2014 — Can The Energy Issue Be Seen As A Cultural One In Ghana?
My project involved conducting research by way of interviews to find out what Ghanaian youth considered cultural and what Ghanaian youth valued and did not value with respect to the Ghanaian society. This was done in an effort to then see if the energy issue, relating to oil in Ghana, could be seen as a cultural one rather than a political one.
My interviewees were:
John Kotey (Columbia University), Gifty Opare (Colorado), Kwame Owusu-Addo (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology), Kwabena Boateng (Columbia University), Maxine Laryeah (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Gifty Arthur (Luther College), Ronald Robeiro (Texas Instruments) Ike Kyei (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), and a Ghanaian in Canada who chose to be without a name/anonymous.
After questioning my interviewees, six things were deemed important.
- Family and Friends — There is a strong commitment to one’s community and the idea that one is to respect elders at all times.
- Arts & Entertainment — The fine arts, the film/movie industry, the music industry.
- Education — Formal education in schools and informal education at home and in the community one lives in or that one is from.
- Ghanaian culture relating to the different ethnic groups — The preservation of the various cultures in Ghana even as globalization and influence from the West seems to take over.
- Development of Ghana for the better.
These five things were essential to their lifestyle, values and the way they were brought up.
When I asked my interviewees what they thought the youth disliked about Ghana, whether promptly or after some thought, all nine responses to the issue was politics and/or the politicization of every issue in Ghana. Some gave examples, without me asking them to, to the oil find and how it was handled by the NPP government who were in power while it was officially declared found and the NDC government who won the election after the oil find in 2012.
I then proceed to ask them to talk about what they knew relating to the oil find as far back as 2007 and the oil issue Ghana has now and have them relate it to what they believed the youth considered important and disliked about Ghanaian society. They all had a bit or a thorough lot to say about the oil find and oil issue and did say they do see it affecting the future of the youth and related this to the fact that the oil issue is seen as a political and economic one.
The question about whether the oil issue can be considered a cultural was met with a no and doubt as to whether it will even happen in the near future. It was suggested by a few of the interviewees that education on the formal level should play a role in making it a cultural issue so the youth will see the oil find as something they can discuss and conversely have an effect on how it is managed. One did interestingly say, that since the oil find is relatively new in Ghana, it will take a while for it to be seen as a cultural issue as he believes is the case in Nigeria for instance.
- Cindy Coffee, Fall 2014
