to say "good morning", and then promptly forget both upon leaving. Because we'd be in a new town, with a new ethnic group teaching us a new way to say "good morning"!
One other group we'll mention, though, are the Ga people, whose 2 million people are based around the costal region from Accra to Togo. We met plenty of them while touring Jamestown, at both the Gbekebii School and the Black Panter boxing gym. Perhaps because their ancestral homeland happens to be in Accra, they've had an outsized influence on Ghanaian culture, but they've also borne the brunt of the country's rapid development, as their historic fishing communities are squeezed out.
More than anything else, we're amazed by how peacefully the very different people of Ghana manage to live together. They communicate with each other in English, which serves a useful purpose as a common language that doesn't prejudice one group over another, and appear to be as proud of their country, as they are of their tribe. We believe that one of Ghana's greatest strengths is this diversity... and it's been heartening to discover that the people here believe the same thing.
Learn more about our travel project on Steemit by clicking on the banner above and join our community on Discord
Does everybody speak English in Ghana? I do not know according to your post it seems that English should the official vehicle of national communication. Did you have some problem to understand local people because of their accent or intonation or pronunciation etc.?
Yes, English is the official language but there are 50 different languages being spoken. In general it was super easy to communicate with everyone. Only very rarely we ran into an older person in a tiny village who didn't speak English. Everyone though speaks to each other in in their own language, so when you walk down the street you do hear English but also Twi and many other languages, depending where you're.
Fair enough thanks for your response. Very clear and concise, what I further just glad you did not have any problem of communication with people :)
Congratulations, Your Post Has Been Added To The Steemit Worldmap!
Author link: http://steemitworldmap.com?author=for91days
Post link: http://steemitworldmap.com?post=theethnicitiesofghana-pqwrnkqir0
Want to have your post on the map too?
Hi, @for91days!
You just got a 8.12% upvote from SteemPlus!
To get higher upvotes, earn more SteemPlus Points (SPP). On your Steemit wallet, check your SPP balance and click on "How to earn SPP?" to find out all the ways to earn.
If you're not using SteemPlus yet, please check our last posts in here to see the many ways in which SteemPlus can improve your Steem experience on Steemit and Busy.
Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by for91days from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows. Please find us at the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.
If you would like to delegate to the Minnow Support Project you can do so by clicking on the following links: 50SP, 100SP, 250SP, 500SP, 1000SP, 5000SP.
Be sure to leave at least 50SP undelegated on your account.
Hi @for91days!
Your post was upvoted by @steem-ua, new Steem dApp, using UserAuthority for algorithmic post curation!
Your UA account score is currently 5.209 which ranks you at #868 across all Steem accounts.
Your rank has improved 344 places in the last three days (old rank 1212).
In our last Algorithmic Curation Round, consisting of 216 contributions, your post is ranked at #85.
Evaluation of your UA score:
Feel free to join our @steem-ua Discord server
Hello!
This post has been manually curated, resteemed
and gifted with some virtually delicious cake
from the @helpiecake curation team!
Much love to you from all of us at @helpie!
Keep up the great work!
Manually curated by @macchiata.