Families in Ghana are in crisis - Prof Dumor laments

In a long lament, Prof. Ernest Dumor, the father of the late BBC presenter Komla Dumor say Ghanaian families are in a crisis, churning out a generation that has limited understanding of who they are.

It is because cultural barriers once a protector of crucial values has broken down, he said.

Prof. Ernest Dumor said the family which is supposed to take centre stage and imbue these values into young people seems to have lost its way.

“From my perspective, we have a crisis in the family…a crisis of immense proportions because the cultural barriers that regulated us as unique people, as Ghanaians have been broken down and so all kinds of cultural elements, value systems are being introduced.

“The normative system has collapsed more or less" a worried academician said adding that in comparison to a Japanese, Chinese or Singaporean, many Ghanaians simply do not know their identity.

“The barriers of our culture have broken down irreparably”, he said on Citi FM’s Time with Legends programme.

In his view, the country has extremely adoptive of other people’s culture and lost the sense of what it means to be Ghanaian.

“We have become too anxious to take on those values that are not particularly of interest to national development and national identity”.

Prof Dumor acknowledges that although his comment is not to belittle the importance of other cultures, he believes that “we should have an eye on the choices that we make”.

“Every society borrows and so if you’re going to borrow, you must borrow those things that will enhance your own personal and collective enhancement”, the father of the former host of Joy FM’s Super Morning Show said.

He stressed the need for the adoption of the “classic education”, where parents can take their wards in a rigorous way of bringing up their children in addition to what they are taught in school.

In his view, technology can be used in a way that improves experiences and enriches history but Ghanaians seem to be more interested in things that derail the process.

“If you use IT to enhance education…absolutely I’m for it , but if you’re going to use the digital media to foment trouble to claim that you’re talking about this or that when in fact you have no evidence to support it, you’re creating a dysfunctional society by using technology to sustain something that should not be sustained”, he said.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Naa Sakwaba Akwa | [email protected]