A BRIEF EXPLANATION OF GHANIAN CULTURE

The small but culturally rich Republic of Ghana is one of the Africa's most stable constitutional democracies. Imagining the shape of the entire African landmass as the right-profile of a human skull, Ghana is located on the bottom side of the back of the 'skull', between Ivory Coast to the west, Togo to the east and the Atlantic Ocean to the south.

Ghana was the first sub-Saharan nation to achieve independence and in 1957. Kwamw Nkrumah, the country's first president, initiated a comprehensive, state-sponsored program to support the traditional culture and arts, with emphases on both national and tribal traditions. The government's emphasis on promoting Ghana's traditional culture continues to this day.

English is the official language of the land, but there exists upward of one hundred linguistic and cultural groups. Through all of this, the nation's peoples can be handily divided into six major groups, with the Akan the country's most populous. These six distinctive groups are the Akan, the Ewe, the Ga-Adangbe, the Mole-Dagbani, the Guan, and the Gurma.

The Ashanti Tribe, a division of the Akan group, is by far the largest tribe in the nation and the tribe with which this article will deal. The Ashanti occupy both the urban and rural areas of their provinces. They are noteworthy as one of the few African societies where the line of genealogical relationship and descent follows the female side of the family.

The village is the social and economic unit in Ashanti culture and everyone in the village participates in the major ceremonies. The most frequent of these ceremonies are funerary celebrations and everyone in the village is expected to attend. They last several days on end and the funds spent on the funerals constitute a large portion of the deceased's family budget.

The Ashanti Tribe is well known for its expertise in weaving, wood carving, ceramics, and metallurgy. Most of these crafts are traditionally done only by the men, with females involved to a limited extent in the fabrication of pottery.

The Ashanti have an elaborate religious system involving complex ceremonies, ancestor worship, witchcraft and sorcery, beliefs in varied spirits, divinations, the shaman, and the ntoro concept. Ntoro literally means spirit, and the Ashanti believe that everyone receives an ntoro as two parts when they are born: an ego and a life-force. The tribe believes that a man transmits his ntoro to his children.

Tribal members also believe in bestowing frequent offerings of ceremonial food and drink to departed kings in exchange for earthly favors from these dead royalty for the benefit of the whole of the tribe.

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