Abstract
In March 2021, the Ghanaian social media was inundated with counter-opinions on two young men with dreadlocks—whose admission at Achimota High School was temporarily suspended unless they shaved their locked hair. Concurrently, opinions about the subject that involved politicians, educationists, religious leaders, and chiefs centred on religious freedom, minority rights, school culture, and the formation of the public sphere. Using Rastafarians as entry point, I deploy the theory of secularisation to engage the discourse on religion, minority rights, and the public sphere. Through a review of literature and social media content, I address the question: what values should shape the public sphere to foster equality and protect minority rights? I argue that Ghana’s liberal democracy would thrive on legitimate accommodation of religious differences.
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Notes
- 1.
‘Achimota: You Deny Rastafarians But Admit “White” Students with Hair—Twitter Rants:’ (Ghanaweb 23 March 2021) https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Achimota-You-deny-Rastafarians-but-admit-white-students-with-hair-Twitter-rants-1212883 accessed 12 June 2021.
- 2.
Tyron v Board of Governors [2021] HR/0055/2021.
- 3.
Fundamental Human Rights and Freedom Act 1992, s 12.
- 4.
‘President Commissions National Mosque:’ (Ghanaweb 17 July 2021) https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/President-commissions-National-Mosque-1311244 accessed: June 17 2021.
- 5.
James Clifford, ‘Travelling Cultures’ in L. Grossberg, C. Nelson and P.A. Triechler (eds), Cultural Studies (Routledge, 1992), 96–116.
- 6.
Elom Dovlo, ‘New Religious Movements in Ghana’ (2002), Journal of Religion and Theology in Namibia, 4.
- 7.
Elom Dovlo, ‘New Religious Movements in Ghana’ (2002), Journal of Religion and Theology in Namibia, 4.
- 8.
Carmen M. White, ‘Rastafarian Repatriation and the Negotiation of Place in Ghana’ (2010), Ethnology, 49(4), 303–20.
- 9.
Tyron v Board of Governors [2021] HR/0055/2021.
- 10.
See the works of:Michael Addaney & Michael Gyan Nyarko (eds), Ghana@60: Governance and Human Rights In Twenty-First Century Africa (Pretoria University Law Press, 2017); Michael Addaney and Ademola O. Jegede (eds), Human Rights and the Environment Under African Union Law (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020); Seth Tweneboa, Religion, Law, Politics and the State in Africa: Applying Legal Pluralism in Ghana (Routledge, 2020); Abamfo Atiemo, Religion and the Inculturation of Human Rights in Ghana (Bloomsbury, 2015).
- 11.
Donald I. Ray, ‘Divided Sovereignty: Traditional Authority and the State in Ghana’ Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law (1996), 28, 181–202.
- 12.
Peter P. Ekeh, ‘title’, ‘Colonialism and the Two Publics in Africa: A Theoretical Statement’ (1975) Comparative Studies in Society and History, 17; Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (Grove Press 1963), 129.
- 13.
Ghana Statistical Service, 2010 Population & Housing Census: National Analytical Report (Accra: Ghana Statistical Service 2013), 64.
- 14.
Hugh McLeod, ‘Secularization”, The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2000), 653.
- 15.
Talal Asad, Formation of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity (California: Stanford University Press 2003), 23.
- 16.
‘Ghana is a Secular State: Not Constitutionally Connected to any Religion—Ace Ankomah’ (1 November 2021) https://news.dennislawgh.com/ghana-is-a-secular-state-not-constitutionally-connected-to-any-religion-ace-ankomah/ accessed 19 January 2022.
- 17.
Christopher Y. Nyinevi and Edmund N. Amasah, ‘The Separation of Church and State Under Ghana’s Fourth Republic’ (2015) 8 JPL 4, 286.
- 18.
Emmanuel Akyeampong, ‘African Socialism; or, The Search of an Indigenous Model of Economic Development?’ (2018) 33 EHDR, 1: 69–87.
- 19.
Samir Amin, ‘Colonialism and the Rise of Capitalism: A Comment’ (1990), Science & Society, 54(1).
- 20.
John IIliffe, Africans: The History of a Continent (2nd Edition) (Cambridge University Press, 2007) 290.
- 21.
Jiyoung Kim, ‘Aid and State Transition in Ghana and South Africa’ in RM Gisselquist (ed), Fragility, Aid, and State-building: Understanding Diverse Trajectories, (Routledge, 2017) 69.
- 22.
The coups in Ghana: In 1966, the National Liberation Council (NLC), believed to have been influence by the American CIA overthrew Nkrumah’s government (1957–1966); in 1971, Colonel Ignatius Kutu Acheampong led a coup against K. A. Busia (1969–1972); In 1978, there was a palace coup against Acheampong; In 1979, Rawlings led a coup against the Acheampong-Akufu regime; in 1981 Rawlings led a coup against Dr Hilla Limann (1979–1981).
- 23.
Akonor, Kwame. Africa and IMF Conditionality: The Unevenness of Compliance, 1983–2000 (Hoboken: Taylor and Francis, 2006).
- 24.
Kwame Nkrumah, Class Struggle in Africa (Panaf Books Ltd, 1970).
- 25.
Minion K. C. Morrison, ‘Political Parties in Ghana Through Four Republics: A Path to Democratic Consolidation’ Comparative Politics 36 (2004), 4: 421–442.
- 26.
John A. Arthur, Class Formation and Inequality Structures in Contemporary African Migration: Evidence from Ghana (Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books 2014), 50.
- 27.
Jessie Ola-Morris (myjoyline 13 May 2021), ‘Don’t Reduce Our Schools to Ideological and Religious Fighting Grounds—Akufu-Addo Tells Religious Leaders’ https://www.myjoyonline.com/dont-reduce-our-schools-to-ideological-and-religious-fighting-grounds-akufo-addo-tells-religious-leaders/ accessed July 11 2021.
- 28.
Charles Prempeh, ‘Religious Reforms and Notions of Gender in Pentecostal Christianity: A Case of the Church of Pentecost’ in Nimi Wariboko and Adeshina Afolayan (eds.), African Pentecostalism and World Christianity: Essays in Honor of J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu (Eugene, OR: Pickwich Publications 2020).
- 29.
De-Valera N.Y.M. Botchway and Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, ‘Was It a Nine Days Wonder? A Note on the Proselytisation of Efforts of the Nation of Islam in Ghana, c. 1980s-2010’ in D. Gibson and H. Berg (eds), New Perspectives on the Nation of Islam (Routledge, 2017).
- 30.
Yunus Dumbe, Islamic Revivalism in Contemporary Ghana (Södertörn University, 2011).
- 31.
Goethe-Institut, Conflict: What Has Religion Got to Do with it? An African-European Dialogue (Accra, 2004).
- 32.
Peter L. Berger, Sacred Canopy: Elements of Sociological Theory of Religion (Anchor Books, 1967).
- 33.
‘Rastafarians Religion May Complicate Matters for Rasta Students—Deputy’ (26 March 2021) https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Rastafarian-religion-may-complicate-matters-for-Rasta-students-Deputy-Speaker-1215574 accessed: 13 July 2021.
- 34.
General News, ‘Rastafarianism is not a recognised religion in Ghana’ (March 23 20,201) https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/rastafarianism-is-not-a-recognised-religion-in-ghana-nana-akomea.html accessed 10 July 2021.
- 35.
Ghanaweb, ‘Rastafarian religion may complicate matters for Rasta students—Deputy Speaker’ (26 March 2021) https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Rastafarian-religion-may-complicate-matters-for-Rasta-students-Deputy-Speaker-1215574 accessed 10 July 2021.
- 36.
The section of Ghana’s constitution enjoins the arms of government, the Executive, Legislature, and Judiciary and all organs of government and its agencies to uphold and enforced by the Courts the fundamental human rights and freedoms that every Ghanaian must enjoy.
- 37.
This section of the Constitution states that every Ghanaian must have freedom of expression, religious conscience, assembly, and association.
- 38.
This section of the Constitutions talks about non-discrimination of people on the basis of gender, race, colour, ethnic origin, religion, creed, or social or economic status. [cited in Tyron Iras Marhguy Suit No. HR/0055/202. p. 2].
- 39.
Ibid, p. 3.
- 40.
Pipa Norris and Ronald Inglehart, Religion and Politics Worldwide (2nd Edition) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2011).
- 41.
Peter Connolly (ed), Approaches to the Study of Religion (Continuum, 1999).
- 42.
E. Bolaji Idowu, African Traditional Religion: A Definition (S.C.M, 1973).
- 43.
J.B. Danquah, ‘The Historical Significance of the Bond of 1844’ Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana (1957), 3(1), 3–29.
- 44.
Geoffrey E. Parrinder, African Traditional Religion (Hutchinson, 1954).
- 45.
Okot p’Bitek, African Religions in Western Scholarship (Kenya Literature Bureau, 1979).
- 46.
Emmanuel Akyeampong and Pashington Obeng, ‘Spirituality, Gender and Power in Asante History’ The International Journal of African Historical Studies (1995), 28(3), 481–508.
- 47.
Dennis Forsythe, Rastafari: Healing of the Nation (One Drop Books, 1983), 51.
- 48.
Anthony G. Reddie (2019). Theologising Brexit: A Liberationist and Postcolonial Critique. London/New York: Routledge.
- 49.
Michael Jackson, ‘Rastafarianism’ Theology 83 (1980): 26–34, 29; Victoria Sherrow, Encyclopedia of Hair: A Cultural History (Greenwood Press, 2006) 107.
- 50.
Ayana D. Byrd and Lori L. Tharps, Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2014), 23; Anthony Synnott, ‘Shame and Glory: A Sociology of Hair’ The British Journal of Sociology (1987) 38(3), 381.
- 51.
Benard A. Akeia, ‘The Material Roots of Rastafarian Marijuana Symbolism’ History and Anthropology (2007) 18(1) 93.
- 52.
Mellisa Bone, ‘From the Sacrilegious to the Sacramental: A Global Review of Rastafari Cannabis Case Law’ in B.C. Labate and C. Cavnar (eds.) Prohibition, Religious Freedom, and Human Rights: Regulating Traditional Drug Use (Springer, 2014).
- 53.
Charles Prempeh, ‘Islam and Drugs: A Study of the use of Marijuana among Muslim Youth in Accra’ (MPhil Thesis Submitted to the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, 2011).
- 54.
The Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) Law 236 and the Narcotic Drug Law, enacted in 1990 states that: “No person should undertake any activity for the purpose of establishing or promoting any enterprise relating to narcotic drugs”.
- 55.
Charles Prempeh, ‘“Before Allah Created Humans Beings, There was a Marijuana Tree”: Marijuana Myths and Culture in the Ghettos of Maamobi Zongo Community, Accra’ Abibisem: Journal of Culture and Civilization (2019), 8; Bone, ‘From the Sacrilegious to the Sacramental’.
- 56.
J. Ayo Langley, ‘Chief Sam’s African Movement and Race Consciousness in West Africa’ Phylon (1971), 164–178.
- 57.
Peter O Esedebe, ‘Diaspora: Colonial Era’ in Kevin Shillington (ed.), Encyclopedia of African History Vol. I A-G (Taylor & Francis Group, 2005) 350; Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, ‘Kwame Nkrumah, George Padmore and W.E.B. Du Bois’ Research (1991), 1(2), 1–11.
- 58.
Ibid.
- 59.
George M. Bob-Milliar, ‘Chieftaincy, Diaspora, and Development: The Institution of Nkosuohene in Ghana’ African Affairs (2009), 108/433, 541–558.
- 60.
Qur’an 2:256, Genesis 1:27, and Gyekye, ‘African Cultural Values’.
- 61.
Ghanaweb, ‘Why Don’t Rastafarians Have their own Schools in Ghana?—NAGRAT President Quizzes’ (23 March 2021) https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Why-don-t-Rastafarians-have-their-own-schools-in-Ghana-NAGRAT-President-quizzes-1212751 accessed: 10 July 2021.
- 62.
Jennifer Hasty, The Press and Political Culture in Ghana (Indiana University Press, 2005), 68.
- 63.
Barbara Oomen, Chiefs in South Africa: Law, Power & Culture in the Post-apartheid Era (James Currey, 2005), 9.
- 64.
Charles Prempeh, ‘From Offline to Online Imagined Communities: Recuperating Asante Culture and History of Development in Ghana’ Question (2021), 36–43.
- 65.
Charles Prempeh, ‘Dreadlocks in the Church of Pentecost: Rasta or Rastafarians? PentecoStudies (2021), 20.1, 36–55.
- 66.
Ibid.
- 67.
Henry Hardy, Isaiah Berlin: Liberty (Oxford University Press, 2002), 52.
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Prempeh, C. (2022). Balancing Religious Freedoms and the Right to Education of Minorities in Ghana: A Focus on Access to Public Senior High Schools by Rastafarians. In: Addadzi-Koom, M.E., Addaney, M., Nkansah, L.A. (eds) Democratic Governance, Law, and Development in Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15397-6_8
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