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Interesting statistics about Ghanaian diaspora in Finland
Recently, I came across some interesting statistics about the Ghanaian diaspora in Finland.
It is interesting how this can be considered in ways to contribute to improving the lives of the migrants and their positive integration.
As I keep pointing out, Finland encourages migrants’ participation in the planning of issues concerning the migrants themselves as one of the effi cient ways to enhance their inclusion.
There are many positive things that are happening within the Ghanaian immigrant community in Finland.
Great efforts are being made by certain groups or associations as well as individuals in the Ghanaian community in Finland.
Ghanaian migrants in Finland
The Ghanaian migrant population in Finland has increased quite significantly from the 1990s when there were less than 400 of them.
There are currently over 2,000 people with Ghana ian background, according to estimates from Statistics Finland.
According to Statistics Finland, at the end of 2020 there were over 57,000 people of African background living in Finland, of which 47,000 are from Sub-Saha ran Africa.
Ghanaian migrants number 2,479 and are the sixth largest group behind leaders Somalia, Nigeria, DR Congo, Morocco, and Ethiopia in that descending order.
The Ghanaian diaspora in Finland has been growing fast. Its main representative organisation, the Ghana Union Finland, and other organisations have been engaging in efforts to help in integration. They also organise other social activities to promote the Ghanaian values and cultural heritage.
Ghanaian local languages
The Statistics Finland lists more than 35 languages of African origin with Twi, Akan, and Ewe included in the list. According to current figures, there are 670 Twi speakers, Akan speakers (487), and Ewe speakers (118).
These figures brought to my mind the efforts Ghanaian migrants here make to teach the Twi/Akan language to their kids born here in Finland, as a way of keeping them close to their origins.
As I have said previously, Finnish agencies and other institutions encourage integration for migrants. Such institutions are also ready to support migrant groups to teach their kids, especially those born in Finland about the language and other traditions of their countries of origin.
Some years back, there were efforts by some people within the Ghanaian community to start classes for kids to learn at least one Ghanaian language such as Akan/Twi. Unfortunately, according to information that project could not be sustained because the number of the kids was not high enough.
Educating the kids in the local languages of Ghana still remains strong on the minds of many people in the Ghanaian community. Fact is, many people seem to worry that some Diaspora women who even had little basic education try to speak in English to their kids.
The children born in Finland speak the Finnish language fluently. But many people worry that many such kids are unable to respond well to Twi, Ga, Ewe, etc., although they may understand it. Thus, the fear of some parents and the older generation is that the children may completely lose their roots.
Integration through language
It has been identified that one of the ways to integrate migrants into the host society. In Finland, learning the Finnish language and speaking it helps migrants with integrating into the host society.
At the same time, it is believed that when migrants are able to speak their native language in their country of settlement, it helps them increase their social interaction with others and thus build their social capital.
As I keep pointing out, many have acquired huge expertise and resources (academically, economically, technically, technologically, etc.) and try to give something back to society through imparting that to others or supporting them in other means.
Building close relationships with their fellow migrants is very important to the Ghanaian migrants as this also aids their integration into the host society. Thank you!
The writer is a lecturer at the University
of Helsinki, Finland
One of the issues we have been grappling with as a nation is corruption, and it has had such a devastating effect on our national development. I have been convinced that until morality becomes the foundation upon which our governance system is built, we can never go forward as a nation.
Our traditional practices, which have shaped our cultural beliefs, have always espoused values that have kept us along the straight and the narrow and have preserved our societies since ancient times.
These are values that frown on negative habits like stealing, cheating, greediness, selfishness, etc. Our grandparents have told us stories of societies where stealing was regarded as so shameful that offenders, when caught, have on a number of instances committed suicide.
In fact, my mother told me of a story where a man who was living in the same village as her mother (my grandmother), after having been caught stealing a neighbour’s cockerel, out of shame committed suicide on a mango tree. Those were the days that shameful acts were an abomination.
Tegare worship, a traditional spiritual worship during which the spirit possesses the Tegare Priest and begins to reveal secrets, was one of the means by which the society upheld African values in the days of my grandmother and the early childhood days of my mother.
Those were the days when the fear of being killed by Tegare prevented people from engaging in anti-social vices. These days, people sleeping with other people’s wives are not uncommon.
These wrongful behaviour was not countenanced at all by Tegare. One was likely going to lose his life on days that Tegare operates, and so unhealthy habits like coveting your neighbour’s wife was a taboo.
Stealing of other people’s farm produce, for instance, could mean certain death or incapacitation of the whole or part of the body in the full glare of everybody. People realised that there were consequences for wrongdoing, and this went a long way to motivate the society to adhere to right values.
Imagine a President being sworn into office and whoever administers the oath says, “Please say this after me: I, Mr. …., do solemnly swear by God, the spirits of my ancestors and the spirits ruling in Ghana, that should I engage in corrupt acts, may I and my family become crippled, may madness become entrenched in my family, may incurable sicknesses and diseases be my portion and that of my family, both immediate and extended.”
Can you imagine a situation where a few weeks afterwards the President goes to engage in corrupt acts and we hear of his sudden demise or incapacitation and confessing that he engaged in corrupt acts before passing or before the incapacitation—and the effect it will have on his successor? I believe we have to critically examine this option to curb corruption.
My grandmother gave me an eyewitness account of one such encounter where a woman died instantly after the Tegare Priest had revealed a wrong attitude she had displayed during the performance on one of the days scheduled for Tegare spirit manifestation.
According to her story, the Priest, after he had been possessed by the spirit, declared that for what the woman had done, he would not forgive her and that he would kill. Instantly, according to my grandmother, the lady fell down suddenly and she died—just like what happened to Ananias and his wife Sapphira in Acts Chapter 5.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
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