Children and the Future of the Nation Children are the future of every society. When a nation fails to nurture and guide its children properly, it mortgages its own future. Ghana today faces a troubling situation: unless deliberate efforts are made to mould children into disciplined, responsible, and law-abiding citizens, the consequences will be felt…
Every year, thousands of children in Ghana suffer abuse at the hands of those entrusted with their care—parents, guardians, and relatives. Reports of battered, neglected, and traumatized children frequently appear in the Ghanaian mass media, often accompanied by disturbing images and heartbreaking details. In many cases, the abuse results in severe physical injuries; in others,…
Pronatalism refers to a strong cultural and social preference for having children, often accompanied by expectations that adults should reproduce as a normal and desirable life course. In Ghanaian society, having one’s own child is not merely a personal choice; it is widely regarded as a social obligation. Adulthood is culturally incomplete without parenthood, and…
In Ghana, there exists a long-standing practice in which some parents send their children to live with other families as househelps. While this arrangement is often justified as a strategy for providing children with better opportunities, it has, in many cases, become a source of profound exploitation and suffering. Many of these children are sent…
No one is born with knowledge. Human beings are born with the capacity to learn, but what they eventually know—how they speak, think, behave, believe, and interpret the world—is acquired from society. Knowledge, values, attitudes, and skills are socially produced and socially transmitted. By the time a Ghanaian child reaches the age of eighteen, that…
Children are the future of every society. Yet Ghana faces a serious challenge if urgent steps are not taken to ensure that today’s children are properly guided and nurtured to grow into law-abiding and responsible citizens. In recent years, there has been a noticeable increase in juvenile delinquency across the country. Many children are skipping…
In Ghana, success is loudly celebrated, quietly envied, and endlessly debated. Yet, beneath the noise of social media displays, church testimonies, political slogans, and family expectations lies a deeper question we rarely pause to ask ourselves honestly: what does success truly mean to you? Not to your parents. Not to your pastor. Not to society,…
Almost everyone dreams of success. From childhood, we are taught to aspire, to achieve, and to “make it” in life. Parents encourage their children to succeed, communities celebrate successful people, and society often rewards those it considers accomplished. But an important question remains: What does success really mean—and who should be considered a successful person…
In an age of rapid social change, urbanization, and shifting lifestyles, it is worth asking a simple but important question: What is a family, and why do we still need one? Despite changes in how people live and relate to one another, the family remains the most fundamental institution in every society. Anthropologists who have…
In Ghana today, many parents encourage their children to speak English, sometimes at the expense of local languages. This trend is common not only in Ghana but also among Ghanaian families living abroad. While parents may believe that prioritizing English will make their children academically brighter, this approach often has unintended consequences for cultural identity…
Across Africa, myths and misunderstandings about bedwetting continue to affect children and families. In Ghana, many parents still believe that children who wet their beds at night are lazy or unwilling to wake up to urinate. As a result, some children are physically disciplined. In past decades, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s, children who…
Corporal punishment is when an adult uses physical force to discipline or control a child, with the aim of causing pain, though not serious injury. In simple terms, it means hurting a child’s body to punish them. Examples of corporal punishment include beating or caning, slapping or spanking, whipping, hitting with objects such as sticks,…
