By nature we are born into a family, not by choice but by chance.But it is always our choice to choose how we live our lives on this earth.
In Ghana, the rate at which citizens prejudice is alarming!, especially at the tribal level. There are pre-established perceptions about each tribe which is not healthy for our country.
Some perceptions are that the Ga’s are lazy, the Asantes are naturally gifted with boasting whilst the ewes are perceived to be idol worshippers. Some of these perceptions are actually affecting us in the way we deal with each other.
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Productivity is reducing because of those tribal issues, in the sense that, at the work place, we decide to work with or associate ourselves with people from tribes we feel more comfortable with whilst neglecting the others. We fear associating ourselves with Ewes, believing that they might use their spiritual powers on us. We fear the Asanti’s will boast and belittle us, making us insecure. But the truth is we are all different people on this planet with different qualities.
These tribal issues has led to a lot of problems. An example being the rampant rate of marriage breakdowns. A typical Ashanti man will not allow his son to marry a Krobo woman just because it is perceived that the Krobo women are promiscuous.
These thoughts and ideologies are gradually eating into our fabrics and instead of acknowledging and trying to fix the problems of tribalism, we turn a blind eye and take it lightly. On different social media platforms we see people post material which promotes tribalism and instead of us condemning it, we tend to laugh about it. Our country, Ghana, has a great potential in leading Africa but ignoring issues that seem trivial will destroy us.
All backgrounds are not the same. I can be born into an Ashanti family but that does not mean that I am boastful. We should note that we all have different personalities and our reactions to issues are different. Our way of thinking are different from each other. We should stop assuming and start accepting people for who they really are. Together we stand, divided we fall.
To build a nation we need everyone on deck. We should stop tribal politics, associating a tribe to a political party. We should follow the ideology of our leaders but not because they are from a particular tribe. We can only build when we start supporting the efforts of one another.
Thomas Paine once said “for not in numbers but in unity that our great strength lies”. Thank you
Source: Lord Logo Stephen
