Djifa Kothor

I was awarded the Sol Feinstone International Prize to conduct research on the affect of multiparty democracy on the construction of Ewé identity in contemporary Ghanaian society. After my orientation and registering for my courses, I was granted permission from the International Program Office (IPO) at the University of Ghana, Legon to access archival materials on the Ewés. I found them at the Archival Administration Department in Accra, the capital city of Ghana and the Public Record office in Ho, the regional capital of the Volta Region, where most of the Ewés live in Ghana. By the first week of February, I was ready to begin my research.

Being Ewé and speaking the language fluently helped me to make the necessary personal and professional connection to immediately begin the research. Since the introduction of multiparty democracy in Ghana in 1992, again and again, the elections have proven to be base on ethnic lines rather than on political ideologies. The northern regions and the Volta region have voted mainly for the NDC, while Brong Ahafo and the Ashanti regions have voted time and time again for the NPP. I wrote a survey letter, a consent form, and an interview questionnaire, which I randomly passed out to the Ghanaian students at the International Student Hostel (ISH) where I was living because the Ghanaian students at the hostel were composed of all the ethnic groups in Ghana. There were Ewés, Asantes, Fantis, Nzemas, and Dagomba. Thus, I wanted to analyze their view on the two dominant political parties: the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in order to validate my literature review on ethnic politics in Ghana. Through the interview questionnaire I was able to confirm that the northerners and the Ewés mainly voted for the NDC, while the Asantes, the Akyem and the Brongs voted for the NPP.

I discovered that voting patterns are based on ethnic lines, because of cultural and historical reasons which contribute to the cleavage between the Ewé and Asante voters' decision to vote for the NDC and the NPP on an election day. Since 1992, the Asantes and the Ewé have consequently voted for the NPP and the NDC. Through my informal discussions and questionnaire, I concluded that the reasoning behind the voting pattern was base on the cultural and historical differences between the two ethnic groups. In the second week of February, I travelled to Kpando and Ho in the Volta Region. In both places I conduct informal interviews with Ewés, asking questions about why they vote for the NDC. Through these interviews, I discovered that although there is ethnic politics in Ghanaian society, this is manifested mainly among the Ewé via-a-vie the Asante. To learn more about the Asantes, I visited Kumasi, the capital city of the once powerful Asante Kingdom, now the capital of the Ashanti Region, home of the Asantes and the second largest city in Ghana. It was there that I learn that that the cleavage between the Ewé and the Asantes is political. This is due to historical ethnic wars between the Asantes and the Ewé prior to the arrival of the British and German colonial forces. I also learned that there are cultural differences between the two groups, for example the Ewé are patrilineal people, while the Asante are matrilineal. In addition to the historical and cultural reasons, there also is a population factor (there are 3 million Asantes and two million Ewés). Thus, I concluded that the two groups' political dominance may not be unhealthy but may serve as a check system on hegemony of one.

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