Regionalism, ethnicity, and politics in Ghana

Abstract

One basic feature that characterises all African countries is cultural diversity. Like most African countries, one way to measure diversity among the people of Ghana is ethnicity. There are several researches on the direct relationship between language, place and politics. Spoken language, directly linked to ethnicity in Ghana is political and geographical in nature. It is, therefore, clear that ethnic identity and languages spoken are the symbols and values that form a focal point for group cohesiveness, and this may vary through time. This study, therefore, examines ethnicity in Ghana through time in space using GIS to map the variations from the known spatial divisions and political lens then uses voting patterns to understand politics of affection among various ethnic groups in the country. The paper concludes that, although the geographical concentrations of ethnicity can be mapped to specific places, migration has diffused greatly the sole concentration of one ethnic group in a specified place. It also questions the hypothesis that voting in Africa is largely based on ethnic considerations, place and language based other than development. It does this considering the recent trend of voting patterns in the country.