{"id":363425,"date":"2017-10-20T11:02:06","date_gmt":"2017-10-20T11:02:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=363425"},"modified":"2017-10-20T11:02:06","modified_gmt":"2017-10-20T11:02:06","slug":"calling-out-ethnic-bigotry-in-the-ghanaian-public-sphere-article","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/10\/calling-out-ethnic-bigotry-in-the-ghanaian-public-sphere-article\/","title":{"rendered":"Calling out ethnic bigotry in the Ghanaian public sphere [Article]"},"content":{"rendered":"
Ethnocentrism is an issue that has been gradually silenced into the taboo topic category in conversations in Ghana\u2019s public sphere. Many people have experienced ethnic bigotry because they did not belong to a dominant group within a particular socio-cultural context.<\/p>\n
The enslavement and colonization of African societies further complicated issues on ethnicity. Many African countries have struggled to build a comprehensive national identity that is inclusive of the many ethnic groups that constitute a nation.<\/p>\n
As such ethnic allegiance has always been stronger than national identity within the social and political reality of the nation-state. Ghana like countries across Africa has struggled to project a national identity that includes the many ethnic identities in the country. I have found Kimberle Crenshaw\u2019s notion of intersectionality quite useful for situating issues of ethnic identity within larger conversations on feminism and nationalism.<\/p>\n
I have experienced ethnic bigotry in my short life and in my experience, people whose ethnicities are affirmed nationally (and or regionally) tend to silence conversations that confront ethnic dominance and challenge ethnocentrism and ethnic bigotry.<\/p>\n
I have always held the view that we need to blatantly speak on and confront bigotry in all its manifestations so I asked a number of people to share their experiences of ethnic bigotry in our beloved country.<\/p>\n
Francis Xavier Dery Tuokuu<\/a>, Nandom (Upper West Region)<\/strong><\/p>\n