Population growth in Ghana: A particularistic analysis of a complex issue

On July 25, 2018, myjoyonline published a story that stated that the National Population Council (NPC) is pushing for the enforcement of a policy that will enjoin couples to give birth to a maximum of three children as a resolute measure to control population growth. The Executive Director of NPC, Dr. Leticia Adelaide Appiah, warned that the current growth rate of 2.5 per cent posed a threat to national development (myjoyonline: ‘Don’t go beyond three babies – Population Council warns’). Ever since the publication of this recommendation, many Ghanaians have responded disapprovingly. I will highlight some points for reflection on the subject in the following paragraphs.

It is necessary to state that there is enough politics around population growth. Over the years, many Africans have observed with suspicion any attempt on the part of national and international institutions to enforce population control policies. Many argue that there is a deliberate attempt on the part of Western capitalists and their compradors in Africa to control population growth in Africa.

This is to the extent that some have alleged that the HIV virus was a creation in the laboratory in the West to ensure the decimation of the African population. Other religious leaders also have an eschatological rendition of the attempt to control population growth. While for other religious people, the command, ‘To fill the earth,’ is enough reason for people to have children without any limit.

It must also be stated that population is not simply about demographics. There is a socio-political dimension of population growth. For some religious groups, having more population is equivalent to controlling the powerhouse of the world. This means that to look at population growth simply from the prism of demographics is not just narrow, but an obfuscation of the complexities involved in population growth. Following Malthusian prognosis about the debilitating effects of unchecked population growth, many efforts have been invested to hold rampant population growth at bay. The real or imagined threats of unchecked population growth have informed many interventions to control childbirth. These interventions have been built on the narrow assumption that population is simply about numbers. In the following paragraphs, I will show, from the point of view of the Akan, which can also be extrapolated to other African groups, that population is not only about numbers.

Among the Akan, in the past, the appeal to be received in the world of the ancestors was a strong motivation for large family size. The Akan worldview dichotomises the cosmos into two spheres – the metaphysical and the material world – without building overwhelming wall between the two. There was fluidity between the two worlds. The Akan believed that the occurring in the material world is nothing but a manifestation of the metaphysical world. And one way of gaining entry into the metaphysical world, which is also the home of the ancestors, was by having multiple children. The importance of this was framed in the prayer of ancient Akan men, ‘God, don’t let me go blind at night; don’t let me go blind in the morning, and don’t let me go blind in the afternoon.’ The use of blindness in the prayer was a metaphor for infertility. The prayer was therefore a prayer against impotence!

Also, children among the Akan are also social identity markers. The contemporary Akan woman loses her name twice when she marries and begins to have children. After marriage, she takes the name of her husband. When she gets children, the takes the name of her first child. For example, if she married Kwame, she became ‘Kwame’s wife’. In the same way, if her first child is Kofi, she takes the name ‘Kofi Maame’ (Kofi’s mother) and if she has twins, she is called, ‘Ataa Maame.’ Anthropologists have referred to the scenario of a woman losing her name to her child as teknonymy. It is the pride of most Akan women to be called by both socially constructed set of names. This is because such a practice is a marker of social identity and achieved status.

Consequently, childlessness was considered a bad omen and possibly a curse from the ancestors and other capricious deities. It is worthy of note that following the longstanding contact the Akan have had with Islam and Christianity, the theological teachings of these religions about heaven and a supreme deity, as opposed to the ancestral world and other deities, have not displaced the faith most Akan people have in the world of the ancestors and the activities of whimsical deities. Implicit in the minds of many Akan people, including Christians and Muslims, is the belief that not having children is a challenge that must be solved.

It is on the basis of this that many Akan people, regardless of their religious persuasion, would go all out to seek answers to their childlessness. In most cases, religious pragmatism would compel many Akan people to crisscross religious boundaries, visiting the ‘traditional’ priest, mallam (mualim – used here as a religious functionary) and pastors in search of answers to childlessness. The recent phenomenon of the commercialisation of sperm and ovary in some parts of Accra is simply indicative of how the Akan and other people could be desperate about childlessness.

In some cultures, when people miss an invitation to attend marriage ceremony, they say to the couple that they would compensate by attending the anticipated naming ceremony. In other words, there is always an implicit pressure that is brought to bear on young couples to have children. In fact, in-laws, friends, and family members would greet young couples with expressions like, ‘Give us twins,’ ‘Let us hear the cry of a baby soon,’ and ‘Show the world that you are fertile.’ As I have said comments, such as these, make life uneasy for couples that do not get children a few months into marriage.

Childlessness actually becomes a basis for religious functionaries to claim authority over the world of demons. Since most of the Akan religious functionaries, including pastors, have a worldview that attributes the principal cause of a ‘misfortune’ such as childlessness to the world of malevolent spirits, such religious functionaries assume the role of intercessors in helping the couples in question. We have had many cases in Ghana where traditional priests, pastors, and some mallams have fleeced their clients, who are mainly childless. The whole political economy of solving childlessness through ‘Akwankyire’ (‘showing the way’), a metaphor of providing spiritual guidance and antidote to the material problems of life, becomes an avenue for some religious functionaries to enrich themselves.

There is also the question of women’s control over their reproductive right. Among some Akan, it is the man who controls the reproductive right of women. A man gains genetricem and uxorem rights over the woman she marries. The man determines the number of children a woman could have. While many may not necessarily be aware, it is this expression of androcentrism that explains the woman losing her name to her husband’s name when she married. In contemporary world, the male’s control over the reproductive right of women has found expression in the contentious debates over abortion, birth control, freedom from coerced sterilisation and contraception, right to good-quality reproductive health, and right to education. Since most women do not have control over these rights, it is difficult to impose any birth control related policies without first empowering women.

Also, in a country where poverty is high and social welfare system is woefully inefficient, many couples seek social security in the number of children they have. Somehow, the divinities appear to support ‘poor’ women. They tend to be fertile. Aside religious reasons, this could be because most of these ‘poor’ women do not spend their productive years pursuing a particular white-collar carrier. They at best learn a trade, which takes not more than three years to qualify to practice. Consequently, they tend to give birth early and also avert some of the biological challenges associated with fertility. Also, since most of the ‘poor’ people in Ghana are involved in labour-intensive economic activities, they tend to need more hands to help them. These encourage more children. In the same vein, in a country where the ‘poor’ can hardly predict his or her future, having more children is an assurance that life will be well. Most of them, thus, tend to have more children, trusting that at least one or two of them would be successful to redeem them from the peril of poverty. As to whether ‘poor’ people have actually succeeded in using large family size to beat the plight of poverty is yet to be established empirically.

The above notwithstanding, unchecked population growth could portend danger to any economy that is not growing. Compared to the so-called development countries, Africa is a youthful continent. I will here consider the case of the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom has an ageing population with over fifty per cent of its population being 50+ old. The UK’s solution to its aging population is strategically geared towards promoting childbirth and opening her borders to young and youthful population from across the continent, since aging population needs to be counterbalanced with youthful population. But compared to the UK, Africa demographically a youthful continent. What this means is that our youthful population is a resource that could be directed towards development. But if we do not channel the energy of the teeming youth into a productive venture, we are likely to ruin our prospects of development. Already, about 5000 of Ghanaian youth are languishing in our prisons. Obviously, if we are serious about engaging the energy of our youth, then we need to devise ways of making crime difficult to commit among the youthful population.

From the above, it is obvious that the issues of population growth in Ghana are complex. It cannot be simply looked at from only demographic perspective. To control population growth, issues about socio-religion, politics, and women’s right over their reproductive rights should be given a thorough consideration. Until we do that, we would not be able to appropriate our teeming population growth to pursue development. We will also fail to engage the politics of population growth.

Satyagraha

Charles Prempeh (prempehgideon@yahoo.com), African University College of Communications, Accra