Family Futures

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Lessons from the community level in Ghana

Charles Abbey, Executive Director, African Development Programme

dvancing

ocial

ntegration

and

ntergenerational

olidarity

n a typical Ghanaian community, almost every family is

both nuclear and extended. Families are associated with

each other through intermarriage, religious, traditional

and cultural practices. Almost everyone knows everyone.

The Ghanaian family is key and instrumental for social

and economic development, local governance and author-

ity, confidence building and conflict resolution. It is now

common knowledge that since the not too distant past, the

average Ghanaian family at the community level has been

under severe threat from challenges that confront its health

and survival. These continue to increase with such subtlety,

and sometimes aggression, in each passing year that worthy

initiatives such as the United Nations International Year of

the Family must not only be sustained, but must also be well

resourced and expanded.

Over the past several decades, the family at the commu-

nity level was held together by valued traditional and

cultural practices, strong commitment and dedication to

religious beliefs and practices. After supper, the evenings

were generally devoted to sharing the day’s school and

farm experiences, and story-telling by the fireside. In urban

and peri-urban communities, the evenings were generally

spent discussing performance in school and some political

developments. Parents loved to tell life enrichment stories

and children were eager to listen and ask questions. A well-

ordered family was recognized for its sanctity and properly

accorded its place in society.

On Fridays, several families would be seen on their way

to the mosque, and on Saturdays and Sundays most fami-

lies would make their way to church. Those who practice

traditional worship were seldom left out. These weekly, and

mid-week, religious activities provided much-needed oppor-

tunities for family spiritual reflections. Many hundreds of

stressed and distressed souls, parents and children and in-laws,

were refreshed and strengthened. Many a soul contemplating

suicide was saved. The importance of unadulterated religion

and its spiritual benefits was not lost on the family.

Parents spent quality time with their children and among

themselves, and it was a joy and a blessing to see parents

asking their children about how they fared in school each

evening. Parents were eager to pay visits to their children

in boarding schools and were proud to provide them with

their provisions, school fees and extra educational materi-

als. Children always looked forward to such parental visits as

evidence of love and social cohesion. On any given holiday,

it was common to see families travelling to the big cities and

other places of interest for vacations or sightseeing. These,

and many more positives, have paid lasting dividends.

But in recent years, the family unit has come under

increased pressure to the point of near disintegration. The

global economic downturn and economic policies that are

The traditional and cultural practices, strong commitment and religious beliefs that have held Ghanaian families together are now under threat

Image: ADP