The Culture of Ghana

Understanding the Nigerian culture, one must first understand what defines culture. Culture is a system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that members of a society use to cope with their world and with one another. Through matters of culture, society finds meaning in ideas, norms, rituals, and codes of behavior. Social structure refers to the relations of people within a system of groups. Social structure and culture are also mutually dependent and reinforcing. A change in one results in a change in the other (Army, 2006).

Since the inception of human civilization there have been countless cultures and societies which have helped shape the current world today as we know it. The modern human race dates back more than 200,000 years and in that time frame many cultures have risen to great virtue and success only to deteriorate or cease to exist altogether. First before examining one of these cultures we must know what culture truly means. The Army’s Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) Culture Center defines culture as a “dynamic social system,” containing the beliefs, behaviors, values and norms of a “specific organization, group, society or other collectivity” learned, shared, internalized, and changeable by all members of the society (Watson, 2010). In

Culture is an intermingling mesh of traits that, although unique to each person, brings groups of people together. It is comprised of numerous different aspects that are passed down through generations, including religion, food, clothing, language, music, morals, and greetings. Because of its extensive range, it is easy to see how much culture impacts a person’s life. One’s culture vastly affects how he or she views the world due to ingrained traditions, stereotypes, and values within his or her heritage.

Culture can be defined as a belief that allows you to identify who you are. Thus, through cultre there is self - discovery and belonging in a group of persons who share the same belief system; who have found themselves and are now seeking to digest more about one another through eachother's' unearthing of one's self. Culture assists you not only in identifying who you are, but the sort of people you can surround yourself with due to common interests. In this society; I have witnessed cultural unity, cultural identity crisis' and moreover a cultural divide and surprisingly all of those fold under the same umbrella in reagrds to knowing where you stand and those you choose to stand with.

Ghana is looked upon as a beautiful place to travel and explore West African Culture, but what lies beneath the beautiful ocean and intriguing people is a story of the many hardships and struggles that were put into the formation of this fascinating place. Ghana was once a flourishing community off the coast of West Africa until trade relations caused turmoil between the Europeans and the Ghanaians. A man named Kwame Nkrumah is an original Ghanaian who supported Ghana being an independent nation in 1957. His journey was almost identical to the life of South African president Nelson Mandela. In order for Ghana to be an independent nation, there was a lot of deceitfulness and corruption that was done by not only the Europeans but the Ghanaian kings themselves. Also, after Ghana gained its independence, Nkrumah’s rule was not necessarily successful and lead to a weak economy.

It is not easy to define culture because culture is too broad a concept, can be both abstract and specific. However, what is agreed is culture covers all faces of our life as well as direct the way we behave, interact and communicate. (Liu et al., 2011). One popular definition is that “Culture is the total way of life of a group of people, comprising of the deposit of knowledge, experience, belief, values, traditions, religion, and notion of time, roles, spatial relations, worldviews, material objects and geographic territory”. (Liu et al., 2011, p.57). In this essay, I will analyse components and characteristics of culture, and based on that grounds, I will reflect on my own culture-being a Vietnamese. Dodd (1998) considered that culture is made up by three layers which consist of the core layer, the intermediate layer and the outer layer. I will examine what values and beliefs are considered important in my culture. Those are components of the inner core. Then, I will take some examples of the intermediate layer (expression of cultural activities by manifestation) such as communication patterns, customs and festivals.

The recorded history of Ghana begins in 1471, when Portuguese traders landed on the coast in search of gold, ivory, and spices. Following the Portuguese came the Dutch, the Danes, the Swedes, the Prussians, and the British. Commerce in gold gave way to the slave trade until the latter was outlawed by Great Britain in 1807. The 19th century brought a gradual adjustment to legitimate trade, the withdrawal of all European powers except the British, and many wars involving the Ashanti, who had welded themselves into a powerful military confederacy; their position as the principal captors of slaves for European traders had brought them into conflict with the coastal tribes. British troops fought seven wars with the Ashanti from 1806 to 1901, when their kingdom was annexed by the British crown.(Encyclopedia, 2007)

Waist pendants were an essential part of the Benin African culture. Benin was located in modern day Nigeria, and they had a very advanced culture with various resources. The Benin Kingdom mainly existed between the years 1440-1897 before the invasion from British soldiers, and is the capitol of the former Edo Kingdom. The city of Benin still exists today. The head of the Benin kingdom was called an oba, which translates to King, and was highly revered.1 Many brass and ivory carvings of the oba were made. Along with the oba, another highly revered figure in Benin culture was Iy’oba, or the queen mother. She was the oba’s mother and was almost as revered as the king oba himself. Benin also enjoyed great wealth from its trading of coral beads. The Benin traded greatly with the Portuguese, who in turn would protect the Benin. The relationship with the Portuguese is reflected in many pieces of art, including the pendant I choose to analyze. In the pendant the oba is wearing pendants around his waist, some of which portray Portuguese soldiers. Now that we know a little bit of background about the Benin kingdom, we can now talk more specifically about the pendant picture above.

Culture is an important part of society; culture is what binds people together and ties generations from one to the next. It is culture that separates one group of people from another, making them unique from each other and adding variety and beauty to the world. Many nations and peoples cite their traditions and culture as the bedrock of their society. They refer to traditional values as the moral fiber which holds their societies together. Culture is a good thing, when allowed to progress, but can be dangerous if followed blindly. Culture can oppress minorities and those who don’t fit the traditional mold of a people. Culture can impede progress and leave women, minorities and other sub-sects of a society without the basic human rights

As history goes by the world structure, politics, and economy changes from decade to decade, however traditions, customs and culture of different countries remain almost untouched. Culture therefore is a highly important aspect to the society and individuals (Oatey, 2012). Culture of any society includes traditions, customs, rituals and events flourished by certain society. As a part of culture traditions in originated in ancient times and determined by public and private life of individuals. They implied teachings, moral and aesthetic norms, rules and skills of house dwelling and raising children methods. The stability

The Merriam-Webster dictionary offers six definitions for the meaning of the word “culture”. Initially, the amount of definitions, many with their own sub-definitions may make for a convoluted understanding of the word. Consequently, this reflects a similar complexity in attempting to analyze and understand a country’s culture. For the sake of an accurate analysis the fifth entry in the Merriam-Webster dictionary will be used to frame the analysis. Merriam-Webster defines culture as…

Decreased river flow due to the dam also meant more citizens living close to the lake suffered from water-borne illnesses. To help explain why this is such an important example, it is important to know that in Ghana, this dam is still considered one of their most successful infrastructure projects.

The cultures and customs of Ghana today are a product of diversity in indigenous form, influenced by a long history of Islamic and European contacts. They represent a dynamic process of adoption and adaptation, incorporating elements of outside cultures.

is the learned values, beliefs, and rules of conduct that are shared to some extent by the members of a society that govern their behavior with one another. It is the greatest human invention, it is the ultimate definition of what, where, and how we call a place our home. In this essay I will discuss the characteristics, process, and elements within culture, as well as an in-depth look into the different categories and the topic of race within culture.

Culture has a complex concept that numerous of researchers talk about in different views. Cultures is defined as a complex whole that includes of knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by a member of the society (Hollensen, 2013). Culture provides the important background of an individual that offer direction and guidance to its members in all phases of life. Besides, Sojka and Tansuhaj describe culture as a dynamic set of socially obtains the member of a particular society’s behaviours, with the key element of language, artefacts, belief and values (Sojka and Tansuhaj, 1995). There are three main characteristics of culture stated on Hollensen’s (2013) book: culture is learned, interrelated and shared. The tangible aspects of culture