When my cousin informed her parents she was going to get married to her fianc\u00e9, the family was unhappy.\u00a0You would usually expect parents and other relatives to welcome such good news with joy but Akosua\u2019s situation was different.<\/p>\n
We were all astonished our family members were not enthused about the good news.\u00a0I just did not know what might have influenced her parents’ decision to turn such a nice gentleman with great potential away.<\/p>\n
It was until I sat her parents down to have a one on one conversation that I found out why they opposed the idea.\u00a0My cousin\u2019s parents gave me what they deemed tangible reasons for their refusal to give their daughter\u2019s hand in marriage.<\/p>\n
\u201cEric is not an Akan. He is from the Volta Region and what I know about these Voltarians is so bad that you will not like to hear it. They marry you and later go for ladies from their region, \u201cthat was Akosua\u2019s father trying to explain why he rejected Eric.<\/p>\n
What was initially envisaged to be a peaceful conversation turned out to be a harsh confrontation.<\/p>\n
I was so opposed to this belief because I thought it was too ethnocentric. They were just stereotyping and looking down on people from the Volta Region.<\/p>\n
I just could not understand why their resistance was primarily based on tribal differences.<\/p>\n
Ethnocentrism a recipe for disaster<\/strong><\/p>\n It is saddening how ethnocentrism is gradually gaining root in every aspect of our lives.<\/p>\n Most of our political and social decisions are ethnocentric.<\/p>\n According to Assimeng (1981), ethnocentrism is a condition under which a particular tribe sees itself as the centre of the universe, that is, the central pivot or the kingpin around which everything turns.<\/p>\n People who are ethnocentric look down on other ethnic groups as subservient, and this could impede national unity and growth.<\/p>\n I would not write this article without referring to the former Minister of Transport, Dzifa Attivor\u2019s ethnocentric comments which was heavily criticised by various stakeholders including persons from her own party.<\/p>\n The former Minister is on record to have pleaded with members of the NDC at Ketu South in the Volta Region, not to vote for the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) else she and the current Minister of Transport, Fiifi Kwetey, who are all from the region, will be jailed under an NPP government.<\/p>\n But can you blame her? She was raised up to believe Akans and Ewes are enemies and cannot flow.<\/p>\n I will also make mention of Kwabena Agyapong who relived Victor Owusu\u2019s \u201cinward looking\u201d speech in a documentary on the 2008 elections by one Jarreth Merz, a film producer of Ghanaian parentage.<\/p>\n In the movie, Kwabena Agyapong, launched a scathing attack on the Ewes, and the people of Hohoe by claiming that there are no human beings there.<\/p>\n When Mr. Kwabena Agyapong, who was an NPP representative in the strong room of the EC in the 2008 elections, was confronted by NDC representatives over the matter, he retorted.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will challenge the figures from Volta. There are no human beings in the Volta Region.<\/p>\n Effects of ethnocentrism<\/strong><\/p>\n Let us not forget the harm caused in Rwanda and Burundi as a result of ethnocentrism.<\/p>\n In Nigeria, the Ife\/Modakeke war in Osun State was barely over when people of Anambra state were destabilised after hundreds of people died from violent clashes between two communities, Aguleri and Umuleri.<\/p>\n In the North of Kafachan in the same country, many passed away in a violence that erupted in the town between the Hausas and Fulanis<\/p>\n These are the few examples of the debilitating effects of tribalism and ethnocentrism.<\/p>\n As Marx Kahende of the Permanent Mission of Kenya to the United Nations remarked, “we do not need tribes in power, but we need people in power”.<\/p>\n He further stated that\u201d if we do not get rid of tribalism, tribalism will get rid of us”.<\/p>\n We must move beyond it and live together in harmony.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By: Marian Ansah\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana, efeansah@yahoo.com
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