POVERTY AND EDUCATION:FUNERAL PERFORMANCES DEEPEN POVERTY IN NORTHERN GHANA

FUNERAL PERFORMANCES DEEPEN POVERTY IN NORTHERN GHANA

Edward Adeti's Report, Upper East, Ghana

Mr.Alagskomah

Once again, a familiar voice has asked if there is any need for people in the already-deprived northern Ghana to fall on banks for loans with high interest rates just to put “expensive funerals” on show whilst their school-going children starve and are strictly warned to stay away from class by school authorities for their parents’ long-tolerated refusal to meet with basic responsibility.

A release by Mr. Alagskomah Asakeya Noble, Programme Manager of the Centre for Youth Welfare and Development (CYWD), told World News Today in Ghana that: “After the funerals, most families are worse off and the saddest thing is that pregnant women, children and the aged suffer malnutrition, making them prone to various ailments. This is also as a result of the breakdown of their natural immune systems.” 

Mr. Alagskomah, who is also an acclaimed Principal Pharmacy Technologist and famous advocate for social justice, observed that most funerals in northern Ghana are carried out in March, April and May¾ a period he described as “the peak of hunger” as well as a time that the outbreak of the Cerebro-Spinal Meningitis (CSM) is most likely due to the seasonal excessive heat and the overcrowding associated with funerals.

Lamenting the toll that such profligate funeral spending has continued to mount on young people, the Programme Manager said the unfortunate situation has also continued to inspire the youth with worrying determination and dreams to migrate southwards in search of jobs for the purpose of paying their funeral-hampered school fees and satisfying other basic needs.

He also decried the import of foreign culture at funeral grounds where spinning, according to him, promotes promiscuity, hooliganism, absenteeism as well as drug and substance abuse.

“Teenagers as young as 13 to 15 years are seen smoking and drinking alcohol openly. Sometimes, things that are not necessary for the funeral performance are introduced. For example, spinning and sewing of new funeral cloths apart from the already-sown ones meant for attending funerals. Aliment is also prepared and served in take-away package with a variety of drinks. Posterity will never forgive us for abandoning our rich culture and copying other people’s culture all in the name of modernity,” he stated.

He appealed to traditional authorities to save the Ghanaian rich culture from a looming extinction and to help prune the excesses in the performance of funerals so that the limited resources could be used to offer quality education and nutrition to children, expectant mothers and the aged. He appealed to the Presidents of the Houses of Chiefs in northern Ghana to consider performance of funerals only at the end of January every year and impose a ban on spinning at funerals. Mr. Alagskomah also suggested a ban on wearing of any other funeral attire than the traditional clothes and smocks. Whilst calling for abolition of serving funeral meals in take-away package, he also said all children of school-going age should be banned from attending funerals.

“Only traditional drummers and musicians should be allowed to perform in funerals and only local aliment and pito be served. The use of coffins in burying the dead should be abolished,” he stressed.