The Impact Of Colonialism On Cultural Identity: A Comparative Study Of Ghana & South Africa

ABSTRACT

This study primarily sought to investigate the effects of colonialism on the cultural identities of Africans, using Ghana and South Africa as case studies. Cultural identity was categorised into 3 major components; customs and traditions, language and land and it is within this ambit that both theoretical and empirical literature were sought and discussed to achieve the study objectives. Hence, this research confined itself to events during and after the colonial period (and apartheid period in the case of South Africa). Ghana and South Africa were chosen as case studies because amongst other reasons, both were colonised by the British and the Dutch at different periods and so served as a good basis for comparison. This study was based on the hypothesis that colonialism was unable to wither away completely the cultural identities of both Ghana and South Africa. It at worst affected certain aspects of culture, land and language, but not significant enough to leave both countries without their indigenous cultural identities. Hence, qualitative research techniques and data from sources such as peer-reviewed journals, books, articles and other publications were used to test this hypothesis. In the first place, extant literature clearly demonstrates that colonialism significantly affected the cultural identities (land, language and culture) of Ghana and South Africa. Secondly, in comparison, this study concludes that the impacts of colonialism on land in South Africa are different and arguably more severe than in Ghana. Thirdly, the impacts of colonialism on language are different between Ghana and South Africa (even though the severity in the differences may be difficult to judge). Finally, the impacts of colonialism on culture (with regards to chieftaincy and tribe) in both Ghana and South Africa are somewhat different. Thus, with regards to chieftaincy, the major difference lies in the fact that whereas in Ghana, the colonialist to some extent collaborated and in some cases protected chieftaincy, in the case of South Africa, colonialist and the apartheid regime downplayed chieftaincy for imperialistic reasons. Similarly, fostering the distinction between tribes in the same state in Ghana was purposeful for imperialistic reasons. In the case of South Africa, apartheid mainly resulted in segregations along racial categories. It is, therefore, recommended that in the case of South Africa for instance, the government can find gradual solutions to the current impasse on land redistribution through more strategic collaboration, international relations and negotiations with the various organizations, associations and international corporations directly involved (stakeholders). Also, further studies may be conducted to identify if possible, the severity of the effects of colonialism on the various aspects of cultural identity, so as to be able to give direction to intervention programmes meant to mitigate these effects.