Religion & Culture: The Great Compromise

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Religion is dominant in Ghana and pretty much majority of Ghanaians believe in a Supreme Being, a Higher being or a deity. Be it Christianity, Islamic or any of the traditional religions, it'd be difficult to find an atheist in Ghana. Ghana prides herself in her rich cultural variety and citizens are bounded by cultural norms and values.
On a lighter side, for instance, anyone in the northern part of the country is automatically considered a Muslim. Or that Ewes are more traditional in their beliefs, or that Fantes are Catholics, etc. What is the cause? How influential has culture been in our practicing of a particular religion? Forgive my inclination to Christianity as I'm more knowledgeable there.

Both culture and religion relate to our way of life and direct our actions and inactions. They both guide our decision making and the acquisition of values. This, therefore, has led to a sort of merger or compromise between the two. For instance, let's take the naming ceremonies. Naming ceremonies are done concerning a particular culture and not religion. I haven't seen any ceremonial rites like that in the Bible. I'm more conversant with the Ga ceremony so I'd refer to that. It probably runs through most ethnic groups. This ceremony was done in the name of the gods they worshipped. However there has been a compromise and so instead of a fetish priest, there is a pastor or man of God. However, the same procedure is followed. This is a clear indication of the compromise between religion and culture

Let's take a look at the naming system. We make the "Christian" names the first names, which are by the way sometimes Jewish names, or even common and profound words in the Bible (like Wisdom) and our local and culturally significant names like Kojo, Adzo, Kobla, etc are now shifted to middle names or even "house names" and not even registered. I don't know where the term Christian name comes from but it shouldn't even exist. A name is a name, the fact that that was the name of the apostles or Bible figure doesn't mean it should be called Christian. This has robbed us of the pride to carry our own cultural names. The Christian names could have been our middle names instead. The names in the Bible were given based on their culture and language. The name "Abraham" wouldn't have made sense to Abram if he wasn't an Israelite or didn't relate to that language. The same applies here.

Another example is weddings. Now we realize that there are two wedding ceremonies held; the traditional one now termed "engagement" and then the "actual" wedding, the church wedding. For us, we have to follow our customs and value and follow the church, thus having to get married twice. It follows that people want their marriages blessed in God's temple. These same people want to follow cultural norms but include a pastor because they can't "throw" away from their customs and values. Demeaning "traditional" marriage to engagement is appalling and I think people should just choose one. As a Christian, you don't need to get married in a church if you have a pastor to bless that marriage in a traditional setting. God is not in the building, He's in you. And you don't need to have an "engagement" if you so desire to have a white or church wedding. The two, done a week apart or even two days apart is just pointless to me.

There's also sometimes however a problem in drawing the line between the two. Cultural and Bible laws are often interchanged and have led to a nationwide misunderstanding. For instance, someone would gladly eat pork and tell you your dreadlocks or makeup is against God and is a sin, or that people have no problem with high-life music but a problem with rap, even when sometimes they talk about the same things. Its a matter of culture but being mixed with religion. Pork was considered unclean in the old testament days but after Jesus died, he made them clean and all other things. Now people, for their love for pork have accepted this, but would adamantly stand against dreadlocks or earrings, and term them as sin. It's no sin, it's just against our culture. Let's learn to draw a line between the two. In the same vein you play a piece of hip-pop music talking about love and Ghanaians are triggered but people like Daddy Lumba or Kojo Antwi and Samini are popular even though they talk about similar things. Like I said, this is more about culture than religion.

All in all, I think it comes down to being ready for a massive change. Ghana, as a multicultural country, finds it difficult to accept a change or throw away archaic ideas (I'm saying this as my perspective, not a fact). It's difficult as a people not to have doubts and to be too comfortable with what we believe in. We're so stuck in our old ways, rooted to the cores of the earth that we're almost undetachable. Therefore when religion was introduced, it meant a change of ways that Ghanaians couldn't deal because it shuttered their beliefs. Thus it became a let's-find-a-way-around-it situation leading to the compromise we see today.


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This is part one of a two-part article. Watch out for the next one, definitely not the next upload but it'd cover the way forward