GIVING QUALITY LIVES TO OUR FAMILIES, ENHANCING GOVERNMENT’S PERFORMANCE: A WOMAN’S PERSPECTIVES ON THE CULTURAL DIMENSION OF DEVELOPMENT

The saying, nsa benkum guare nimfa, na nimfa so guare benkum, (Akan) to wit, the left hand washes the right and the right hand washes the left, suggests that for any activity to be feasible there should be reciprocity and interdependence. By extension, the success of any development project depends on the government as well as the governed. Therefore, to improve government performance in development in Ghana, the government should first and foremost improve the quality of life of its citizenry, which, in turn will effect the development of government.

African governments have failed to develop rapidly because they do not take much cognisance of the needs of all its citizens in the enactment and implementation of policies. In Ghana this situation has arisen primarily due to partisanship in the allocation and distribution of development projects by governments.[1] Neither do they involve the people nor realise their real and prioritised concerns. Furthermore, the governments do not sincerely oblige themselves to respect and give due recognition to the policies made, nor do they adhere to the laws or tenets of the constitution which form the basis of stable governance. In fact the governments, particularly the incumbent NDC government, even circumvent the very laws they have enacted.[2] This is important because governments in most African countries, whether democratic or dictatorial, often behave as if they are esoteric institutions, and are insensitive to the plight, suggestions and even constructive criticisms of their citizens. To promote development governments should desist from such attitudes and entrenchments that rather tend to intimidate the citizens into sycophantic submission, which in turn devolves into a culture of silence that adversely affects development.[3]

Corollary, the activities and actions of the citizens must be in the interest of the common good. They should exhibit a collective responsibility as they adhere to and help implement positive government policies as their contribution to development processes.

This paper is a case study based on the activities of Madam Efua Mansa (later, Mansa) and her quest for development. It is predicated on the premise that personal development in the context of culture leads to community and national development. The interviews for the study were conducted at her residence in Accra and her workplace at the Tema fishing harbour in June and July 1999.

Mansa gave up her teaching profession to take on a more income generating activity and through that she could give quality life to herself, her family, others and the nation. To her, improving the quality of life of her family meant improving her own life and status as well. This understanding, as will be evident later, is predicated on her endogenous upbringing, which she received from her mother who, though illiterate in the Western sense, was culturally literate. She applied her cultural knowledge in fish handling as well Ghanaian culture of reciprocity, caring for her family and other people, which invariably improved her social relations and status. Through these cultural virtues she excelled and even transcended her objectives of becoming self-sufficient and making a difference in other people’s, lives, gaining international recognition and thereby raising the competence of her country in global fishing development.

The study will show that development and culture are essentially connected among Ghanaian peoples, and by extension other African societies, which was why Mansa was able to use culture as a key for her developmental processes. Some of the questions that arise are: What was her approach to success? What were her limitations? Can government enhance development by drawing upon the cultural concept of reciprocity in relation to its citizens? Presumably, if the government puts in place good measures/policies that will provide the stimulus to improve and sustain the lives of its citizenry, the latter would in turn help government to enhance its performance in development.

Culture and Development

Very often government officials and citizens, including leaders of the new religious movements in Ghana tend to condemn African culture and describe it as the bane of Africa’s development.[4] This indeed contrasts the assertion made by the United Nations (Seregeldin 1992) concerning the importance, and the inevitability of culture in the promotion of development in Africa. Culture is an asset that should not be denigrated or wholly jettisoned because consists of the very norms and practices that shape the lives of human beings, giving them their very unique identity and methods through which people can manage their development. Contrary to perceived notions, culture gives room to restructuring or reformulation of antiquated practices in order to harness the potential of human resource towards progressive development. At this junction I define the concepts of culture and development, which indeed are interdependent.

The terms culture and development are ambiguous and over-used concepts. Although they may seem to be conflicting, they are mutually inclusive, interrelated and interdependent. In other words culture is dependent on development and development on culture. If the word culture is defined as, ” to till, rear, produce, cultivate”,[5] it can be inferred that when something is cultivated / cultured it grows or develops. Sometimes a seed that is planted may grow without any hindrance while another may encounter obstacles in the course of its growth. This means development is not based on a linear plateau as received western notion would make believe, but on the collective effort and determination of the citizens and leaders of a nation.

Before going any further these two terms need to be explained in the Ghanaian context i.e. how Ghanaians themselves understand and use them rather than relying on some grand theories propounded by outsiders. Some of the meanings of culture in a brief survey conducted in Sunyani, Brong Ahafo Region (Akan) are as follows:

It can therefore be deduced that culture consists of guidelines for life – instituted by a peoples’ predecessors and monitored by the living custodians of the cultural heritage for posterity – with mpontuo (well-being) as its objective. This mpontuo in turn depends on peaceful co-existence.

On the question of development, the responses elicited from a sample of people in Accra were interesting and enlightening. An overwhelming percent of the people replicated the Western idea of development, defining it in terms of upward mobility of the socio-economic ladder; the presence of infrastructure, e.g. good houses and roads, schools, hospitals etc. A few of them differentiated between a good and a bad development. While a good development is manifest simply "when the pockets are full [with money]," a bad development is characterised by poverty: the inability to pay children’s school fees, to have "three square meals a day," and to visit one’s hometown as often as one would have wished. Though, we gather that development may mean the absence of poverty, it does not necessarily mean the presence of superfluous affluence but the opportunity and ability to survive. The last response lamenting the inability to visit home is significant because it conveys an authentic African idea that development must be able to bind a person to his/her kinsmen or extended family in the hometown.

Contextualising an African Development

The Western concept of development restricts the term to the processes of modernisation in the Western world based on an evolutionary process of a linear, progressive socio-economic change from a lower to a higher level. Quite often development is viewed in economic terms so that economic growth is measured through aggregate data on Gross National Product (GNP) or per capita income. According to Rodney (1982: 4) "more often than not the term ’development’ is used in an exclusive economic sense – the justification being that the type of economy itself is an index of other social features." Development projects using the criteria or indices dictated by the Western World for other countries have failed for several reasons, one major reason that seems to have had a wider resonance by world bodies such as the United Nations, Unesco and Third World countries themselves, is that the cultural dimension has been left out in developmental programmes (Seregeldin and Taboroff 1992). Indeed since the UN declaration of 1988-1997 as the Decade for Culture Development many African countries have increasingly acknowledged the importance of culture and development.[7]

It has been realised that development as a process goes beyond economic growth indicators, industrialisation, modernisation, going to space, and I may add cycloning of animal/human species. Development involves a series of interactions (social relations) and other factors which in Africa would include values, ways of life, beliefs, traditions as well as good governance, which allow human participation at all levels of decision-making (Nyang 1992)

If development should use a cultural approach then the African understanding of mpuntuo, progress, should be taken into consideration and its link with modernisation and upward social mobility redefined. This is because there exists in African cultures what I may call a circulatory development which seeks communal mobility and the collective welfare rather than upward economic mobility of the individual. In a similar vein Wiredu (1980: 6) talks about "our traditional outlook which was [is] intensely humanistic . . . and that "anyone who reflects on our traditional ways . . . is struck by the preoccupation with human welfare." African development therefore is a process with a human face based on the idea of culture integration where an individual who has acquired wealth must redistribute or share it among his/her family members through, for example, educating younger siblings, providing social security in social and health care for the aged and the less privileged members of the family. In fact, the emphasis is not only on the aged but all those who have played a part in the development of a particular individual whose status has improved above that of his/her benefactors. This corresponds to the Akan saying that obi dan obi, literally, each person depends on the other; and again in the expression, se obi hwe wo ma wo se fifir a, wo so hwe no ma ne se tutu: if someone cares for you while you are teething as a baby, you also care for that person till his/her teeth fall out (old age). Indeed, one person’s success becomes the success of several people as inherent in the saying, baakofo na okum oson mma amansan: it is one man that kills the elephant, but it takes a whole community to carry the elephant home. In other words members of the family and even the wider community share one man’s wealth. In this sense, an individual, who has acquired considerable wealth, might not climb the progress ladder, what is important is that there is an improvement in the lives of each family member, and by extension the society as a whole. A chain of developments that would further lead to national and economic development will be effected if this practice is maintained in every family. This concept of redistribution of wealth is a form of developmental investment, because when more members of the family enjoy qualitative life there would be less burden on an individual and he/she would be able to live in peace, through which the possibility to contemplate, be creative and venture into other lucrative avenues could materialise. Sometimes the person could achieve this with the support of his/her beneficiaries, those he/she had helped earlier on. This concept, however, does not preclude private ownership or acquisition, and as Gyekye (1996: 48) puts it, “individual effort is a necessary condition for fulfilling our needs and reaching or goals”.

Development in human society is a multi-faceted process, which can emanate from natural and internal causation or can be imposed by external societies or human forces with genuine or ulterior motives. Development takes various forms: moral, economic, political, social and personal developments. These are intertwined variables, each having a bearing on another. Indeed, I think the development of a person is the basis of all other forms of development. Personal development implies increased skill and capacity, greater freedom, creativity, self-discipline, responsibility, and material well being (Rodney 182: 3); nonetheless what constitutes development is defined by the norms of the particular society. What is indisputable is that the achievement of any of those aspects of personal developments is very much tied in with the state of that society as a whole (Rodney 1982:3). Since the individual does not live outside the society but within the social group there is bound to be contact or relationship with other members of the society and a relationship of reciprocity, for that matter.

On the other hand, it has been argued that the African idea of circulatory development creates dependency through the idea of dependency mentality[8], and as a corollary this kinship dependency attitude forms the basis of our relationship with the global economic world. However, dependency is a dialectic process and it depends on the perspective from which it is viewed. According to Hagan (1997)[9] while kinship system may tend to create dependency mentality, there is also a sense of dependability. In other words lineage obligations promote an attitude of dependency, because the destitution of a member, which is a disgrace to the entire lineage, is prevented through the assistance of the lineage. On the other hand, dependency on foreign nations for loans and other technological aid "fosters false consciousness... the victims of dependency cannot recognize their disadvantage [and] tend to accept their condition as natural and more or less permanent" (Ninsin 1993: 97). However, it could also be argued that dependency becomes negative only when it is unilateral rather than reciprocal.

Madam Efua Mansa and Development

To Mansa, then, development is improving upon the quality of life rather than moving up the economic ladder per se; it is a shared or communal concept which when steadfastedly adhered to and transmitted yields bountiful results. In as sense, development is diffused and inseparably linked with culture as I have already elucidated above.

Mansa, one of the first women to own high sea fishing vessels, was born in Brenu Akyenmu near Edina or Elmina), a fishing town in the Central Region of Ghana in 1939. Her father died at an early age and through the fish mongering activities of her mother she was able to qualify as a trained elementary school teacher. She later obtained a diploma from the Specialist Training College in Winneba. Even though her husband rose to be a top civil servant, life became difficult for her and her family. She therefore decided to change professions and tried her luck in the early 1970s as a supplier of stone chippings (generally perceived as a male venture) to building contractors after a friend had given her an initial capital of 45,000.00 Cedis (a substantial amount at that time) with which she bought the necessary tipper truck for the business. Generally, family members such as uncles, brothers, husbands, sisters support women wanting to go into business with initial capital since women in Ghana have very little access to institutional credit (see also Odotei 1991; Nikoi 1998).

Mansa’s stone business was very lucrative but not without constraints. There was the cumbersome procedure of queuing and seeing the "big men" at government offices for chits, as was the government policy of the day, before she could purchase the stone chippings from the quarry. After pre-financing the purchase of the chippings, she would supply those contracted by the government working on development projects in the rural areas. Then she would have to return to Accra, the capital city and seat of the central government of Ghana, for reimbursement for the services rendered. This cumbersome procedures and late repayment of debt by the government, among other things, created obstacles to the advancement of her business. But according to Mansa what really put her off the stone business was the dishonesty of the men involved:

From the foregoing it becomes evident that Ghanaian women are found in all sectors of the society including the economy, because there are no discriminations or laws prohibiting women from any sector of the economy (Ardayfio-Schandorf 1992; Sackey 1996). Also, culture regulates the basis of human conduct. Therefore, Mansa did not comply with the suggested dishonest deal by the men, using her cultural beliefs, which abhor and punish dishonesty but reward virtuous conduct. The belief is that any adverse behaviour including unfaithfulness of any kind, pride, and ill social relationship would be sanctioned by the spiritual world and one of the forms that female punishment takes is to experience difficulty at childbirth. Therefore, most women would desist from such acts in order to go through safe gestation period and delivery in particular. That does not mean that men are not equally punished but since the paper is focused on women I want to limit myself to women. The above quotation again, while affirming the positive aspect of culture, suggests that if Mansa had succumbed to the request and not supplied the stones needed for the government projects in question, those projects would not have been executed. Hence developments in those specific areas would have been impeded. Here, it is not African culture that is impeding development but rather the selfish, capitalistic inclinations of certain public officials, who are mostly men. Mansa’s response also implies that women are more honest than men, so that when more women are working for the economy, especially at governmental level, there would be less mismanagement and misappropriation of funds. Mansa’s argument could be validated by the fact that generally women accountants are rarely accused of embezzlement, which is why in many voluntary associations it is common to find a woman holding the position of treasurer. Also, her decision to get another job becomes meaningful in the context of her cultural norms, for example in the expression, obra anye yie a, wongya bo, wodan no, you change the course of direction when life’s exigencies misdirect you. Again this confirms the dynamism and developmental outlook of culture rather than a case of culture inertia, as some anti-culturalists would make believe.

After four years in the business, Madam Efua Mansa decided to leave the stone business and go into fishing because she already had some fishing background. Her mother was a fishmonger and smoked fish for sale in Kumasi. As was the normal thing for any child, Mansa assisted her mother in her fish business, from beginning to the end: cleaning the fish, pushing in the firewood into the clay oven and putting on the fish; smoking; doing the selection, grading and counting the smoked fish for sale in the hinterland of Ghana.. As a result, she got acquainted with handling fish at her early childhood before she even went to school. Therefore she did not have much difficulty adapting to fish handling as an adult.

Initially, Mansa obtained the fish from State Fishing Corporation at Tema Fishing harbour, near Accra. Everybody marvelled at how as a teacher (i.e. literate in the western sense) she knew so much concerning specific fish and selection which is seen as a job for illiterates. The deep frozen fish in cartons could be bought by means of a chit. The chit system determined the quantity of fish one could buy. Sometimes when the amount of fish the chit had allotted exceeded her financial capacity the "fish madams" who had money but had already exhausted their chits would sponsor her, and through that both the "fish madams" and herself could remain in business. Here again, we encounter the Ghanaian cultural concept of genuine reciprocity, obi dan obi as well as an affirmation of the idea that a person is what he/she is only in relation to the good of others in the society.

A Woman’s Perspective of Development

According to Mansa her mother did things for survival, not necessarily to make profit. She practised what Weber would called "traditionalism" or traditional capitalism, whereby "a man does not by nature wish to earn more and more money, but simply to live.... and to earn as much as is necessary for that purpose" (Weber 1993:60). Mansa’s mother knew that when she reduced the price of fish she sold more than when she priced it high. Also, raising profit margin did not show love and understanding, thus, Mansa attempted to imitate her mother, and this method proved worthwhile initially. However, as her children were growing older Mansa realised that her and her husband’s responsibility as parents was becoming more demanding; more money was needed. Therefore, after doing the fishing business on part-time basis for two years she decided to go full-time, having also earned enough to purchase a wooden canoe herself. Her husband being a civil servant was not permitted to own a private business so the company was solely owned and operated by Mansa:

Unlike most agricultural and fishing enterprises where "cash women" or "fish madams" would pre-finance the expedition, Mansa operated a different method when she became a boat owner, the women would bring their money and she would supply the fish. She had learnt from the stone business where some of the clients defaulted or delayed with the payment. These experiences, which helped Mansa to improve upon how to handle money, are all facets of development because they have aided her not to repeat the past but learn from it, which is a major factor in culture and development.

Throughout the encounter with Manse one thing that she kept emphasising was accountability, which was instilled in her during her upbringing. Her mother accounted for each fish that was handled by counting in her own way. She would use one grain of corn to symbolise, for example, 100 pieces of herrings; if she bit it into two halves, one half of the corn grain represented 50 pieces of herrings, and when she bit it into four, one part signified 25 pieces of herrings. Therefore 4 grains of corn would represent 400 pieces of herrings, “so when I went to school to learn the western way of arithmetic I already knew how to count”. With this indigenous knowledge of counting Mansa already possessed the ability to grasp new methods of doing the same thing. Cultural ways of doing things form the basis for further development. This therefore contradicts the widespread notion, even among Africans, that cultural methodologies are not scientific and thus make Africans primitive, inferior and retrogressive. The mother also had a waist belt that was compartmentalized; she used one compartment to keep the actual amount of herrings sold, and another for the profit she had made.

Mansa again improved upon her mother’s system but she did that in context of the prevailing circumstances and economic conditions. As one of the few women to get access to bank loan, she proved herself credit worthy by paying what she owed as soon as she had made her sales. She did not save her money because of the stark, unpredictable fluctuations of the Ghanaian currency. Instead she would use the money to buy spare parts for the vessels so that the vessels could operate smoothly:

According to her, the women would compete for her fish because they are quality fish. She attributes the quality catch to the good care she gives to the fishermen and their families:

Indeed, Mansa claims she never had problems with her fishermen and here again, the concept of reciprocity is tool becomes a significant factor:

Mansa was giving the fishermen better incentives and conditions of service. Indeed, Mansa allowed the fishermen a semblance of a Trades Union in her organisation in the sense that the fisherman had their representative, called secretary, chosen by the fishermen themselves, to negotiate on their behalf. The payment was made under the local cultural arrangement of the abusa system, which exist usually among farmers. By this system farm produce are divided into three equal parts, and a third is given to the landlord, while the farmer takes two-thirds. In her case, the number of crates of fish is divided into three and she as the boat owner takes one third, one third is given to the fishermen, and one-third goes into the expenses and upkeep of the boat and the fishermen at sea. This payment arrangement existed between her and the canoe fishermen who understood the bargain as a familiar cultural system. With the steel vessel, which is operated mainly by Korean fishermen, the payment is different. The Koreans who came to Ghana with the intention to make money take their salary in US currency, and lot of money also goes into the ice for freezing, maintenance etc.

Another factor that Mansa thinks has contributed to her success is the virtue of integrity, which is embedded in honesty and straight forwardness, but above all she thinks her greatest success is her practice of egalitarianism. She regarded the fishermen as equal partners – though the regular attitude by most people to fishermen who are illiterate is that of disdain. In her view nyimpa nyina ye Onyame mba, i.e. all human beings are God’s children. With this in mind she treated them as equals:

In fact, this relationship between Mansa and the fishermen is not peculiar to Mansa alone but a general feature of Ghanaian culture. In a survey of seven women boat owners by Odotei (1991) at the Tema fishing harbour, she found out that understanding, tolerance, cajoling and the realisation that each one needs the other (reciprocity) form the basis of the harmonious relationship. One of the women in her study testifies:

Mansa’s company, whose name she wants withheld, was exporting the best fish species including lobsters, prawns and squid which were in high demand overseas, and through that she won an international award which she is so proud of:

Here one can say that the concept of sharing by Mansa has helped her improved the quality of life not only for her herself, family and others but has raised the image of her country abroad. She has put Ghana’s name on the world map of fishing, and through that as she claims, she has attracted a few investors to Ghana. Mansa thinks when one works hard and helps others the reward is manifold:

Declining Business

However, like most one-person-operated business, Mansa suffered heavy setbacks when she fell seriously and needed absolute bed rest. Her Brother-in-law took over the management but he did not have the flair, the love and understanding for the fishermen. He was also not accounting for income and expenditure and because he was an in-law Mansa had to be circumspect for the sake of her marriage. This is one example where the argument of the opponents of cultural dimension of development, namely that culture is a hindrance to progress, becomes relevant. Mansa could not dismiss her brother-in-law for fear that would destabilize her marriage, as our Ghanaian society tends to be. A marital problem affects the whole members of the spouse, marriage being a contract between two families rather than the couple only. In short, the brother in-law’s mismanagement of the business and the lack of decorum and rapport with the canoe fishermen encouraged the latter to become disgruntled and started selling at sea even before they landed. The Koreans operating the steel vessel also began to make more monetary demands in foreign exchange; they are now threatening to leave but she is confident because there are local people on the vessel who are equally good. At the moment, her problem is how she could be present at the harbour since she is seriously incapacitated. These factors, according to her, have brought her business to the verge of collapse.

Government Policies

(i) Structural Adjustment /Unsustainable Policies

The collapse of Mansa’s fishing business was not only due the mismanagement by her male successor but more to government measures which have affected most local entrepreneurs and industries. The government’s Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) of 1983 intended to alleviate poverty has indeed effected the contrary. Through the SAP subsidies on certain sectors of the economy including health, agriculture under which fisheries falls were removed.[10] This means imported fisheries implements including outboard motors for canoe fishing, which formerly did not attract tax, are now taxable. The price of the inputs also depend on the fluctuations of the Ghanaian currency the Cedi, which is rising incessantly. As a result, the price of fuel for fishing, both gas oil and the pre-mix fuel has seen inconsiderate heavy price increases. Thus, boat owners are unable to purchase enough fuel to fish farther so the fishermen fish along the shore where there is no catch. This has reduced the production of fish for both local consumption; therefore, the idea of exporting fish does not even arise. Although the SAP affected all persons in business and industry, it affected women and children most since the latter depend on their mothers for their livelihood, nurture and development generally. According to Nikoi (1998:58):

Another factor is the non-availability of loans and only people who are well connected can have access credit. However, even if loans were accessible the alarming interest rate of over 40 percent scares borrowers off. All the women in Odotei’s (1991) study also complained about government policies that always invariably have adverse effects on their industry, for example, increases in prices of fishing items, non-availability of fishing inputs especially nets and spare parts, difficulty in accessing credit facilities, banning of importation of fish during the glut season to fill the cold stores to be used in the lean season etc. A most crucial and perhaps apt critique was that:

There has been a systematic transfer of fishing rights from local to foreign hands, initially to Koreans and recently to Malaysians, which I think has been a major contributory factor to the decline of Mansa’s fishing industry. One would raise the question that Mansa also have Koreans operating her steel vessels. Absolutely; but in her case she was giving employment to the (25 percent) Korean and 75 percent local fishermen. What is interesting is that now that the government has given fishing rights to foreigners, Mansa’s Korean fishermen have decided to sign off at the end of their contract this year (1999) and operate their own vessels. This means the killing of local initiative and industry, which in turn leads to unemployment and poverty with resultant misery and crimes.

In a brief encounter with some boat owners at the Tema Fishing Harbour, and fishermen at the James Town sea shore, Accra, they substantiated the government’s destruction of the local fishing industry and validated my earlier assumption that it is our own governments that essentially hinder development rather than cultural practices since the laws and policies of the land override any cultural precept:

(ii) Intolerance of the Opposition

Intolerance of opposition in a democratic Ghana also derails the efforts at development. The derailment of development, generally, is to be found at the doorsteps of the government itself through what I call ‘oppophobia’ or hatred of the opposition and discriminatory practices such as nepotism, tribalism, high-level corruption and interference in business of members. For example, in 1992, President Rawlings, then the head of state and chairman of the PNDC government in a public forum, exhorted Ghanaians not to patronise products from industrialists who are members of the opposition party so as to prevent them from getting funds to campaign against him and thus wield power. These industrialists included Mr. Kwabena Darko, the owner of Darko Farms, the largest poultry industry in the country who was also an aspiring presidential candidate and Mr. Anderson, the owner of Alpine soap industry. This could have been extended to any fishing businesswoman who might have dared to challenge or enter the presidential race at the time.[13] This oppophobia ‘legitimised’ in 1992 continues to operate in the country and has given cause to Dr. Kwesi Nduom, an opposition member, to warn them about the consequences of the destruction of indigenous wealth:

Views and positive suggestions by opposition members in parliament are either thrown overboard or treated with contempt. For example, Kwamena Bartels, an opposition member’s detection of fraud and undue delay regarding the Keta Sea Defence Project was challenged in Parliament with the counter-argument by ethnic Keta members of the ruling government that Bartels had no right to comment on the issue because he is not a native of Keta. Thus, a substantive criticism that should have been taken seriously rather became a cause for ethnic sensitivity, which represents another obstacle to development. The necessity of that Sea Defence Project is to sustain human life. The main circumstantial fact is that, landing sites for fishing boats in Keta have been eroded by the sea; indeed the sea has also engulfed most of the land. Because of this, most fishermen in the area have ceased going fishing, which is their only livelihood and source of protein, while some have migrated to other coastal fishing areas. This situation has cultural and economic implications (1) Fishing is a cultural activity embedded in time-honoured and peculiar ceremonies. Thus, moving away from their land means these ceremonies that held them together to their land and families have been disrupted. (2) The economic aspect is also obvious since some of the fishermen have ceased fishing, their only livelihood. In this case, how would the fishermen improve their quality of life and that of their families to have a positive effect on government development? If government wants to enhance development it must work hand in hand with the opposition as well as tolerate the views of the citizens whether they come from the particular area in question or not. Above all, the government must respect the views of the people concerned, in our case study, those in the fishing business.

(iii) Default of Citizens

Finally, certain practices of some of the fishermen themselves, both artisanal and industrialised fishermen, are contributory factors to the decline of fish production. They violate the fishing regulation especially with regard to the minimum mesh size (e.g. 6mm for trawl net, 40mm for shrimpers and 25mm for seine net).[14] They know this, yet they fish with certain type of nets with such small mesh that have the capacity to catch juvenile fish and consequently aid the depletion these fishlings that will mature into adult fish and replenish the sea. Therefore, in a bid to help replenish the sea creatures, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, has in several pronouncements,[15] acknowledged the cultural precept that prohibits fishing on Tuesdays and indeed advocated that the ban should be extended for longer periods, even three months to address the depletion of particularly young fish. Although this is a noble idea it means fish must be imported from elsewhere which also requires the need for scarce foreign exchange.

Conclusions

The paper has demonstrated that successful development is a collective responsibly which is predicated on culture or traditions of a society as well as good governance, and that it is the society that at any given time determines what the parameters of culture and development should be. Women in Ghana generally and in fishing business in particular as has been demonstrated have been successful because they depended on what was culturally acceptable, i.e. fostering good and reciprocal social relationships, to give quality lives to themselves, their families and their community and have thereby contributed to the national economy. Women at the helm of affairs have better organisational and administrative and positive strategic skills and good business acumen demonstrated. That is why she argues that if more women get developed more people will also be better off. This affirms the popular classic analogy attributed the famous Ghanaian teacher and philosopher, Dr. James Kwegiyr Aggrey who is reputed to have said that, if you educate a man, you educate one person, but if you educate a woman you educate a whole nation. They have been able to provide some of the protein and nutritional requirement of their communities, invested in their children’s education and built several houses (See also Aidoo 1985). “These educated sons and daughters use their position in government to bring to the communities amenities such as schools, electricity, water supply, public toilets etc.” (Odotei 1991: 197). Above all, they have provided employment in both the formal and informal sectors.

Yet, government measures affected both men and women, but they affect women more because they form the overwhelmingly majority in the handling of fish, yet have no access to institutional credit facilities. While not many women own fishing boats, it is women who act as fish handlers or middle-persons and above all, it is women who have made huge investments in fishing, for example pre-financing the fishermen (Dolphyne 1991) through their own efforts as shown by Mansa’s mother and Mansa herself. One could say that the women are actually the fish queens and backbone of the fishing industry. Therefore any adverse policy invariably affects more women and their developmental efforts. There thus there must concerted effort by government to help these and other women who on turn would look after their families and providing employment for others so as to ease the burden of government, which is the main employer, and hence enhance its performance in development. One way to do this is through the concept of mainstreaming gender issues into financial priorities and policies as advocated by Nikoi (1998). She suggests that women’s programmes and projects be placed within the mainstream of development planning especially those relating to rural development, agriculture, the informal and small-scale sectors, among others. This will ensure adequate resources to make for these programs on a sustainable basis, rather than pursuing ad hoc programs as have been the case till present. Also, she suggests that the government enunciates a clear and unambiguous policy statement emphasizing the importance of women’s contribution to the country’s socio-economic development.

Development of a country also depends on what type of government that is operative, whether it is democratic or authoritarian. From the above case study, it can be deduced that in the past, as in the present, government policies for development have taken (and still take) a top-bottom approach. Only government top officials make decisions concerning all aspects of civil and commercial life. Government’s approach to development should be people-centred and reciprocal. Again, if the government wants to improve performance in development, it should include the practical concerns of the people at every level of policy making, in the discussions, law enactment, and in the implementation of development policies. It should include real and prioritised concerns of women expressed by women themselves, e.g. facilitating credit to them at reasonable interest rates, subsidizing the education of their children, involving them at all levels of programmes which affect their own livelihood etc. The government has a responsibility to promote and protect the development of its citizens, while the citizens should not flout the regulations of the state. Above all, the government must have a human face and listen to the concerns of its people mindful also that the culture of the people; however ‘traditional’ it might be could have positive aspects, which the government can use to its advantage and that of its citizens.

Therefore if government should place a high priority on women’s education, give them incentives and stimulation in whatever they choose to do these women would be able to development themselves, their children relations and the whole nation, thus easing the burden on government expenditure, responsibilities to citizens etc. This means if government adopts the cultural reciprocity approach in its relationship with the citizens it will form a basis for a good rapport between them. Again promoting the welfare of women is the basis of enhancing government performance.

References

1. This paper was first presented at the Second International Conference on Public Management and development Administration with the theme: Improving Government Performance in Development. An International Dialogue organised by Cleveland State University and the Environmental Industry Association, Ghana. July 24-August 4, 1999, Accra, Ghana, West Africa. Novotel Hotel

2. In response to complaints by citizens on the failure of government to provide certain basic amenities, e.g. potable drinking water, electricity, roads, clinic, schools, etc in their areas members of the ruling NDC government and their associate organisations always defend themselves in public with intimidatory utterances that the people are lacking in development projects because they did not vote for the ruling party. Thus making voting a requisite for development and a penalty for not voting a particular for a party government. See for example Konadu Rawlings’ threats at Bonwire that the area will not be developed because the citizens there did not vote for the ruling party (see Free Press, October 16, 1998).

3. Even though the government of Ghana, for example, claims to be a “people’s government” suggestions from the public are not heeded; officials of the government are not penalized for wrongful acts. In 1996 for example, the adverse findings of fraud, among other things, against three top government members by the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), were countered by a Government White Paper, which exonerated them amidst protests from the people of Ghana.

4. Professor Albert Adu Boahen broke this culture of silence in Ghana in 1988 at the Academy of Arts and Sciences Lectures, and even this was not without reproach and threatening insinuations by a government official present at the lectures

5. One vehement upholder of the perspective that culture retards development is Rev. Mensa Otabil of the Central Gospel Church International, a church with a great multitude of followers, and whose cultural castigation through the electronic and print media has a tremendous resonance.

8. There has been an upsurge of conferences, seminars, workshops on culture and development, as well as the institutions of culture and development related festivals, for example, Panafest and Emancipation Day in Ghana.

9. Seminar on The Dependency Mentality. Organized by Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon and Goethe Institute, Accra, September 30 – October 2, 1997.

11. The removal of subsidies by government did not affect only the fishing industry but other producers such as poultry products like eggs and chicken. This had affected the prices of local poultry goods, and what is more distressing is that Ivory Coast farmers who are still sponsored by their government have floated the Ghanaian market with cheaper poultry, thus forcing their Ghanaian counterparts to bring down their prices which they do at a great loss. As a result many poultry farmers, both men and women, are winding up because Ivory Coast is developing at the expense of Ghanaians, and the Ghana government permits it because of the free-zone tariff policy.

12. This claim has been validated by Goozie Tandoh, until recently a close associate of the government, if not one of its ardent supporters, whose business is now collapsing, has this to say :I could have gone the way of many and joined the 10% [payment to the NDC party] gravy train, which has become synonymous with the conduct of government over the last few years. If I had, my company wouldn’t today be in debt. However, I know no country that can develop through graft. (Chronicle, July 12-13, 1999: 1,12)

13. The Friends of the Earth (FOE), Ghana, have also confirmed that the fishing industry is in crisis. Ghanaian Times, May 15, 1999.

14. In fact there were two female presidential candidates, though not in the fishing business that brings money but from the academia who are cash-trapped and therefore no match for the opulence of Mr. Rawlings and his cohorts

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