INTRODUCTORY Culture and cultural practice in Ghana and the motive behind them

Hello to my fellow steemians,how are you all doing?I hope everyone is fine, Alhamdulillah.My name@salifumohammed,a proud citizen of Ghana.I am very pleased to see contests like this, though I am a new comer.And all thanks goes to @silencewan for this great contest.

Culture and cultural practice in Ghana

An understanding of culture requires an understanding not only of language differences, but also differences in knowledge, perceptions, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors.

Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate") generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activities significance and importance. Cultures can be "understood as systems of symbols and meanings that even their creators contest, that lack fixed boundaries, that are constantly in flux, and that interact and compete with one another."
Culture can be defined as all the ways of life including arts, beliefs and institutions of a population that are passed down from generation to generation. Culture has been called "the way of life for an entire society." As such, it includes codes of manners, dress, language, religion, rituals, art. norms of behavior, such as law and morality, and systems of belief.
Positive and negative cultural practices in Ghana Tuesday, April 17, 2018 at 2:20 PM by Dennis Abwao I say this without an iota of doubt that African countries are far behind their counterparts in the West in all dimensions of life and more so in matters of development. It’s not because the latter has great intellectual capabilities than we are but the environment, education and socialization makes all this difference. Evidently, this can be seen in the diversion between cultural practices in Ghana and those of the west. Source: Compassion Cultural practices in Ghana for instance have both the good and the ugly bit of it. The good cultural practices in Ghana allow for historical heritage passage, continuity and preservation. This brings a sense of belonging and identity African people boast about. On the other hand are some bad cultural practices that are barbaric, demeaning, in humane, senseless and traumatizing to say the least. Ghana is home to many people of diverse backgrounds with different communally accepted beliefs, norms, customs, morals, art, setup and law different from one community to the next and from people to other people. In this piece, I will outline some of the socio cultural practices in Ghana. Those that were traditionally practiced and are still or not practiced today. I will broadly categories them into positive and negative cultural practices in Ghana and mention the repercussions of each. This will help tell apart the ethical from unethical, hence know which requires maintenance and preservation and which ones should be condemned. Here is the list of cultural practices in Ghana; married rite, puberty rite, funeral rite, widowhood rite,birth rite, female genital mutilation, killing deformed children etc.

POSITIVE CULTURAL PRACTICE

BIRTH RITE:1.It is an example of cultural practices in Ghana Source.They were conducted and still are conducted after the baby is born as a sign of welcoming them into the larger family. Ordinarily this took place on the 3rd or 4th day following birth. Members of the family would gather up together make merry, feast, sing and dance as they welcome the new addition. Some rites and declaration would be made by the elders including naming. Among the Akan people this ceremony was referred to as Din to but according to their practices it would be 8 days after the baby is born, the baby was practices it would be 8 days after the baby is born, the baby was to remain indoors before this event was conducted.But for the Dagombas who can be found in the Northern part of Ghana call it Suuna, and they give names to their newly born babies on the sixth or seventh day after birth,the family members will gather and they will invite the Imam of their area for reading some verses in the Quran.On the day of the ceremony,they will call there local barber( WANZAM)to shave the child hair off, and they call that hair 'Zab'bɛri'.They will cook different kinds of food on that day, and slaughter sheep(Ram).Conceptually this would give the baby its identity and position in the community it was born in. this would mean they are accepted and share in the beliefs and practices of that community. This is a positive cultural practice in Ghana.
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MARRIAGE RITE:Here above I made a remark that human beings are social beings, allow me to repeat the cliché. You and I would agree that as people advance in age, they tend to develop an inherent attraction towards people of the opposite sex. The culmination of this is what is called marriage; the coming together of people of the opposite sex who have a desire to live together.As was with other cultural practice in Ghana so is in the world. Families would meets up, negotiate, agree on the bride price then be given a girl for marriage. Traditionally, the gods would be appeased and the elders would bless the union. This is one of the good cultural practices in Ghana today. Young people are married off having been counseled and blessed for the lifetime commitment. This has over time help upheld the meaning of marriage as sacred, honorable and undefiled

PUBERTY RITE: This was done mostly by the Akan, Bragro, Krobos, Gas and the Dipo people. It was performed on girls after their first menstruation as an initiation into .womanhood. They would be secluded from the community taught about family, marriage and culture. This would help them maintain their dignity symbolized by virginity until marriage which was the primary qualification for one to go through the rite. If a girl was deflowered meaning had lost their virginity, the family was on shame. Ordinarily such a girl would be cast out along the other who got pregnant before marriage. Alternatively, cleansing rites had to be performed. This helped girl not to indulge in pre-marital sex and unwanted pregnancies at teenage. These positive cultural practices in Ghana are still being performed up to date.

NEGATIVE CULTURAL PRACTICE

WIDOWHOOD RITE:Women whose spouse had passed away had to go through this rite. The rites vary from one community to the next but the common practices include ritual bathing, confinement, hair shaving, wife inheritance just to mention but a few. This would traumatized them to the core of their being considering they were already in their low moment of life trying to deal with death, loneliness, denial anger and acceptance of the departed.Some would be subjected to unimaginable humiliation causing them social, psychological and emotional torture and trauma. This practice is still being practiced in remote areas though it has subsided from the past. Widowhood rites makes to the list of outmoded cultural practices in Ghana. [Screenshot_20210928-214424.png](

FEMALE GENITTAL MULTILATION:Male circumcision is a common cultural activity in many African countries and even in the West. However, the Ghanaian elders of the ancient times must have copied it the wrong way altogether. Female circumcision is not a transition from childhood to adulthood as in the later but mutilation and the highest disregard to humanity. It entails removal of the genittals not the fore skin as in the latter. These cultural practices in Ghana was so the girl would maintain their sexual purity until marriage as the painful ordeal would hold them back from engaging in any sexual relations before then.Thanks to education and ongoing research about the female body, female genittal mutilation is gradually on the south trend. The effect of outmoded cultural practices in Ghana sadly would even be death. The consequence of female genittal mutilation is excessive bleeding, blocked or complication during childbirth some which could even get fatal. Besides, this was an infringement of their human rights not forgetting use of unsterilized tool tool that could spread infections like HIV and AIDS etc.

KILLING DEFORMED CHILDREN: I belong to the school of thought that believes that illiteracy and ignorance are entwined. Due to lack of knowledge there are communities in West Africa, precisely Ghana that belief children who are born deformed or due to ailments or other caused end up disabled are due to evil powers possession. To spell out the ‘evil spirit’ they have to be cast out lest they bring misfortunes to the community.
Often communities living in the remote areas would kill deformed children. Again this is barbaric and a negative cultural practice in Ghana. However, government has intervened at these practices are no longer done at the public glare if they are actually happening.Screenshot_20210928-215927.png]()
Special thanks to @silencewan