Religion

In Ghana and much of West Africa, traditional religions are very prevalent, even among those who identify as Muslim or Christian, and a religious worldview is inseparable from virtually every aspect of Ghanaian life.  Religious differences are treated with great tolerance, which is actively supported by the government, and people often participate in the celebrations of other faiths or adopt a mix of religious practices.  Going to church, baptisms, circumcisions, weddings, and funerals often forms the mainstay of social life.  Atheists are very rare and looked on with great skepticism.

Nothing is sacred, or rather, everything is.

Christianity has a strong presence in Ghana, and God and Jesus are often featured (or honored) in surprising places, and used to market every imaginable product.  Christian programs take up a substantial part of radio and TV airtime.

Traditional Religion

Although it varies from place to place and group to group, the basic outline of Ghanaian traditional religion is that life is a process of renewal, and there are separate physical and spirit worlds which interact.  A new baby is seen as caught between the living and spirit world, and is not given a name for a week in case it decides to return.  Death is seen as a transition back to the spirit world, where the deceased, as a revered ancestor,  lives on and plays an active role in human life.  A natural death in old age is celebrated.  An untimely death, however, is attributed to witchcraft, and the spirit cannot go on to become an ancestor.

A Supreme God who is Creator of the world and source of all good and evil is a foundational belief, and in the spirit world’s hierarchy this being is followed by lesser gods, ancestors, witchcraft, and magic. Humans more often interact with these latter than with the Supreme God.  Witchcraft, for example, is often held accountable when unfortunate events take place.  Often traditional religions include animist beliefs, which attribute spirits to places or objects.

While in the Western tradition we most often think of a person as having one spirit, soul, or mind inhabiting a body,  most Ghanaian traditions beleive that a person’s non-physical existence has several components.  These come from the mother, father, or pre-date birth, and are responsible for various aspects of personal nature.

Christianity

Christianity has been closely tied to many changes in Ghana, from the arrival of Europeans in the late 1400s until the present.  Missionaries have a long history there, and as they were closely involved with foreign entrepreneurs and for a long time the only source of Western schools, involvement with Christianity was necessary for Africans’ “success” or power within the colonial system.  Church schools and hospitals contributed majorly to both improved quality of life and the Westernization of native people.  All major churches are represented in Ghana (Pentecostal churches are the most popular), and it has the highest percentage of Christians in West Africa.  Recently, in the past few decades, there has been a surge of new, independent, African denominations, often charismatic in nature, that honor the merging of African and Christian traditions.

Pentecostal church in Ghana

Islam

Islam pre-dates Christianity in Ghana, but actually has strikingly low representation for a West African country.  It came from the east on the trans-saharan trade routes, as early as the 8th century, and took strong root in most other West African areas.  Islam is prevalent in the north of Ghana, and every city has a “Zongo,” or Muslim quarter, where Muslim immigrants in particular live.  There isn’t really much opportunity to receive an Islamic education, however, since it isn’t funded by the government and there isn’t enough interest from outside agencies.

In Larabranga, the oldest mosque in Ghana

Tensions between religions are remarkably few, with families often ascribing to different beliefs without difficulty.  Ghanaians look with interest at the religious conflicts experienced by neighbors like Nigeria, but make concerted efforts, like joint Christian-Muslim presences at political events, to avoid them.