Ga (ethnicity)

The Ga , culturally closely related to the Dangme and therefore also called Ga-Adangme, are an ethnic group that lives in the West African states of Ghana , Togo and Benin . The Ga living in Accra call themselves Ga Mashi, and in the Ga language the Ga also call themselves Ga mei , Ga people. In Ghana, in the Greater Accra region , live around 625,000 Ga, in Togo around 32,000 and in Benin 8,600. In Ghana, most of the Ga live in the Greater Accra region , in and near Ghana's capital Accra. Accra developed from the three coastal towns of Kinka (Dutch Accra), James Town (British Accra) and Osu (Danish Accra), which served the Europeans as trading posts from the 15th century.

Outside of Ghana, the Ga are known in particular in western art circles for the figurative coffins they use and for their hand-painted movie posters . Both their figurative coffins and the hand-painted movie posters are regularly shown in Western art exhibitions.

language

Ga speak a language similar to Dangme and Krobo , which is also called Ga . About 665,000 people speak Ga, which corresponds to about three percent of Ghanaians. Ga is part of an ethno -linguistic group within the Kwa languages .

Known Ga

Politician

• Joseph Arthur Ankrah (1915–1992), former head of state of Ghana

athlete

• Marcel Desailly (* 1968), former French national soccer player

Ga artist

• Eric Adjetey Anang (* 1985), coffin artist
• Ataa Oko (1919–2013), sedan chair and coffin artist, art brut painter
• Kudjoe Affutu (* 1985), coffin artist
• Paa Joe (* 1947), litter and coffin artist

See also

• Mantse
• List of the peoples of Ghana
• Religion of ga

literature

• Regula Tschumi: The Figurative Palanquins of the Ga. History and Significance. In: African Arts, Vol. 46, No. 4, 2013, pp. 60–73.
• Regula Tschumi : The buried treasures of Ga. Coffin art from Ghana. 2006.
• Regula Tschumi: death bed for a living person. A coffin for the Center Pompidou. 2012 in: Eva Huttenlauch (Ed.), Saâdane Afif. Another Anthology of Black Humor. Nuremberg: MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Verlag für Moderne Kunst, pp. 57–72.
• John Parker: Making the Town. Ga State and Society in Early Colonial Accra. Heinemann, Porthsmouth NH 2000
• Kropp Dakubu, Marie-Esther: Mary Esther Kropp Dakubu, dir., Ga-English Dictionary , Language Center, University of Ghana, and ME Kropp Dakubu, Accra, 1999.
• Marion Kilson: Kpele Lala. 1971, London: Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press.
• Margaret Field: The Social Organization of the Ga . 1940, London: The Crown Agents for the Colony.
• Margaret Field: Religion and Medicine of the Ga People. Oxford University Press, London / New York / Toronto 1969 (1937)

Web links

• Ethnologue.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ethnologue report for language code: gaa (English)