Religion in Ghana

Population density, Ghana

Like most West African countries, Ghana is mostly Christian in the south and mostly Muslim in the north. Historically, Christianity entered the country by way of missionaries debarking from European ships at the southern coasts while Muslims came from the northeast after the Arabization of North Africa. While the map above may not accurately reflect the distributions of Muslims (there is some debate; the Muslim minority definitely reaches further south) it helps in understanding why religions are so mixed in some countries.

Given the country's  population density   realities (map to the right)  means that Christianity overall dominates, with only around 15 percent of Ghanaians following Islam. .Source

Christian Church, not Catholic

Christian 71.2 (Pentecostal / Charismatic 28.3%, Protestant 18.4%, Catholic 13.1%, other 11.4%), Muslim 17.6%, traditional 5.2%, other 0.8%, none 5.2% (2010 census). Source

The cultural landscape pays tribute to both faiths, there are a lot of churches and mosques all over the country, in rural and urban areas, poor and rich. It is interesting to note that while the first Christian missionaries had to be Catholic, Catholicism is not very strongly represented here, an observation which corresponds with the numbers of the CIA source above.

Mosque with Minaretts

According to the CIA numbers above, there are about 5.2% traditional believers, believers in animism. I have my doubts whether this is correct  but do not know how the statistics came about. It appears to me from talking to Kwame who is a devout Christian that it is quite possible to be a Christian and a believer in animism as long as one follows the rules of all. This would be similar to Japan where it is possible to to be an adherent of Shintoism as well as Buddhism.

Larabanga Mosque, oldest Mosque in Ghana

In the northern section of the country one can find Ghana's oldest mosque  dating back to 1421--it was erected during the trans-Saharan trade. It is located in the middle of a village with the name of Larabanga, not too far south of Mole National Park.

Courtesy of Wikipedia

The trans-Saharan trade was based  on the exchange of salt from the middle of the continent and gold from the coastal regions; thus the Mediterranean economies were connected to the sub-Saharan economies. It was this trade that ultimately brought Islam to the Ghana region. A lively slave trade with slaves being exported to the north of the continent and Ghana importing trained soldiers. 

Slaves were quite common in Ghana; Kwame said that his great-grandmother still had a slave. I am not sure when that would have been--maybe 150 years ago??